A jump link targets an element on a page by its id, using a URL fragment such as /guide#pricing. Clicking it scrolls straight to that section instead of the top. Jump links power tables of contents, back-to-top links and deep links shared in support tickets, and search engines can use them to send people to the relevant part of a long page.
How fragments work
Everything after the # in a URL is a fragment. Browsers use it to scroll to the matching id and do not send it to the server. That means search engines treat /guide and /guide#pricing as the same page for indexing; the fragment is not a separate URL.
A related browser feature, text fragments, lets a link highlight a passage with #:~:text=. Google sometimes uses this when a result points at a specific passage, such as a featured snippet, so the browser scrolls to and highlights the matching text.
https://example.com/guide#pricing
https://example.com/guide#:~:text=annual%20billingMaking jump links reliable
Give each target heading a short, stable id that will not change when the heading wording is edited. Generated ids that come from the heading text break every shared link the moment someone rewrites the heading.
- Stable ids such as #pricing rather than #h2-3
- Offset for sticky headers so the heading is not hidden after the scroll
- Real anchor elements in the HTML, not click handlers
Do not use fragments for separate content
Some older single-page apps used # routes to show completely different content. Search engines generally ignore the fragment, so those views cannot be indexed as their own pages. Anything that needs to rank on its own needs its own URL path.
Example
Linking support answers to exact sections
Hypothetical payroll SaaS Copperlane added stable ids to every H2 in its help center. Support replies started linking to /help/tax-forms#w2-corrections instead of the top of a long article, and the same anchors appeared in its table of contents.
Common mistakes
Expecting each anchor to rank separately
A fragment does not create a new indexable page. If a section deserves its own search presence, it probably deserves its own URL.
Questions
A link to /page#section is treated as a link to /page. The fragment does not split or change the value.
