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Jul
10
2008
Make All Your External Links Open in New Windows
Written by Steve Burge   
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External Joomla LinksMike at Simbunch.com has created a very useful little mambot that forces all external links to open in a new window. (free registration required)

What Does It Do?

The mambot can add these tags to all external links:

  • target="_blank" (open the link in a new window)
  • rel="nofollow" (telling search engines to ignore the link)
  • both

Personally I don't agree with people who want to add nofollow to all their external links. It seems overly paranoid and contrary to how the web works. However, opening other sites in a new window is increasingly a good idea.

Why Open In a New Window?

  • To keep visitors on your site. Opening in the new window means potential customers don't have to leave your site.
  • Its not 2003 any more. In the bad old days when Internet Explorer 6 ruled the web, opening a new window was a bad idea. It didn't take more than a few clicks to fill up your screen with new and confusing windows. Now however, tabbed browsing is dominant and for most people a new window means a new tab. Tabs are so uncluttered and easy-to-organize that its no bad thing.

If you're an SEO Club member, you'll find a long discussion on this topic by clicking here.

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Comments  

 
#1 Stephen Moseley 2008-07-10 13:29
Steve - interesting post. I guess when I try to think about the most user friendly way to open new links, a new tab or window is generally the best. Most modern browsers have tabs now, so why not use them?

And on the "nofollow" part -- I guess I understand why people do it. Google is cracking down on paid links and the like. However, I guess I feel like I should help other people out by giving them a good link if they deserve it. I would hope the same think would happen with me. If my site is good, I'd appreciate a "follow."
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#2 Brian Teeman 2008-07-11 02:40
I read an excellent article on the subject of opening new windows or not recently

www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/01/should-links-open-in-new-windows/
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#3 Anthony Olsen 2008-07-11 06:54
Thanks for letting us know about the plugin Steve ... I need to do this on a client site and its just saved me a few hours work :-)
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#4 Steve Burge 2008-07-11 07:01
Steve - Agreed. We don't no-follow any links here, even in the comments, because I moderate very strictly. I can see how no-following might help on a site where spam was a big problem, but who'd want to visit a site like that?

Brian - thanks for the great link. Sounds like more work for users? We still open all internal links in the same window.

Anthony - Glad to hear its useful :-) Its one of those really simple plugins (just 20 lines of code) that help a lot.
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#5 Amy Stephen 2008-07-11 07:25
If you are trying to use strict, target doesn't validate. I do think there are times a new window is required (ex. PDF, or changing to a secure protocol). Otherwise, so many are abandoning the practice that it is almost alarming to have a new window open on a link, anymore.
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#6 Stephen Moseley 2008-07-11 11:24
Brian - thanks for the link. Thats some good reading.

Smashing magazine makes some good points. A couple that stuck with me were: large sites like aol, google, and yahoo don't do it; and that it overides complete control of the user (i.e. they don't have a say whether they want it in the same tab or not).

Those are both really good points. I particularly think that as larger sites continue with this trend, that more people are going to used to the link opening in the same window. However, I think the second point I referenced above might be off for some people. I know people like my parents that aren't THAT tech savy, will click a link and then wish they still had the previous window open. I guess in that sense, for me, I'm allowing the person complete freedom to choose, "do you want to stay on my site, or do you want to go somewhere else?"

Personally, I'm in the habit of CNTL-Clicking to open in a new tab, but I'd love it if I didn't have to do that and just could click the link.

Amy, good point about strict validation. I had forgot about that. Another really good reason not to open in a new window then!
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#7 Brian Teeman 2008-07-11 13:16
I know that personaly I know ensure I never force links to open in a new tab/window as it breaks navigation for users accessing the net with assisted technology.
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#8 Anne Hennegar 2008-07-11 22:17
For those people that want to have links open in another window, this sounds like a nice tool.I actually have a combination of both. Some of my early articles I used external links as I was afraid of losing a site visitor.

I think I now fall into The Smashing magazine camp. (Thanks Brian for the reference). I also wonder the impact for people that use mobile browsers or assisted devices like JAWS.

As for "no follow", I seldom use it on my site. I think I put it on one internal RSS help page that was site-wide. I think people may be overusing "no follow" for external links when they control the content. My feeling is if I do a review, good or bad, I should link to the company's site unless there is a security risk. In that case, I probably wouldn't put a link or write about them. If I did paid reviews, I would use "no follow".

Bottom line is I do agree the user should have control.
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#9 agung 2008-07-12 00:05
Great mambot!! Love it..
This mambot also works on Forum, I tried it on my new vet forum (www.vetforum.org/) and it works.
great. thanks for the review
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#10 Brian Teeman 2008-07-12 01:59
for people using JAWS etc new windows are a nightmare
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