High-quality links—both internal and external—are crucial to search engine optimization. But when it comes to SEO and the user experience, you might find yourself asking: Should I open links in a new window or not?
Depending on your perspective, whether you are viewing it from a marketing point of view or a web design point of view, there are different best practices when it comes to link creation. SEO Design Chicago is here to explain the difference between internal and external links, the advantages and disadvantages of opening links in new windows, and how to open links in new tabs.
Table of Contents
What Are Links and Why Are They Important for SEO?
There are two types of links that you can include on your website—internal links and external links. Internal links take you to another page on the same website, whereas external links take you to a page on another website.
Links from other websites as well as links within your own website are important for SEO. There is a direct correlation between the quality and quantity of links to your website and how much search traffic your website receives. Therefore, when it comes to small businesses, more links lead to more search traffic, which ultimately results in more customers for your business.
What Is the Difference Between Windows and Tabs?
In the early days of computers and the internet, if you wanted to open a new web page separately from the one you were currently browsing, it would open up in an entirely new window. These windows were hard for users to manage. When the new windows opened, they covered the user’s earlier window. Oftentimes, this left the user confused and wondering how to get back.
Nowadays, however, tabbed browsing has enhanced the user experience. Tabbed browsing allows a user to browse multiple web pages within a single window. When a new tab opens, users can still see their earlier tab at the top. Additionally, switching tabs is easy for users. The tabs are neatly arranged, so users can reduce desktop clutter.
The tabbed browsing experience has become the norm. Therefore, when we discuss whether to open links in a new window or tab, we are referring to opening a new browser tab, not a completely new browser window.
The best practice for internal links is to have them open in the same tab or window. This is standard practice across industries and users have come to expect it.
If you decide to open an internal link in a new tab, be sure to tell the user about it by putting the phrase “opens in a new tab” next to the link.
Having internal links open in the same window can reduce your bounce rate and exit page percentage. This can increase your page’s overall value and authority. Ideally, you want users to stay on your website for as long as possible, so opening internal links in the same window will keep your users on your site.
Best Practices for External Links
Regarding best practices for external links, there are several considerations to keep in mind. The general consensus is that it is best to open external links in new tabs.
Time on Website
From a web development perspective, opening external links in new tabs is ideal because visitors remain on your website for longer periods of time. Opening external links in a new tab could improve engagement metrics like bounce rate and time spent on the site.
Clicking the Back Button Multiple Times
Opening external links in the same tab can create back button fatigue for users. When the user goes to the external website and clicks around, they may need to click the back button multiple times in order to get back to your website. This can be detrimental to the user experience.
On the other hand, opening an external link in a new tab gives users the opportunity to click through the other site as needed without having to hit the back button repeatedly to return to your website. They simply click on the tab your site is on—no need for the pesky back button or having to deal with long wait times.
Websites With Many Advertisem*nts
If your website has a lot of advertisem*nts that take a long time to load, it is best to open external links in new tabs. That way, the user does not have to click the back button and wait for all of the design elements and ads to load. This slows down the user flow and inhibits their content consumption.
Inaccurate Analytics
Often, users will click an external link within an article to help them better understand the article’s content. They don’t necessarily want to leave your website without finishing the article. However, if you choose to open external links in the same tab, your website analytics will show that users are exiting your site quicker than they actually are.
To avoid inaccurate analytics, open external links in new tabs. This way, the external link will be in a new tab while your website will still remain open in another tab. The user’s time on your site ends when they close your site’s tab, not when they visit an external link.
Remember that when users click external links, they don’t necessarily want to leave your site. Do not treat external link clicks as website exits. The only clear exit from your website is when the user closes the website tab.
Data in Forms
If you have forms on your website that you want people to complete, you should open those pages in new tabs. This keeps your users from needing to type everything into the form after clicking the back button.
Audio and Visual Considerations
You may have videos or audio playing on your website that the user may want to keep active, so it’s best to open links in a new tab.
Downloading PDFs or Other Files
For links that lead to PDFs or other files that need to be downloaded, it provides a better user experience to make them open in a new tab.
How to Open a Link in a New Tab
You can choose to have links on your website open automatically via HTML, JavaScript, or WordPress. Users can also choose to open a link in a new tab on their computer, smartphone, or tablet browser.
HTML
If you are editing the HTML directly, then the most common way to make the link open in a new tab is to add the target=”_blank” attribute to the link. Here is what that looks like.
Editing the HTML this way can potentially cause security issues, so we recommend that you also add rel=”noopener” to the link, which looks like this:
JavaScript
Some websites use a javascript function to make buttons open a link in a new tab. It looks like this:
WordPress
If you’re using WordPress, all you have to do is add a link via the editor. Just make sure you check “Open link in a new tab” before you click the “Add Link” button. WordPress will automatically add the required security attributes to the links, so you don’t need to worry.
Here is a visual of the steps to add links in WordPress.
Computer Browser
Users can choose to open links in new tabs on computer browsers by right-clicking the link and selecting “open in a new tab.” Alternatively, they can hold down CTRL in Windows or CMD in Mac when clicking on the link.
Smartphone or Tablet Browser
To open a new tab on a smartphone or tablet, simply long press on the link.
Managing Links for SEO and User Experience
Managing internal and external links effectively impacts your website’s SEO and user experience. Generally, internal links should open in the same tab, while external links should open in new tabs. If you choose to open external links in the same tab as your website, it will affect both you and your users. You’ll get inaccurate website analytics and your website must work harder. Your users will have to work harder and slower as well.
In today’s world, links dominate the web, and making sure your links open the correct way is as important as linking to the right page.
SEO Design Chicago offers web development and design services to help you create an attractive and effective website for your business. We can also help you with SEO and link building so that your website gets more backlinks and increased credibility. Contact us today to get started!
FAQ:
What is the difference between internal links and external links?
Why are links important for SEO?
What are the best practices for using internal links?
What are the best practices for using external links?
How do I open a new tab in my browser?
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Your external links should open in a different tab, and there are various reasons why this is important. However, the most significant reason to have links open in a new tab is that this gives the visitor as much control as possible with their experience on your site.
For the most part, always open links in the same browser tab or window. However, if you hypothesize that opening a new tab or window may help users in their task, don't base this decision on the type of link or content alone.
time on site – many webmasters will prefer to open external links in new tabs so they can keep users on their websites for longer. Opening external links in new tabs could help improve engagement metrics such as bounce rate or time on site.
Internal links also connect your content and give Google an idea of the structure of your website. They can establish a hierarchy on your site, allowing you to provide the most important pages and posts more link value than other, less valuable pages. So using the right internal linking strategy can boost your SEO!
Internal links are important for SEO as they send signals to Google about which pages are most important to a particular website. They don't send the same ranking signals as external links, but they still matter. In addition, Google uses internal links to better understand a site's structure.
The best practice is to leave the default link behavior alone. The best practice is to leave the default link behavior alone. Usually, this means that the link on a website will open in that same window or tab.
How to Open Hyperlinks in a New Browser Tab or Window. The short answer is: just add a target="_blank" attribute to your links (anchor tags). Now when your visitors click that link, it will open in a new window or tab (depending on which web browser they are using and how they configured that browser).
Make sure you do not have sticky keys on, that may cause a problem. Shift-clicking a link in Chrome opens a new window. Press shift more than five times rapidly to find out if sticky keys are on. Another clue is if your text is always capitalized and numbers come out as symbols.
A tab is more or less same as a window. A window can contain several tabs and all session data and cookies are shared across all tabs and open window. It's better to open a lot of tabs than opening several windows because too many window becomes too cluttered to handle.
Having too many tabs open takes up valuable system resources, which means your computer has to work harder. This can lead to slower performance and decreased battery life. Reduced productivity. Researchers found that task switching — or jumping between multiple tabs — can lead to a 40% drop in productivity.
Resetting your browser can fix the problem of random tabs opening in chrome as that would remove its extensions, clear browsing data (which might include malicious scripts), and restore it to default settings. Use a reliable adblocker to prevent the opening of the ad- and malware-infested tabs on your browser!
“More than 100 internal links on a single page are excessive.” Google further said, “Google may opt not to follow or crawl all those links” if a website has above 100 internal links. Google also said that you would be “splitting the PageRank of that page over hundreds of links” by having excessive internal links.
And I can tell you that putting internal links towards the top of your page can reduce your bounce rate and improve Dwell Time. What does this have to do with SEO? Well, when someone spends a long time on your site, it tells Google: “People are loving this result. This page must be a great result for this keyword.
Broken links are not only bad for user experience but can also be harmful to your site's loving relationship with Google, i.e. your SEO. Avoid linking out to broken content, and also avoid having pages on your site that are broken.
Links that take users to another page on the same website are internal links. Internal links should never open in new browser tabs, but rather the same tab the user is on. Opening new tabs of the same website is redundant and confusing.
Summary: It's usually a waste of time to use nofollow attribute on internal links because links don't flow pagerank anymore causing them to drop out of the link graph. Just in some cases when you might not want googlebot to come to your login page as an example, you can use nofollow.
Make sure you do not have sticky keys on, that may cause a problem. Shift-clicking a link in Chrome opens a new window. Press shift more than five times rapidly to find out if sticky keys are on. Another clue is if your text is always capitalized and numbers come out as symbols.
Why Open Links in a New Window? The main reason is simple: you want people to stay on your website. If a user clicks a link on your website and is taken off your site, there's not a great chance they'll take the time to navigate back. Sure, they may hit the Back button in their browser or retype your URL.
window.open(url1, "name1", params); // this open one window or tab window. open(url1, "name2", params); // though url is same, but it'll open in another window(tab). Save this answer.
Technically speaking, there is no difference between a browser window being displayed in a tab or a separate window. They both will share sessions and state (unless one window was opened using incognito mode). So, from this point it's just a matter of personal preference.
Having a bunch of tabs open across multiple windows is probably going to be slightly worse in memory usage and maybe CPU usage (because the window itself uses some RAM and CPU, outside of the tabs), when compared to the same number of tabs open in a single window, but the difference is going to be negligible most of ...
By forcing users to not be able to open into another window or tab, you keep the user on your platform for longer, which in turn allows that specific company to have the potential to generate more revenue due to one spending more time on that specific platform.
Every tab you open consumes working memory (aka RAM), which can eventually lead to significant performance issues, so keeping the number of open tabs to a minimum is always in your best interest.
Opening 100 tabs can put a serious load on your system or browser and could result in the browser freezing or your system slowing down. Remember that this is only diluting your browsing history, and not preventing sites from tracking you. This is both hypnotic and distracting!
Having at least 4GB of RAM will let users load up a reasonable number of browser tabs and leave enough RAM for using email, working with applications like Microsoft Word, and playing casual games. That makes 4GB a good minimum specification for most users.
You cannot (and should not) do that. User can always just open use another browser or another computer to open another view onto the web site. So, basically you cannot ever prevent this. Your web-site should be able to handle multiple tabs viewing the same state.
What Causes Chrome to Keep Opening New Tabs? Malware: There is a possibility that some sort of malware might have been added on your pc which is causing this random opening of tabs. Corrupt Installation: It is also possible that the installation of the Chrome browser is corrupted and is causing this issue.
There is an SEO practice dictating that that linking out to an authoritative website will help a site rank better. This tactic doesn't have any basis in anything a Googler said or published to indicate that linking to an authoritative site is a ranking factor or helps SEO.
Do you want to know if tabbed content is bad for SEO? Tabbed content is not bad for SEO. In fact, keeping content in tabs makes the page user-friendly and gives a boost to the user experience. As we know that user experience is a ranking factor in 2022, it is always good to use tabs for better usability.
For most websites, and for most pages on those websites, the optimum number of links that point back to your content should be around 20. As with everything else related to SEO, this number will get slightly smaller or larger depending on the size of your site.
Having more pages also gives your website a higher probability of ranking which eventually determines the ranking parameters for your website. The most important advice to rank well is still to produce great content quality instead of publishing simply a large volume of content every week or month.
You do not need permission to include a link on your website that goes to another website. Nor is it copyright infringement if you do include such a link.
Still, others would not put a limit on the number of external links. Many industry experts, however, advice against linking more than once to the same page. Based on what we've found from our own research: We recommend 1-2 external links for every 500 words of content.
If internal links are hyperlinks connected to other pages on your site, external links are those that point to different domains. They are widely used to expose the source of information mentioned, but they can also be spontaneous indications of content that the author considers relevant to the user.
Google is able to crawl HTML content hidden inside navigational elements such as tabs or expanding sections. However, we consider this content less accessible to users, and believe that you should make your most important information visible in the default page view.”
If your current website includes a slider, you might want to think about getting rid of it. Also known as a carousel, sliders are no good for SEO. Not only that, but sliders even stand in the way of your visitors reading your site's core content right away. Sliders can also negatively affect your conversions.
Do Dropdown Menus have any Impact on SEO? For the most part, no dropdown menus do not have any effect on SEO. The user experience could potentially slow the site speed or discourage mobile navigation on your site but in terms of meta data, content and rankings, dropdown menus are simply a navigation item.
Introduction: My name is Mrs. Angelic Larkin, I am a cute, charming, funny, determined, inexpensive, joyous, cheerful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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