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  4. External Links in New Window / New Tab
External Links in New Window / New Tab icon

External Links in New Window / New Tab

Open external links in a new window or new tab. SEO optimized and XHTML Strict compliant.

By WebFactory·Links·Free
4.5(77 reviews)
·30K+ active installs·Updated 4 months ago
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As of April 2026, External Links in New Window / New Tab is a WordPress links plugin with 30K+ active installations and a 4.5/5 rating from 77 reviews. It has been downloaded 489K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 4.0+ and PHP 5.2+. Available on WordPress.org since 2010. Downloads are down 14% this week. Top alternative: Broken Link Checker.

4.5/577 reviews
30K+active installs
489K+total downloads
16 yearssince 2010

Overview

Opens external links in a new tab or a or new window. You can set URLs that should either be forced to open in a new window or ignored.

The plugin produces XHTML Strict compliant code and is search engine optimized (SEO).
This is done using JavaScript’s window.open()-function. It adds only a few lines of vanilla JavaScript to the page, and does not require any external libraries like jQuery.

Most other plugins perform a hack by altering the target parameter (i.e. <a href="http://somewhere.example" target="_blank">). That method is not XHTML Strict compliant.
This plugin handles the links client-side, which lets search engines follow the links properly. Also, if a browser does not support JavaScript, the plugin is simply inactive, and does not result in any errors.

If you need…

Read full description on WordPress.org

Screenshots

Ratings & Reviews

4.577 reviews
5 ★
67
4 ★
0
3 ★
0
2 ★
3
1 ★
7

Recent Reviews

Not working
by edragonxx·5 months ago

Not working with google ads

Works as expected, minimal setup
by Christian Saborio·1 year ago

Download, activate, you are done. This is pretty much you need, works flawlessly.

Simple, elegant plug-in
by philsimon·1 year ago

This one’s going to save me a good deal of time with my new writing process. Thank you for creating it.

Work perfect
by boonpraserd·1 year ago·1 reply

It is working perfectly after installation. Don’t need any setup or configuration.

Works perfectly!
by mhscodafweb·2 years ago

Great plugin, great support! Thanks!

Download Trends

Today: 45Yesterday: 57This week: 394Period total: 44K

Compatibility

WordPress4.0+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4
PHP5.2+ required

Version Adoption

v1.45
67.1%
v1.44
21.2%
Other
11.7%

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Frequently Asked Questions

Changelog

1.45

  • 2025-08-04
  • minor code fixes
View full changelog on WordPress.org

Contributors

WebFactoryWebFactory
Plugin Info
Version
1.45
Last Updated
Dec 3, 2025
WP Requires
4.0+
Tested Up To
6.9.4
PHP Requires
5.2+
Active Installs
30K+
Downloads
489K+
Added
Sep 24, 2010
Business
Free

Tags

linksnew tabnew windowtarget blankexternal links

Developer

W
WebFactory
28 plugins3.5M+ total installs
View all plugins →

Quick Compare

External Links in New Window / New Tab vs Broken Link Checker→External Links in New Window / New Tab vs LuckyWP Table of Contents→External Links in New Window / New Tab vs Export All URLs→

Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.