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Highlight visited links — and why CSS allows so little

15 May 2026 · by JustZix Team

Search results, an article list, documentation — and no way to tell which links you have already opened. One CSS rule fixes that. And along the way it is worth learning why the :visited selector is so oddly trimmed down.

The rule

In the rule's CSS tab, URL pattern for a page with link lists or * globally:

a:visited {
  color: #9333ea !important;
}

That is all. Visited links turn purple. Pick a color strongly different from the normal link color so the contrast reads instantly.

Why so little is possible

The natural instinct: if I can change the color, I will add an icon or a background too. You will not — and that is deliberate.

If :visited allowed arbitrary styles, any page could detect your history. It would insert a thousand hidden links, give each a different size or background via :visited, measure the layout with JavaScript and read which URLs you had visited. That was a real vulnerability (history sniffing) — and browsers closed it.

What is allowed, what is not

On :visited only color properties work: color, background-color, border-color, outline-color. And even those are "lied about" in one direction:

• No layout properties. display, font-size, content, visibility — ignored on :visited. That is why a:visited::after { content: " ✓" } will not work.
• getComputedStyle lies. Asked for the color of a visited link, it returns the unvisited color — so JavaScript cannot read the truth.
• Background and border must be visible beforehand. You can change the color of a background, but you cannot "turn it on" from nothing in a measurable way.

Want more than color?

Badges, icons, visit counters — :visited will not give you those. They would require tracking your history in JavaScript, which is a separate, much heavier topic. For most cases the color alone is plenty — because the only thing you really need is "have I been here or not".

Pitfalls

• Exact-URL matching. :visited works if you visited exactly that address. A link to /article will not light up if you were on /article?ref=x.
• SPAs and links. In a single-page app a "navigation" can be a state change without real navigation — the browser then records no history entry and :visited does not apply.
• Contrast. Purple on a white background is readable; on a dark theme pick a lighter shade.

See also

• Examples — this snippet and other ready-made CSS
• Dark mode for any website — another comfort-focused CSS rule
• Hide cookie banners — CSS-based page decluttering

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