UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2020
The secret to opening a link in another window is to have “target=_blank” inside the link tag. The link tag is the piece of programming code that starts with <a href="..."
.
Looking at the link code, you’ll see that there are a number of definitions in between the left caret (<) and the right caret (>) of the <a href=
piece. They are called name:value pairs.
What are name:value pairs?
They are simple connections between two nouns. For example, thisthing = thatthing, thisotherthing = thatotherthing. On the left side is the code word that the browsers understand, like href, target, and, title. These code words never change. These are what the browsers are instructed to recognize.
The text that appears on the right side of the name:value pair is in quotes, because it changes according to our current desires; for this link, for this page, for this website.
In our case, we want the link (our target) to open in a brand new window, so, we set target="_blank
“.
If you have access to the code and type it in manually, remember the underscore in front of the word “blank”.
When you are using WordPress, first, you type the content that you want to link. Then select the content and click the link icon in the menu that pops up. Paste in the target link where you want your prospect to land. Click OPEN IN NEW TAB, save, then save your post/page.
When to open links in a new window
Is it best practices to open links in new windows? This is a hot debate. In 2020, I would recommend using this strategy sparingly. I still use it when linking to PDFS, external websites, and larger versions of images.
I believe the current best practice is to not open in a new window for any type of link. The belief is based on the fact that each person controls the browser on their device, and, whether to open in a new tab or not should be their preference, defined on their end.
I agree with the theory…but, reality for me is that I connect with many users who do not really know how to set up their browser according to their preferences, and, in fact, don’t even know that those are things that they can control.
There are still plenty of people who get confused when they are visiting one website and suddenly end up at another website. They spend time wondering what they did wrong and trying to get back to the original website. That floundering psychologically translates to a “bad experience”.
I consider it a “customer support” task opening “additional reading” content in another window. They can spend a few seconds or minutes with it, then get back to where they were and continue.
Start of original post September 21, 2005.
Quick tip for my blogging clients.
Oftentimes we want to link to sources of information, but we do not want our audience to leave our site for good. One way to accomplish this is to have the linked site open in another window. This is the action you want: Adventures Online.
How do you do that?
When your blogging tool creates the link it will look like this:
You want to edit the link and add a few words after the Web address and before the closing “>”. Make sure the Web address remains within quotes and the “_blank” is within quotes.