5 Ways To Create HTML Button Links (Simple Examples)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create HTML button links. Text links work great, but they sure are painful on small mobile screens. To create an HTML “button link”, simply wrap the button in anchor tags – <a href="http://site.com"><button>Link</button></a>. But there are other ways to do it – Read on for the examples!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download | Example on CodePen

The example code is released under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

1) WRAP BUTTON IN ANCHOR TAGS

<a href="https://code-boxx.com">
  <button>Code Boxx</button>
</a>

• It is not a secret that we can wrap images in anchor tags.
• So yes, we can also wrap buttons in anchor tags to create “button links”.

 

2) JAVASCRIPT REDIRECT

<button onclick="location='https://code-boxx.com'">
  Code Boxx
</button>

This is another easy way to create a button link.

• The onclick property is used to specify what to do when the button is clicked.
• location='URL' will set where to redirect to when the button is clicked.

 

 

3) SUBMIT FORM

<form action="https://code-boxx.com" target="_blank">
  <input type="submit" value="Code Boxx">
</form>

A “creative way” to use forms. This example will submit an empty form, which effectively acts like a link.

• action="URL" Redirect the user to where you want.
• target="_blank" Optional, open in a new tab. If this is not defined, it will default to target="_self" and open in the same window.

 

4) FORM ACTION

<form action="https://code-boxx.com">
  <input type="submit" value="Code Boxx">
  <input type="submit" value="Wikipedia" formaction="https://wikipedia.com">
  <input type="submit" value="Google" formaction="https://google.com/">
</form>

A quick follow up of the previous example:

• An HTML form can have multiple <input type="submit"> buttons.
• Use the formaction property to submit the form to an alternative URL.
• We can use this to create multiple links in a single form.

 

 

5) TURN LINK INTO BUTTON WITH CSS

<style>
.linkbutton {
  display: inline-block;
  padding: 10px; margin: 5px;
  color: #fff; background: #8a110b;
  text-decoration: none;
}
</style>

<a class="linkbutton" href="https://code-boxx.com">
  Code Boxx
</a>

Finally, turn the link to look like a button using some simple CSS.

 

 

 

WHICH IS THE BEST METHOD?

• Personal preference – Just wrap the button in anchor tags or turn the link into button using CSS.
• These 2 methods are also the most commonly used.
• Javascript and form submit works, but these are considered “funky” and not good for search engine optimization (SEO).

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Window Location – MDN
• Button – MDN

 

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