Bad value X for attribute “href” on element “a”: Illegal character in fragment: “>” is not allowed.

A URL fragment identifier is the part of a URL that follows the # symbol, typically used to link to a specific section within a page. The URL specification (RFC 3986 and the WHATWG URL Standard) defines a strict set of characters that are permitted in fragments. The > character (greater-than sign) is among those that are not allowed to appear literally. When the W3C HTML Validator encounters > inside an href value — whether in the fragment or elsewhere in the URL — it raises this error.

In most cases, the > character appears in a URL by accident — for example, from a copy-paste error, a typo where the closing > of the tag accidentally ends up inside the attribute value, or a malformed template expression. Less commonly, a developer may genuinely need the > character as part of the URL content.

Why This Matters

• Broken links: Browsers may interpret the > as the end of the HTML tag or handle the URL unpredictably, leading to broken navigation.
• Standards compliance: Invalid URLs violate both the HTML specification and URL syntax standards, causing validation failures.
• Accessibility: Screen readers and other assistive technologies rely on well-formed markup. A malformed href can confuse these tools and prevent users from reaching the intended destination.
• Interoperability: While some browsers may silently correct or ignore the invalid character, others may not. Valid URLs guarantee consistent behavior everywhere.

How to Fix It

1. If the > is a typo or copy-paste error, simply remove it from the href value. This is the most common scenario.
2. If the > is intentionally part of the fragment or URL, replace it with its percent-encoded equivalent: %3E.
3. Review your templates or CMS output — this error often originates from template engines or content management systems that inject malformed values into href attributes.

Examples

Accidental > in the URL path

A common mistake is accidentally including the tag’s closing > inside the attribute value:

<!-- ❌ Invalid: ">" is not allowed in the URL -->

<a href="/page.php>">Read more</a>

Remove the stray >:

<!-- ✅ Valid: clean URL without illegal character -->

<a href="/page.php">Read more</a>

Illegal > in a fragment identifier

The > can also appear inside the fragment portion of the URL:

<!-- ❌ Invalid: ">" in the fragment -->

<a href="/docs#section->overview">Go to overview</a>

If the > is unintentional, remove it:

<!-- ✅ Valid: fragment without illegal character -->

<a href="/docs#section-overview">Go to overview</a>

If the > is genuinely needed in the fragment, percent-encode it:

<!-- ✅ Valid: ">" encoded as %3E -->

<a href="/docs#section-%3Eoverview">Go to overview</a>

Query string or path containing >

The same rule applies outside of fragments. If > appears anywhere in the URL, encode it:

<!-- ❌ Invalid: ">" in query parameter -->

<a href="/search?filter=price>100">Expensive items</a>

<!-- ✅ Valid: ">" percent-encoded as %3E -->

<a href="/search?filter=price%3E100">Expensive items</a>

Template output errors

If you are using a server-side template or JavaScript framework, ensure that dynamic values inserted into href are properly URL-encoded. For example, in a template that generates links:

<!-- ❌ Invalid: unencoded dynamic value -->

<a href="/results#filter=>50">View results</a>

<!-- ✅ Valid: properly encoded value -->

<a href="/results#filter=%3E50">View results</a>

Most server-side languages provide built-in URL encoding functions (e.g., encodeURIComponent() in JavaScript, urlencode() in PHP, urllib.parse.quote() in Python) that will handle this automatically. Always use these functions when inserting dynamic content into URLs.

Learn more:

MDN Reference

MDN Web Docs: Percent-encoding

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MDN Reference

HTML a element - MDN

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MDN Reference

What is a URL - MDN

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WHATWG Spec

HTML links and navigation - WHATWG

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