The order of link pseudo-classes matters

Common knowledge to most who have been working with CSS for a few years, but perhaps not something that relative newcomers have come across yet: the order in which you define the different link states affects the end result.

I prefer the following order: :link, :visited, :hover, :focus, :active.

Eric Meyer explains why the order matters and why he also prefers defining the states in this order in Link Specificity, Ordering the Link States, and Who Ordered the Link States?.

Posted on November 18, 2008 in CSS