Matan · WCAG · Operable

Link purpose

WCAG 2.4.4: the purpose of each link can be determined from its accessible name.

Pass condition in our engine: Every link has a non-empty accessible name.

1. Problem description

Icon-only links, empty <a href>, and images without alt inside a link all fail. “Click here” is a weaker editorial issue; this check looks for no name at all.

2. Most common causes

  • Social icons with empty <a> and CSS backgrounds.
  • Buttons styled as links without text.

3. How to fix it

  1. Put text in the link, or aria-label, or alt on the linked image.
  2. Avoid empty hrefs used as JS hooks — use <button>.

Test this check

We fetch only this URL (plus robots.txt / llms.txt at the domain root when the check needs them). We do not crawl the rest of the site like a full report.

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