A Great Suggestion

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Susan Gourley has a good post over at her blog called “Blog Housekeeping.” Here’s what she has to say about links in yor post:

Another thing that you want is for any links you have on your blog to open in a new tab and not carry people away from your blog. You want them to explore the things you’ve shared but you don’t want them to leave before they’ve arrived at the end. Let the link carry them away, but after they check it out and close it, your blog is still there. This is simple to ensure on blogger but I don’t know about wordpress.

I couldn’t agree more. Opening a page you’re linking to in a separate tab (or window) gives your readers a quick and easy way to get back to your blog after reading an article. They close the tab or window, and there you are again. Great stuff!

So, it’s easy to do on either blogging platform. You just have to check the box when you create the link (and I’ll assume you know how to do that).

link-wordpress
Where to check in WordPress

link-blogger
Where to check in Blogger

The same box will appear in your platform regardless of how you create your post, either with the WYSIWYG editor or the text editor.

If you’re like me and code things in native HTML, here’s how you do it in either platform:

<a href="http://susangourley.blogspot.com/2015/03/blog-housekeeping.html" target="_blank">"Blog Housekeeping."</a>

The key is the target="_blank" in the hyperlink (the <a> tag).

Doing this will make your readers, especially Susan and me, very happy. Thank you!

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

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9 thoughts on “A Great Suggestion”

  1. Pingback: Keep in mind This | TiaMart Blog

    1. No problem! Blogger was tricky for me, because you get the check box with the WYSIWYG editor, but not the text editor… but I think most use the former and let HTML jocks like me use the latter. 😉

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    1. It is. Any time I find a website that links in the same window or tab, I go back to the original page, right-click on the link, and open it in a separate tab. Then I wonder why they didn’t do that in the first place.

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  4. I try to always do that though a few links manage to escape when I’ve copied them from elsewhere or they are embedded links from Zemanta. Sometimes if I catch them I’ll go back to fix them. But definitely good advice for all bloggers to heed.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. It makes life a whole lot easier, especially if you have a lot of links to open, such as for the A to Z Challenge. The Linky is good for doing that; I wish the pingback links that WordPress generates would do it as well. (With Blogger, I just wish they did pingbacks…)

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  5. Thanks for taking my suggestion and then showing people how to make it work. I’m going to link to your instructions on my Wednesday post. This is really good.

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