20 CSS Link Hover Effect Designs
Heartbeat Pulse
A leading dot pulses with a real medical-grade heartbeat rhythm — lub-DUB-pause-lub-DUB-pause via a multi-keyframe @keyframes. The link itself stays static. Reads as live-signal / new content.
Heartbeat Pulse the 8th of 20 designs in the 20 CSS Link Hover Effect Designs collection. The design is implemented in pure CSS — no JavaScript required. Copy the HTML and CSS panels below into your project. Because the demo is pure CSS, it works in any framework or templating engine you happen to use. The design honours prefers-reduced-motion and uses real semantic markup, so it ships accessibility-ready out of the box.
Live preview
The code
<a href="#" class="cle-heartbeat"> <span class="cle-heartbeat-dot" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span>Live updates</span> </a>
.cle-heartbeat {
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
gap: 10px;
padding: 4px 6px;
color: #f0eeff;
font:
600 15px/1.2 system-ui,
sans-serif;
text-decoration: none;
border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;
transition:
border-color 0.25s,
color 0.25s;
}
.cle-heartbeat-dot {
position: relative;
width: 9px;
height: 9px;
border-radius: 50%;
background: #ff3d6e;
animation: cle-heartbeat-thump 1.6s ease-in-out infinite;
flex-shrink: 0;
}
.cle-heartbeat-dot::after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
inset: 0;
border-radius: inherit;
background: inherit;
animation: cle-heartbeat-ring 1.6s ease-out infinite;
}
.cle-heartbeat:hover,
.cle-heartbeat:focus-visible {
color: #fff;
border-bottom-color: rgba(255, 61, 110, 0.5);
}
/* Real heartbeat curve: lub (small bump) → DUB (big bump) → long pause */
@keyframes cle-heartbeat-thump {
0% {
transform: scale(1);
}
10% {
transform: scale(1.18);
}
20% {
transform: scale(1);
}
30% {
transform: scale(1.32);
}
45% {
transform: scale(1);
}
100% {
transform: scale(1);
}
}
@keyframes cle-heartbeat-ring {
0% {
transform: scale(1);
opacity: 0;
}
30% {
opacity: 0.55;
}
100% {
transform: scale(3);
opacity: 0;
}
}
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
.cle-heartbeat-dot,
.cle-heartbeat-dot::after {
animation: none;
}
}