Share and download Custom Google Analytics Reports, dashboards and advanced segments--for FREE!
www.CustomReportSharing.com
From the folks who brought you High Rankings!
HR 7
Posted 20 December 2012 - 03:00 AM
I have a client who wishes to include a list of "like Minded" online resources.
These are likely to be very useful to most visitors and each link is accompanied with a sentence or two explaining what's there. In total there are going to be in the region of 15 to 20 such outgoing links.
The client wishes these Links to Open in a New Window.
My question is these-days, what are deemed to be the downside/s of doing this ??
Vintage Babe
Posted 20 December 2012 - 10:48 AM
Assuming these resources really are useful to your site visitors, I honestly can't think of any down sides. Fifteen to twenty is not a huge number of links, and by providing some descriptive text you're both validating the usefulness of the links for your visitors and providing the site with additional relevant content.
A small suggestion: warn your visitors through some means -- a brief note at the top of the page, a "title" attribute tooltip or a small "new page" icon or something -- that clicking the links will open a new window so they don't get confused or disoriented when that happens.
My 
--Torka 
HR 7
Posted 20 December 2012 - 11:12 AM
Thanks for that Torka.
One concern that I had was the possible intervention by Security Software and some Browsers that might be averse to Open in New Window links because of the exploitation of this action by Spammers and Porn merchants etc.
HR 10
Posted 20 December 2012 - 12:27 PM
Spammers will set a link to open as a pop-up window (often without bothering to wait for the user to click a link), which isn't what it looks like you're planning on doing, so don't worry about that. If you're obsessive about using only valid code, you're going to find that setting a target attribute of "_blank" will cause the page to fail a validation test because that attribute is deprecated, but that's not going to hurt you in any way. It's just going to give you one less thing to uselessly brag about 
HR 7
Posted 20 December 2012 - 12:29 PM
Thanks for that, all now clear to go with no adverse factors.
A not so moderate moderator.
Posted 21 December 2012 - 08:12 AM
the target attribute is only deprecated when using a HTML 4.01 or XHTML DTDs OTHER THAN frameset DTDs. It is valid in frameset DTDs AND in ALL HTML5 documents.
And 'validation' is only a W3c spell check at best.
HR 7
Posted 21 December 2012 - 08:34 AM
Thanks for that Chris.
I use:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
and target="_blank"
This validates OK with my checker.
High Rankings Advisor
Posted 21 December 2012 - 08:53 AM
I always have external links open in a new window. It's never been a problem as far as I know.
HR 7
Posted 21 December 2012 - 09:07 AM
Thanks Jil
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
Community Forum Software by IP.Board
Licensed to: High Rankings LLC
