Find element by link text in Selenium Python

Introduction

We use link text to find a clickable link on a webpage by its visible text. This helps us interact with links easily during testing.

You want to click a link that has a unique visible text.

You need to verify if a specific link is present on the page.

You want to check the behavior after clicking a link with known text.

You want to automate navigation by clicking links with exact text.

Syntax

Selenium Python

element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "link text here")

Use the exact visible text of the link inside the quotes.

Make sure to import By from selenium.webdriver.common.by.

Examples

Finds the link with visible text 'Home'.

Selenium Python

element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "Home")

Finds the link with visible text 'Contact Us'.

Selenium Python

element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "Contact Us")

Sample Program

This script opens a webpage with links, finds a link by its visible text 'HTML Links', prints its URL, clicks it, waits for the page to load, then prints the new URL.

Selenium Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
import time

# Setup Chrome driver options
options = Options()
options.add_argument('--headless')  # Run browser in headless mode

# Setup Chrome driver service (adjust path to chromedriver if needed)
service = Service()
driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=service, options=options)

try:
    # Open example page with links
    driver.get('https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp')

    # Find link by exact visible text
    link = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, 'HTML Links')

    # Print the href attribute of the link
    print(link.get_attribute('href'))

    # Click the link
    link.click()

    # Wait a moment for page to load
    time.sleep(2)

    # Print current URL after click
    print(driver.current_url)

finally:
    driver.quit()

Important Notes

Link text must match exactly, including spaces and case.

If multiple links have the same text, only the first is found.

Use By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT if you want to match part of the link text.

Summary

Find element by link text locates links using their visible text.

It is simple and useful for clicking or verifying links.

Exact text match is required for this method.