Open external links in a new window or new tab. SEO optimized and XHTML Strict compliant.
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.
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…
Not working with google ads
Download, activate, you are done. This is pretty much you need, works flawlessly.
This one’s going to save me a good deal of time with my new writing process. Thank you for creating it.
It is working perfectly after installation. Don’t need any setup or configuration.
Great plugin, great support! Thanks!
| WordPress | 4.0+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4 |
| PHP | 5.2+ required |
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.