diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 221855a6302e5..3f9a4ad726806 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1,36 +1,36 @@
 .. -*- mode: rst -*-
 
-|Azure|_ |CirrusCI|_ |Codecov|_ |CircleCI|_ |Nightly wheels|_ |Black|_ |PythonVersion|_ |PyPi|_ |DOI|_ |Benchmark|_
+|Azure| |CirrusCI| |Codecov| |CircleCI| |Nightly wheels| |Black| |PythonVersion| |PyPi| |DOI| |Benchmark|
 
 .. |Azure| image:: https://dev.azure.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/_apis/build/status/scikit-learn.scikit-learn?branchName=main
-.. _Azure: https://dev.azure.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/_build/latest?definitionId=1&branchName=main
+   :target: https://dev.azure.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/_build/latest?definitionId=1&branchName=main
 
 .. |CircleCI| image:: https://circleci.com/gh/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/tree/main.svg?style=shield
-.. _CircleCI: https://circleci.com/gh/scikit-learn/scikit-learn
+   :target: https://circleci.com/gh/scikit-learn/scikit-learn
 
 .. |CirrusCI| image:: https://img.shields.io/cirrus/github/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/main?label=Cirrus%20CI
-.. _CirrusCI: https://cirrus-ci.com/github/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/main
+   :target: https://cirrus-ci.com/github/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/main
 
 .. |Codecov| image:: https://codecov.io/gh/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/branch/main/graph/badge.svg?token=Pk8G9gg3y9
-.. _Codecov: https://codecov.io/gh/scikit-learn/scikit-learn
+   :target: https://codecov.io/gh/scikit-learn/scikit-learn
 
 .. |Nightly wheels| image:: https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/workflows/Wheel%20builder/badge.svg?event=schedule
-.. _`Nightly wheels`: https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/actions?query=workflow%3A%22Wheel+builder%22+event%3Aschedule
+   :target: https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/actions?query=workflow%3A%22Wheel+builder%22+event%3Aschedule
 
 .. |PythonVersion| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/scikit-learn.svg
-.. _PythonVersion: https://pypi.org/project/scikit-learn/
+   :target: https://pypi.org/project/scikit-learn/
 
 .. |PyPi| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/scikit-learn
-.. _PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/scikit-learn
+   :target: https://pypi.org/project/scikit-learn
 
 .. |Black| image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg
-.. _Black: https://github.com/psf/black
+   :target: https://github.com/psf/black
 
 .. |DOI| image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/21369/scikit-learn/scikit-learn.svg
-.. _DOI: https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/21369/scikit-learn/scikit-learn
+   :target: https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/21369/scikit-learn/scikit-learn
 
 .. |Benchmark| image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/Benchmarked%20by-asv-blue
-.. _`Benchmark`: https://scikit-learn.org/scikit-learn-benchmarks/
+   :target: https://scikit-learn.org/scikit-learn-benchmarks
 
 .. |PythonMinVersion| replace:: 3.9
 .. |NumPyMinVersion| replace:: 1.19.5