HTML 5 <nav> Tag

The HTML <nav> tag is used for declaring a navigational section of the HTML document.

Websites typically have sections dedicated to navigational links - links that enable the user to navigate the site. These links should be placed inside a <nav> tag.

Websites often have footer links such as terms of service, the home page, and a copyright page. It is sufficient to enclose these types of links inside <footer> tags - no need to use <nav> tags.

The <nav> tag was introduced in HTML 5.

Example

The following examples demonstrate usage of the <nav> tag.

Attributes

HTML tags can contain one or more attributes. Attributes are added to a tag to provide the browser with more information about how the tag should appear or behave. Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals (=) sign, with the value surrounded by double quotes. Here's an example, style="color:black;".

There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.

The attributes that you can add to this tag are listed below.

Element-Specific Attributes

The following table shows the attributes that are specific to this tag/element.

AttributeDescription
None 

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags (although the tabindex attribute does not apply to dialog elements).

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handler Content Attributes

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

For a full list of event handlers, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.