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Re: external links & new windows

for

From: Chris Hoffman
Date: Nov 9, 2010 4:42PM

If consensus is, as it seems to be, tha opening pages in new tabs or windows is a bad idea, the there are still two cases in which some sort of notification about the link target might be deemed helpful. One is for links that go to other sites, and the other is for links to non-HTML resources (PDFs, video files, etc.)

With Jared's comments about SEO dilution in mind, is there a good solution for these cases?

Chris



On Nov 8, 2010, at 9:34 AM, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 5:02 AM, Terrill Bennett wrote:
>> Some will say Google will dock you
>> points for hidden text, but Google has stated otherwise - Google
>> isn't stupid, and they know the difference between padding your site
>> with text to raise your score, and text that's just text (even Google
>> has hidden text on it's own news site).
>
> This specific example, however, is a case where hidden text *will*
> affect your search engine optimization. It's not the fault of Google,
> it's just a matter of what you are presenting to the search engine.
>
> If your link text is "WebAIM", for example, the word "WebAIM" is used
> to help determine the content of the linked page and established the
> content that associates your page with the linked page. If the link
> text is "WebAIM - link opens in a new window" (or similar), then all
> of this text is used and the true content and relationship will be
> diluted.
>
> There are some cases where additional text is quite useful to screen
> reader users, but when it comes to pop-up windows, I recommend giving
> the user control over this by allowing all links to open in the same
> window. Any perceived usability issues with same-page links are, in my
> opinion, far outweighed by potential usability and accessibility
> issues of dealing with the new and multiple windows. Another
> significant argument for this is mobile browsers where new windows and
> shifting between windows is quite a hassle.
>
> Jared Smith
> WebAIM
>