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HTML

Callum Anderson
Callum Anderson
8,837 Points
Posted by Callum Anderson
Callum Anderson
8,837 Points

Purpose of citing a quote?

I understand that adding <cite> tags to a quote source is marking up the semantics of the page, but exactly which purpose does it serve? It doesn't display at the 'front-end' to the viewer of the page, without adding anchor tags.

Is it something to do with SEO, such as cross-site referencing statistics?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

The <cite> tags are used to identify the source of a quote. According to the MDN page it must include either a title or URL of a reference work. The content inside the tags will typically be displayed in italics by the browser. If used with a URL it does not in itself create a link, and for that reason I would not expect it to be considered a cross-site reference by search engines.