Contains DOM elements with empty src or href attributes
This means that the URL in question contains DOM elements with empty src or href attributes.
Why is this important?
You might expect a browser to do nothing when it encounters an element with an empty src or href attribute, however this is not the case in a considerable number of browsers. IE and Edge will both make a request to the page's parent directory, while Firefox and older Webkit browsers (like Safari) will re-request the page itself! This behaviour could potentially corrupt user data, waste server computing cycles generating a page that is never viewed, or in the worst case, cripple your servers by sending them a large amount of unexpected traffic.
What does the Hint check?
This Hint will trigger for any internal URL which contains DOM elements with empty src or href attributes.
Examples that trigger this Hint:
The Hint would trigger for any URL with empty src or href attributes, for example:
- <embed src="">
- <script src="">
- <link rel="stylesheet" href="">
- <img src="">
- <input type="image" src="">
- <audio src="">
- <video src="">
- <source src="">
How do you resolve this issue?
Empty src or href attributes will cause unnecessary requests to the server, which will waste bandwidth and server resources, so the issue is absolutely worth fixing. The only way to resolve this issue is to either remove the elements with empty attributes, or correct the issue by adding in the relevant target URI.
