Link Component

When linking between pages on websites, you use the <a> HTML tag.

In Next.js, you can use the Link Component next/link to link between pages in your application. <Link> allows you to do client-side navigation and accepts props that give you better control over the navigation behavior.

Using <Link>

First, open pages/index.js, and import the Link component from next/link by adding this line at the top:

import Link from 'next/link';

Then find the h1 tag that looks like this:

<h1 className={styles.title}>
  Learn <a href="https://nextjs.org">Next.js!</a>
</h1>

And change it to:

<h1 className={styles.title}>
  Read <Link href="/posts/first-post">this page!</Link>
</h1>

Next, open pages/posts/first-post.js and replace its content with the following:

import Link from 'next/link';
 
export default function FirstPost() {
  return (
    <>
      <h1>First Post</h1>
      <h2>
        <Link href="/">Back to home</Link>
      </h2>
    </>
  );
}

As you can see, the Link component is similar to using <a> tags, but instead of <a href="…">, you use <Link href="…">.

Note: Before Next.js 12.2, it was required that the Link component wrapped an <a> tag, but this is not required in versions 12.2 and above.

Let’s check to see if it works. You should now have a link on each page, allowing you to go back and forth: