Google penalty for links opening in new tab?
-
Our web services provided suggested that Google doesn't like in-text links that open the link in a new tab.
Can anyone verify this?
We often link to outside credible resources for our audience, though it seems smarter to open in a new tab rather than risk that the person will not navigate back to our site after finding us.
Thank you in advance!
-
I seriously doubt links opening in a new tab would affect your rankings or cause any kind of Google penalty. Not something I think you need to worry about : )
-
I have to echo Alan.
A long time ago when "pop-ups" were becoming a major problem forcing people into endless pop-up loops (still happens today) but browser have got much smarter and have some native functionality that can be toggled to prevent the worst case scenarios... back then I used to believe that all links should open in the parent, today I absolutely "hate" when a link to an external site opens up in the same window. I even hate google doing it to me when I click on results. I understand why, but its annoying and I always "right-click" open in new tab them.
So from a users experience perspective myself being the user, I would expect same site links to be in the parent window and external links to be a new window / tab. The exception being showing a PDF or some other sort of document on the same site, I would also think that should be opened in a new tab / window.
And finally I have also never heard of any penalty associated with the way a window opens.
-
Personally I like to have links open in the same tab, I will open them in a separate tab if I want them there.
But like Alan, Ive never heard of it being an issue one way or the other
-
Unless someone else here knows of a specific case study, since I've never once heard of such a penalty, I'm going to rely on the SEO best practices model which dictates that user experience is the primary focus.
Since it can confuse users to send them off-site within the same browser if they don't intend to actually leave (just wanting to check something else out while still wanting to read your content after), best practices always dictate that you open another site in a new window. Never open your OWN site in another window, only 3rd party sites...
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
With Google's new Speed Update, what does that mean for AMP pages?
Hey everyone! I wanted to get the other Mozzers opinions on this. With Google announcing a new Speed Update that will affect mobile rankings, I wanted to ask: How will AMP pages play into this? Let me know what you think!
Web Design | | TaylorRHawkins
Thanks!2 -
How can I fix New 4XX Issue on Site Crawl?
Hi all, My recent site crawl shows 27 4xx issues on this website http://www.rrbusinessconsultants.com/ All of them are for 'posts' on this wordpress website. Here is an example of the issue: http://www.rrbusinessconsultants.com/rr-business-consultants-on-the-rise-of-glassdoor-and-how-companies-are-coping/void(null) The blog page seems to be creating links ending in void(null) which are defaulting to 404 pages. I cannot see the links on the site so cannot see how to remove them. Can anyone provide any insight into how to correct his issue? Many thanks in advance.
Web Design | | skehoe0 -
Is Sitewide Credit Link Good or Bad in 2015?
We are a web design agency thus we get a good number of links (footer) from our client's site. According to Matt Cutt, Google considers all the sitewide links to 1. So is it okay to have those links? Note: Those links are do-follow and most with 2 anchor text. "Web Design" by "Company Name" and "Website Development" by."Company Name". Thanks
Web Design | | Jubaer961 -
Question Concerning HTML5/CSS Templates & Google Mobility Issues
Hi all, Looking for some kind of solution for a responsive update for a site and I am wondering if there are any templates (not Wordpress) that are both great SEO wise and would also pass muster with the impending Google update for responsiveness? I was looking at things like Canvas and Porto ( http://themeforest.net/popular_item/by_category?category=site-templates ) but can't find any discussion on whether or not these things have been addressed with any of these templates. If any of you have suggestions or other places to look for something that could possibly fit the bill (even if temporarily) I would be very appreciative. Thank you so much in advance!
Web Design | | Pixelwik1 -
Trying a completely new design on our .co.uk should I have it on a different IP to my .com
We have just relaunched http://www.gobananas.co.uk/ and made the site much smaller than .com and dissallowed robots on 98% of the site. The goal with this site is to get users to use the search facility rather than go through our menus like we have on .com Should I host the UK site on a different IP number to the .com?Thanks
Web Design | | PottyScotty0 -
SEO Searchable? Starting a New Forum for Company Community
Hi Mozzers, I'm new here and am looking forward to learning from this awesome group of SEOs As my company's Web Optimization Manager, I'm in charge of just about anything SEO related. We are an education company and we are looking to build a new forum so students (both new and old) and continue interacting within our community. We also want to use this as a tool for new users and potential new customers through search (obviously). We are in an internal debate as to how we should make the forums and the implications on search it may have. Some managers want the content available only to members, others want the content read-only to the public, and the tech team building the forum says that "it'll be an issue making the content available to the public without a log-in." So my questions are: (1) Will we still be searchable if we make our content "read-only" for non-members? Members will have the ability to log-in and comment and post etc (similar to this forum). (2) Will be searchable if we make the content completely private and available only to members. What I mean by private is perhaps, we'll make the title of the forum thread public but not the actual responses. Along these lines, what would happen if we made everything private (including the tite). Will Google still pick up on our content in a search result and a potential user only not be able to see anything? (3) What would you all suggest to make this flow the right way? Hope to hear from you all soon. Thanks
Web Design | | Pedram_SEO1 -
Linking root and domain authority
Hi SEOMOZ community, Can you please advise on how to increase Linking root domains and domain authority. much appreciated.
Web Design | | wahin10 -
Need help setting up google analytics goals / tracking
I don't use Google analytics to see much more than how many visits I'm getting and what sort of keywords people are using to find our site. I'd like to step up my GA skills a bit. I'm wondring if you guys could give me some advice. I've never really set up any GA goals, or used it to track specific things, but I'd like to. Here are a few things off the top of my head that I would like to track. I'm wondring if these are posable in GA, and if someone could give me some feedback on how to track it / set up goals. Thanks.1 1. I'd like to know how many people click play on a video when they are on a page that has a video. 2. I'd like to know how many people are clicking "like" " google plus, etc.) 3. I'd like to know the path people are taking on our site. For instance, if they click a link from Facebook, and go to a landing page, what page are they visiting next..... 4. How long people are staying on the page I would really like to break this down further by people that visit a link I posted on Facebook, or twitter, or from the link on my twitter profile page, etc... Also if there are any other valuable goals / reports that would be useful for a blogger to track I'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks.
Web Design | | NoahsDad0