Easy Methods to open external links in a new window or tab

Are you looking for a way to open external links in a new window or tab in WordPress to keep your audience engaged? 

Being website owners, we understand how important it is to keep users on a website. The more they are engaged with a website, the more helpful it will seem to search engines and the better it will be for the website’s online SEO. 

Providing external links is crucial for SEO but can lead visitors to a different site. Thus, keeping a fine balance between retaining your audience and providing them with helpful and relevant links can be key to maintaining your site’s usability. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through different step-by-step methods to help you open external links in a new tab in WordPress.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

What is the purpose of opening external links in a new window in WordPress? 

External links are links to websites on the internet other than yours that are added with the purpose of providing relevant content to your audience. Linking is a valuable SEO factor and also plays an important role in your content strategy. The only drawback of external links is that adding an external link to a website will direct your visitors to the external site when they click it, making them leave your site. As a result, the visitors might not return to your site. Additionally, this also increases your site’s bounce rate, leaving a negative impact on your site’s ranking in search results.

When you set these external links to open in a new window or tab, visitors can access additional valuable information without leaving your site. In this manner, the original web page they were reading is not lost, and they can return to your site by simply switching back to it. 

In addition, this increases your site’s dwell time and user engagement and helps you enhance your website’s SEO and, ultimately, its search presence on the web. 

So, let’s dive into different methods and help you learn how to open external links in a new window or tab in WordPress. You can select the way that you find super easy to implement on your own. 

Quick methods to open external links in a new window or tab in WordPress

There are several methods you can follow to open external links in your browser’s new window or tab. In this section, we’ll cover five easy-to-implement ways that are beginner friendly and do not require any expertise. 

1. Open External Links in a New Tab Using the Block Editor
2. Open External Links in a New Tab Using the Classic Editor
3. Open External Links in a New Tab Using HTML Code
4. Automatically Open All External Links in New Tab Using a Plugin

Method 1: Using the Block Editor 

WordPress is a flexible platform, and its block editor includes an in-built feature that lets you open external links in a new tab. 

When you insert an external link to your content, whether a post or a page, the option ‘Open in new tab’ popups on your screen, asking whether you want to open it in a new window. 

Now, open a blog post/page where you like to insert an external link. Then, select the text (anchor text) to which you like to insert the link and then click on the link option. You can also use the link shortcut “CTRL + K” in Windows or Command +K in Mac to insert the link.  

A popup will emerge on your screen where you can insert the link. Now, simply paste the link you want to add to your blog and press Enter. Then, turn the Toggle On, saying ‘Open in New Tab .’

That’s it. Now, your external link will open in a new tab. 

Method 2: Using the Classic Editor 

You can follow this method if you are fond of Classic WordPress Editor and still use it on your WordPress site. 

First, open the post/page to which you like to add the external link. Next, simply select the text (anchor text) you wish to insert a link to and then click the ‘Insert/edit link option.’

Once done, a popup will appear on your screen where you can insert your external link. 

Now, next to the link box, you will see the settings or gear icon. Simply click on it, and this will open up the advanced insert link popup. 

After that, you can see the check box saying, ‘Open link in a new tab.’ Simply select the check box and then click on the ‘Update’ tab at the bottom.

That’s it! Your external link will now open in a new tab. 

Method 3: Using the HTML Code

The HTML code method is the third way to open an external link in a new tab. If you more often use HTML to insert code on your site, use the HTML mode in your block editor or desire to add a link in your WordPress theme template, you can use this method. 

Note: If you are not familiar with HTML coding, you can simply skip this method and select one from the other modes.

To proceed with this method, you can insert the link in the following manner:  

<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Link Text</a>

In this code, the target= “_blank” parameter directs web browsers to open the link in a new window or tab. 

You can simply replace ‘example.com’ with the URL of the external link and ‘Link Text’ with the text (anchor text) you want to use on your site.

Method 4: Using a plugin 

If you have a lot of blog posts on your site for which you haven’t enabled the ‘open in new tab’ option, enabling it manually for every blog can be a time-consuming task. Also, if you often forget to enable the option, we have a one-click solution for you. You can automatically open all the external links on your site in a new tab using a plugin. This can lower your workload and help you prevent your site’s SEO. 

For this, we are using the ‘ Open External Links in a New Window plugin.’

In order to open your external links in a new window or tab, first of all, you have to install and activate the plugin on your site.  

If you are new to this, you can check out the guide on how to easily install and activate a WordPress plugin on your site.  

The plugin is easy to use and does not require any additional settings. Once you activate it on your WordPress site, it will automatically start working, and all the external links will now be opening in the new window or tab. 

Note that if you deactivate the plugin, it will prevent external links from opening in a new tab.  

Closing Thoughts!

Every aspect of a website, whether small or big, is valuable and has its own significance when it comes to search engine optimization. External links are one of the valuable SEO factors that help visitors find relevant information on the web and enhance a website’s user experience. However, if not inserted properly, it can impact a website’s SEO and its presence on search engines. 

In this guide, we discussed how you can prevent your site’s user experience and SEO simply by opening your blog’s external links in a new window. Here, we’ve covered four easy and simple methods that anyone can easily learn and implement on their website. We hope this step-by-step guide has assisted you in learning how to open external links in a new window or tab in WordPress. If you’ve liked this tutorial, you may also want to read our other guides.

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