How to create an HTML button that acts like a link?

Question

How to create an HTML button that acts like a link?

Question

I would like to create an HTML button that acts like a link. So, when you click the button, it redirects to a page. I would like it to be as accessible as possible.

I would also like it so there aren't any extra characters, or parameters in the URL.

How can I achieve this?

Based on the answers posted so far, I am currently doing this:

<form method="get" action="/page2">
    <button type="submit">Continue</button>
</form>

but the problem with this is that in Safari and Internet Explorer, it adds a question mark character to the end of the URL. I need to find a solution that doesn't add any characters to the end of the URL.

There are two other solutions to do this: Using JavaScript or styling a link to look like a button.

Using JavaScript:

<button onclick="window.location.href='/page2'">Continue</button>

But this obviously requires JavaScript, and for that reason it is less accessible to screen readers. The point of a link is to go to another page. So trying to make a button act like a link is the wrong solution. My suggestion is that you should use a link and style it to look like a button.

<a href="/link/to/page2">Continue</a>

Andrew

2020/07/24

Read less…

<button onclick="location.href='http://www.example.com'" type="button">
         www.example.com</button>

Note that the type="button" attribute is important, since its missing value default is the Submit Button state.

Adam

2019/10/11

If it's the visual appearance of a button you're looking for in a basic HTML anchor tag then you can use the Twitter Bootstrap framework to format any of the following common HTML type links/buttons to appear as a button. Please note the visual differences between version 2, 3 or 4 of the framework:

<a class="btn" href="">Link</a>
<button class="btn" type="submit">Button</button>
<input class="btn" type="button" value="Input">
<input class="btn" type="submit" value="Submit">

Bootstrap (v4) sample appearance:

Sample output of Boostrap v4 buttons

Bootstrap (v3) sample appearance:

Sample output of Boostrap v3 buttons

Bootstrap (v2) sample appearance:

Sample output of Boostrap v2 buttons

Bern

2017/10/31

Use:

<a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com/">
    <button>Click me</button>
</a>

Unfortunately, this markup is no longer valid in HTML5 and will neither validate nor always work as potentially expected. Use another approach.

RedFilter

2015/10/28

As of HTML5, buttons support the formaction attribute. Best of all, no Javascript or trickery is needed.

<form>
  <button formaction="http://stackoverflow.com">Go to Stack Overflow!</button>
</form>

Caveats

Must be surrounded by <form> tags.
<button> type must be "submit" (or unspecified), I couldn't get it working with type "button." Which brings up point below.
Overrides the default action in a form. In other words, if you do this inside another form it's going to cause a conflict.

Reference: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/button#attr-formaction Browser Support: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/button#Browser_compatibility

EternalHour

2018/04/02

It is actualy very simple and without using any form elements. You can just use the <a> tag with a button inside :).

Like this:

<a href="http://www.google.com" target="_parent"><button>Click me !</button></a>

And it will load the href into the same page. Want a new page? Just use target="_blank".

EDIT

Couple of years later, while my solution still works, keep in mind you can use a lot of CSS to make it look whatever you want. This was just a fast way.

Lucian Minea

2019/08/27

BalusC · Accepted Answer · 3/19/2020 8:58:09 AM

HTML

The plain HTML way is to put it in a <form> wherein you specify the desired target URL in the action attribute.

<form action="https://google.com">
    <input type="submit" value="Go to Google" />
</form>

If necessary, set CSS display: inline; on the form to keep it in the flow with the surrounding text. Instead of <input type="submit"> in above example, you can also use <button type="submit">. The only difference is that the <button> element allows children.

You'd intuitively expect to be able to use <button href="https://google.com"> analogous with the <a> element, but unfortunately no, this attribute does not exist according to HTML specification.

CSS

If CSS is allowed, simply use an <a> which you style to look like a button using among others the appearance property (it's only not supported in Internet Explorer).

<a href="https://google.com" class="button">Go to Google</a>

a.button {
    -webkit-appearance: button;
    -moz-appearance: button;
    appearance: button;

    text-decoration: none;
    color: initial;
}

Or pick one of those many CSS libraries like Bootstrap.

<a href="https://google.com" class="btn btn-primary">Go to Google</a>

JavaScript

If JavaScript is allowed, set the window.location.href.

<input type="button" onclick="location.href='https://google.com';" value="Go to Google" />

Instead of <input type="button"> in above example, you can also use <button>. The only difference is that the <button> element allows children.