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...
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Subdomain to sub-directory migration: New subdirectory not yet indexed
Hi all, We have recently migrated a sub-domain to sub-directory to claim it's traffic in our website. Like demo.website.com to website.com/demo. We have also set a redirect for same which is working fine; but still old subdomain is showing in google search results and new directory haven't been indexed. We have submitted the new sub-directory in search console multiple times and it got partially indexed as per the status. We have allowed crawlers. Thanks
Web Design | | vtmoz0 -
Does anyone know of an easy way to create jump links in WordPress without having to hardcode it into the HTML?
I am using Genesis Framework with the New Pro child theme on my site called Learn Internet Grow and when I create long articles I like to have a menu so readers can jump to a specific section. I wonder if there is a best practice for how to create jump links quickly without having to switch between the code editor and the post editor. There are a bunch of plugins but I am wary of adding more. Maybe if someone can tell me about one they had a good experience with. Ideally, a resource that shows you how to create a custom plugin for this or a non-plugin way to alter the framework to enable easy jump linking.
Web Design | | LearnInternetGrow0 -
Moving to new site. Should I take old blog posts with me?
Our company website has needed a complete overhaul for some time now and the new one is almost ready to go live. We also have a separate "news" site that is houses around 800 blog posts and news items. (That news site will be thrown away because it's on a completely different domain and causes confusion.) So we have a main site with about 100 decent blog posts and a separate news site with 800 poor posts. I plan on bringing all the main site blog posts over to the new site (both WordPress), but my question is whether or not to bring over the news site posts? All, handful, none? Another issue is the news site doesn't have Google Analytics, so I'm not sure if any posts actually generate traffic, but I can from the main site we do get some referrals from it. As far as quality of content goes, it's poor. Not sure who wrote it all, but it's mainly text press releases that aren't very interesting. Is it worth bringing over for SEO purposes or simply delete the site and create a mass redirect so all of those pages will direct to the new website's blog page? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Web Design | | codyfrew0 -
Menu Links
I am building a website with the category "water damage repair" and in the menu of the website I want a drop-down menu that contains the keyword + geolocation for example "water damage detroit" "water damage chicago" "water damage New York" and they will all be drop downs so that I can have the exact match keywords in the menu and on the page but I want them all to link to the same page so that I don't have to build out 5 different pages that all have the same general information on them, I would rather just have the categories with the keyword rich words then them all point to the same area. Is this a good idea to have a drop down menu for a category "Water Damage Repair" and then have 5 different Exact match keywords like "water damage detroit" and then have all of those exact match keywords link to the same page or should they all have individual content for each exact patch keyword even though they are all the same topic?
Web Design | | SEOWizards0 -
Parameters - Google Web Master Tools
In Google Web Mastertools you can stipulate which paramters you want the Googlebots to ignore when crawling your site. This is common place on pages that add some form of parameterisaton to the end of the link when a web user filters the information on a page (eg. on a clothes website someone may filter the products so they only see 'blue' jumpers, rather than 'all') This is meant to be beneficial as it means Google trawls through less duplicate content. Having now set this up, what impact will this have on my search results, if any? Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting to shoot up to no.1, but will it benefit me in any way?
Web Design | | DHS_SH0 -
3 Products & 50 Options each, How does Google handle product variant or options?
We are selling furnace filter and we might move our existing store host by BigCommerce to Americommerce or Corecommerce. Before moving the store, I have a questions about our online store structure. We are selling 3 different furnace filters, GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE Series. Each furnace filter come in about 50 different sizes, for a total of about 150 different products. The way our store is setup now, it is 150 different product, 150 different URL, 150 different page name... The way it is setup now, might look like duplicate content. All the product page are the same, all the pictures are the same, the only thing that change, is the furnace filter size in the product description. Look at those pages for example: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/20x20x4-Furnace-Filters/ http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/categories/2-Inches-Thick-Filters/10x20x2-inches/ http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/categories/2-Inches-Thick-Filters/16x25x2-inches/ Would it be better to only have 3 products and 50 variables or size options? What would be the best structure in a SEO point of view? One thing we have to keep in mind, when searching for a furnace filter, shooper will use keywords like: 16x25x4 furnace filter filter 20x20x1 air furnace filter 10x20x1 furnace filter 24x24x4 canada furnace filter Most of the Google search will included the filter size_._ How does Google handle product variant or options_?_ If I have 3 products, I will have only 3 URL and 3 different page name. I know for the shoppers, 3 products with sizes options might provide a better experience, but what about Google ranking the products? What is opinion the best online store structure in our case? Thank you for your help, preciouse time and support. BigBlaze www.furnacefilterscanada.com/
Web Design | | BigBlaze2050 -
Is it too late to change an IP from the linking c-block?
My main web development company is linked to many of our clients and our clients link back to us using footer links back. We obviously have a high volume of c-block relations. If I change my main site's location to a different server will it make any difference or is it too late?
Web Design | | sanchez19600 -
Anyone have a good example of a CSS-based multi-level nav bar that is semantic (including link level subordination) and is ux positive?
Anyone have a good example of CSS-based multi-level nav bar that is semantic (including link level subordination) and is ux positive? Or am I gonna have to actually make one? Anyone have a good example of CSS-based multi-level nav bar that is semantic (including link level subordination) and is ux positive? Or am I gonna have to actually make one?
Web Design | | anns0