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Link Target Fix

Optimize the Accessibility of Your Links

Where Should Links Open

Links are an important factor in SEO and their behavior on site can greatly influence your reader’s experience.

With Google now looking closely at “reader experience” when determining search ranking, it’s more important than ever for you to handle links in a consistent and non-frustrating way.

Google

What’s more, opening links in the correct location, and letting the reader know where they are going to open, is an important part of accessibility.

For this reason, we are now recommending that all sites follow the latest best practice guidelines from the WCAG when it comes to where to open links, which can be summarized for bloggers as the following:

  • Open affiliate links in new tabs
  • Mark any links that open in new tabs so the reader knows before clicking
  • Open all other links in the current tab, whether they are external or internal

Casey Markee’s article on Search Engine Land provides additional details and can be found here (scroll down to item 4).

Let The Blog Fixer ™ Optimize Your Link Targets

This Fix:

  • Optimizes user experience and accessibility by following WCAG best practices. Only affiliate links will continue to open in new tabs
  • Reduces tab fatigue by changing all non-affiliate links to open in the same tab
  • Includes a bonus plugin to mark links that open in a new tab. As an optional bonus, we’ll install our very light weight plugin that will add new tab icons next to any links that open in a new tab
  • Can be customized for your needs – let us know if you’d prefer a different link opening strategy and we’ll make it happen

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“When I sit down to research, I can only focus when my laundry is folded, dishes washed, and the floor is free of Legos. When I found out that nearly all my affiliate links were missing the “nofollow” code, it was like my kids dumped a box of Legos across the hallway. The automation of The Blog Fixer ™, cleared away the mental clutter. No more frustration about things that take too much time to do myself but must get done.”

Heather Dessinger

Heather
Mommypotamus.com

The Blog Fixer ™ to the Rescue!

Make the open location of all of your links consistent throughout your site

 

As always, all of our fixes are provided as 100% done-for-you services without any software for you to learn.