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Tips and Tricks

Webmasters - don't lose your visitors

Monday, 21 January 2008 08:46 by Dmitriy

All over the web we can find many tips how to get more visitors to your website. But there are one thing that can make things better.

Many sites lose their visitors because of one little html attribute. This is "target" attribute of your hyperlinks. Yes, it's very-very important. I saw this on many sites, some outer link (that points to other domain, or banner) opens in the same window, that's all. What is probability of "Back" button hit? Specially if user interesting in that resource too? That's why AdSence make me sad, we are losing visitors for cents. And visitors annoyed too. For example, I'm reading some blog, and I see interesting banner. I'm clicking and reading 5-6 pages there, and want to get back...

The same for any external links on you site. You want to "Kick it" or something like this in the same window?

So, when you are thinking about serious things like linkbuilding and seo, think about your links first, maybe you just doing something wrong?

Better to use <a target="_blank" ... to open everything in new window. 

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April 27. 2008 22:01

DotNetYuppie

Please don't use the target="_blank" attribute.

I understand your frustration with losing visitors, but by setting the link to open in a new window, you're taking the ability away form the user to control their navigation.

If I want a window to open in a new window, I'll hold CTRL or middle click the link, which will open a tab in the background and keep my focus on the original site.

Also, keep in mind that the 'back' button isn't functional if you open a new window. For the less computer savvy crowd, they might become confused if a new window pops up, covering your previous window. When they want to go back to your website, they can't because the 'back' button doesn't go back to your website (because it opened in a new window).

In short, I understand your point, but please leave navigation of links to the end user, not to the developer.

DotNetYuppie

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January 6. 2009 08:49