Stop losing visitors to “tab clutter” and accidental exits. Learn the golden rule of link settings of when to use “open in a new tab” and how it impacts your bounce rate and SEO. Plus, a quick tip on tracking your traffic attribution correctly.
Enjoy the episode!
🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is Vizard.ai.
This tool is incredible! It’s so easy to use. It automatically creates short clips from long videos. And does a great job at it. Super simple editor to take out sections and add them. And easily add an outro scene to the end for branding.
Peek inside my toolbox.
🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is not an episode but a Spotify audio book. Did you know they have them for paid users? I listened to Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer. Interestingly, maybe more to me than you lol, I tried to get the physical book. I thought it was in stock at teh local Barnes and Noble but then they texted and said they didn’t have it. So ok, I guess I’ll just get teh audio version then… which is funny because generally I like reading books vs listening to them. I can skip through parts faster. But this time, the audio seemed to be what I was doing. And it just happened I was going on a trip and I ended up listening to a large portion of it on the plane ride and my long drive from the airport to my destination. For someone who has been searching for how to let go, it is very timely. Now that I gave you that big ole backstory, you’d probably like to know what it’s about. It’s about a guy who stopped controlling his life and lived.
I’m beginning to think when people use “high achiever” in their content, they mean workaholics. LOL Just my personal connection. I didn’t get any actionable takeaways from this one but I enjoyed the conversation.
💡 Related Resources
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple
The other day I was running an internal link audit. As I was going through the links in some older blog posts, I noticed that the settings weren’t always being used properly.
And did you know there is a right way and a wrong way to set those links settings? For both links going to other pages in your website and links going to external websites.
We’re gonna get a little nerdy today.
Okay, so let’s talk about links. Specifically, the little checkbox that says “Open in a new tab.”
This appears when you add a link to a page like your blog post. At least in WordPress. Other platforms may look at a little different.
This functionality for links is one of those small things on your website and for SEO that can matter for user experience AND for bounce rate.
Let’s say you’ve got a blog post on your website. Inside that post you’ve got links… some that take your reader to another page on YOUR site, and some that take them to a completely different website.
Those are technically two very different situations, and they need be treated differently.
Here’s what to keep in mind:
Internal links — meaning links that go to another page on your OWN website — should open in the SAME tab.
External links — meaning links that send your reader to someone ELSE’S website — should open in a NEW tab.
When someone is reading your blog post and you link to another one of your own pages, you want them to stay in your world your website, to stay focused. So same tab, not a new tab.
If that link opens a new tab, you’re cluttering up their browser and now they’ve got more tabs open and aaahhhh where did the other thing they were reading go?
So keep it in the same tab. This is what internal linking is supposed to do… guide them deeper into your content.
Now, if you’re linking to an external website — a source you’re citing, a tool you love, a resource to back up your content — that should open up in a NEW tab. Sometimes called blank window.
When you open external links in a new tab, your site stays open in the background. Your reader can go check out that resource and come right back to you. You’re not losing them.
So when I was doing my link audit and going through old blog posts, I was finding cases where external links were set to open in the same tab — sending people away with no easy return. And I was finding internal links that were opening new tabs when they didn’t need to. Neither of these are huge disasters, but they do add up. Especially on older content that still gets traffic.
Sadly, this might even be teh reason why a lot traffic is no longer showing attribution. In WP, when you set your link to open in a new window, it automatically gets code added that says “noreferrer noopener”. WordPress added this some time ago because of how it opens up your website to malicious attacks. You can change it in the functions.php code but that’s a scary place to be. And that only affects your outgoing links, not teh ones that may be coming to you from other places. This is why whenever I know a website is going to link to me, I give them a specific URL with tracking codes. I’ll put a link to more on that in the show notes for ya.
One more thing while we’re being nerdy. If you’re linking to a PDF or a downloadable file, treat that like an external link. Open in a new tab. Because again, your reader is about to leave the page experience, and you want your site to still be there waiting for them.
The Takeaway
Links have a real impact on how long people stay on your site and how they experience your content. Here’s the rule again: internal links stay in the same tab, external links open a new one. Go take a peek at a few of your older posts this week and see if your settings are doing what you think they’re doing. It’s a quick fix that makes a real difference.
About This Show
Created by Compass Digital Strategies, the Small Business Marketing Sweet Spot is a weekly podcast for service-based small business owners who want more website visibility, traffic, and leads. Hosted by Barb Davids, each episode covers the what, why, and how of SEO, content marketing, and digital strategy. Plus expert guest conversations on productivity, branding, and mindset. Because growing your business and loving your life aren’t separate goals.
