diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 027fe4e1..de3f1942 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ jobs:
         SAMPLE_APP=1 ./runtests.py
         coverage run runtests.py --parallel
         coverage combine
+      env:
+        SELENIUM_HEADLESS: 1
 
     - name: Upload Coverage
       run: coveralls --service=github
diff --git a/openwisp_notifications/static/openwisp-notifications/js/notifications.js b/openwisp_notifications/static/openwisp-notifications/js/notifications.js
index 6311f38a..16fa3312 100644
--- a/openwisp_notifications/static/openwisp-notifications/js/notifications.js
+++ b/openwisp_notifications/static/openwisp-notifications/js/notifications.js
@@ -195,8 +195,9 @@ function notificationWidget($) {
     }
 
     function notificationListItem(elem) {
-        let klass,
-            datetime = dateTimeStampToDateTimeLocaleString(new Date(elem.timestamp));
+        let klass;
+        const datetime = dateTimeStampToDateTimeLocaleString(new Date(elem.timestamp)),
+              target_url = new URL(elem.target_url);
 
         if (!notificationReadStatus.has(elem.id)) {
             if (elem.unread) {
@@ -207,8 +208,23 @@ function notificationWidget($) {
         }
         klass = notificationReadStatus.get(elem.id);
 
+        // Used to convert absolute URLs in notification messages to relative paths
+        function convertMessageWithRelativeURL(htmlString) {
+          const parser = new DOMParser(),
+                doc = parser.parseFromString(htmlString, 'text/html'),
+                links = doc.querySelectorAll('a');
+          links.forEach((link) => {
+            let url = link.getAttribute('href');
+            if (url) {
+              url = new URL(url);
+              link.setAttribute('href', url.pathname);
+            }
+          });
+          return doc.body.innerHTML;
+        }
+
         return `<div class="ow-notification-elem ${klass}" id=ow-${elem.id}
-                        data-location="${elem.target_url}" role="link" tabindex="0">
+                        data-location="${target_url.pathname}" role="link" tabindex="0">
                     <div class="ow-notification-inner">
                         <div class="ow-notification-meta">
                         <div class="ow-notification-level-wrapper">
@@ -217,7 +233,7 @@ function notificationWidget($) {
                         </div>
                         <div class="ow-notification-date">${datetime}</div>
                         </div>
-                    ${elem.message}
+                    ${convertMessageWithRelativeURL(elem.message)}
                     </div>
                 </div>`;
     }
diff --git a/openwisp_notifications/tests/test_widget.py b/openwisp_notifications/tests/test_widget.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0fc011ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openwisp_notifications/tests/test_widget.py
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+from django.contrib.staticfiles.testing import StaticLiveServerTestCase
+from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
+from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
+from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
+
+from openwisp_notifications.swapper import load_model
+from openwisp_notifications.utils import _get_object_link
+from openwisp_users.tests.utils import TestOrganizationMixin
+from openwisp_utils.test_selenium_mixins import SeleniumTestMixin
+
+Notification = load_model('Notification')
+
+
+class TestWidget(
+    SeleniumTestMixin,
+    TestOrganizationMixin,
+    StaticLiveServerTestCase,
+):
+    serve_static = True
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.admin = self._create_admin(
+            username=self.admin_username, password=self.admin_password
+        )
+
+    def test_notification_relative_link(self):
+        self.login()
+        operator = super()._create_operator()
+        data = dict(
+            email_subject='Test Email subject',
+            url='http://localhost:8000/admin/',
+        )
+        notification = Notification.objects.create(
+            actor=self.admin,
+            recipient=self.admin,
+            description='Test Notification Description',
+            verb='Test Notification',
+            action_object=operator,
+            target=operator,
+            data=data,
+        )
+        self.web_driver.implicitly_wait(10)
+        WebDriverWait(self.web_driver, 10).until(
+            EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.ID, 'openwisp_notifications'))
+        )
+        self.web_driver.find_element(By.ID, 'openwisp_notifications').click()
+        WebDriverWait(self.web_driver, 10).until(
+            EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CLASS_NAME, 'ow-notification-elem'))
+        )
+        notification_elem = self.web_driver.find_element(
+            By.CLASS_NAME, 'ow-notification-elem'
+        )
+        data_location_value = notification_elem.get_attribute('data-location')
+        self.assertEqual(
+            data_location_value, _get_object_link(notification, 'target', False)
+        )
diff --git a/requirements-test.txt b/requirements-test.txt
index 1eacb225..57b38551 100644
--- a/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/requirements-test.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-openwisp-utils[qa] @ https://github.com/openwisp/openwisp-utils/tarball/master
+openwisp-utils[qa,selenium] @ https://github.com/openwisp/openwisp-utils/tarball/master
 django-cors-headers~=4.0.0
 django-redis~=5.2.0
 channels_redis~=4.1.0