TechyLife.com

While optimizing this blog for better visibility by search engines, I got confused about what to do with the links to other websites from this blog, many of them being my own sites. I have read somewhere that target=_new or target=_blank attribute is not a good practice while creating links. I don’t know why it is bad , and I have seen many big blogs using it while linking outside their domain. Who want to drive away hard earned traffic to another site? In my view , linking offsite must use target tag.

Someone said that a reader will always have the privilege in choosing whether to open in a new window or in the same. They can use Ctrl + Click or middle click in Firefox. But should we take chance there? No one can guaranty that the reader will use the ‘back’ button to come back to our page to continue reading. Posts in some  forums claimed that :

Some screen readers may show some difficulty while opening a new window , so it may be difficult for the blind.

… the main issue with opening links in a new window is that it effectively “breaks” the back button which can be confusing, particularly for visually impaired users. I have also seen this with older users and those who are new to the internet, who don’t realise they have to close the window to get back to where they were..

I always try to use _new against _blank . _new opens links in a single new window for every links while _blank opens separate windows for each links. Try this,

Google in _new target |||||| Yahoo in _new target

Google in _blank target |||||| Yahoo in _blank target

First two links with _new target will be opened in the same window/tab while the one with _blank will be opened in seperate window/tabs.Wordpress by default targets links within the posts as _blank. But I feel like _new is less annoying than _blank as it opens only one extra window/tab. Javascripts can be used instead, but personally i feel it as a bad adoption because most users block scripts. They are also prone to Popup blockers. Even though i have never experienced it, I think some Paid Pop-up blockers even blocks links with target attribute.

Use of target attribute can create some slight problems in analysis of traffic. As we all rely on time-spent-on-a-page as the deciding factor of user interest , target attribute can generate false reports. Suppose people clicked a target _new link from our page and moved to a new page. He may never come back to the original page before closing the browser. But the web analyser tool records it and reports it as the reader was ‘reading’ our page for the whole time.