In the 4.7.4 release of WordPress (May 2017), a new feature was added that changes the code behind any link you use that opens in a new tab. As a security precaution, these links will no longer send along their origin when clicked (ie, your site, known as the referrer). This is done by adding the code rel=”noopener noreferrer” automatically to these links. This change was reverted to just rel=”noopener” in 4.9, but noreferrer is now been put back with the release of WordPress 5.0.

This might be a problem with your Amazon affiliate links, because the program policies & guidelines state that Amazon needs to know where the link originated from. Also – this prevents the destination site from knowing where the link came from – meaning your site is not getting all the credit it deserves for referral traffic in Google Analtyics. [Read more…]