Links opening in a new window - Will that affect SEO.???

When we post external links from our website, if we set those links to open in a new window, will those affect our SEO by any chance. The question might sound funny to some of you, but I heard about this from one of my friends. Just thought to clarify with the experts in this forum.

Any views.???

 

No, it will not make any effect on your SEO.

If you are linking to another site, it is usually recommended to open in a new tab as you usually don't want them to leave your site.

For example if you are writing an article on your blog and you are linking to some other site as a reference you will want to open it on a new tab because your user is still reading.

 

Thanks bro... I used to do that right from my beginning. But I heard this from my friend recently. That's why I cross checked. Thanks for clearing my doubts...

 

In short no!

As Wasted mentioned, most people tend to have external links open in a new window/tab so not to send people away from their site, this will in no way have an effect on seo.

Out of interest though, where did your friend come up with this wild idea? Does he have a source behind him telling you this?

 

Thanks for your reply....
He came across in some article. And he is also not sure about it. That's why I came with this question here....

Narein

 

As many said it won't hurt your SEO. Personally we don't do this, i feel my visitors won't trust a site opening in different window or tab.
Quite frankly i don't recommend doing it.

Just my 2 cents.

 

It depends on the site some times, for example, we always have external sites open in a new tab because we work with e-commerce clients, so mostly all external links on their sites will be to brands and information sites.

Its important for an e-commerce site (and most other sites tbh) to keep people on site because you don't want to push them in other directions to buy what you're trying to sell to them, so if linking to a products brand information page for additional specs or information, this should be done so it opens in a new tab, that way your potential customer will still have a bigger chance to buy from you as they don't need to keep clicking back from the brand site or do another search at the chance of finding the same product on a competitors site.

The same goes for blogs really, if you link to an external source or reference etc to do with what you are blogging about, why would you want to permanently send your readers away from your blog? In giving them the external source in a new tab they can keep your blog open and continue to read related posts without having to find you again!

 

Surely it won't affect our site in SEO terms. As our members said, i think link to new tab would help our visitor to stay in our site some more time with out any disturbance and may have vast look.