Should links open in new window?

[briant97]

[link edited out as it goes to a blog selling stuff]

I would like to readers thoughts on this very topic. In the 30 day challenge we have them open in new windows I myself hate when sites do this. I also as this article say close them quickly. This is just something small that I wanted to bring up. It may however have some relevance. I mean ever little bit helps.

[wrkfrmhm]

My view is that it depends on the action you want your visitor to take...

If it's an attribute/reference link to your article information source, select open in new window so the reader stays on your page.

If it's a link to your money page (product and referral links), select open in same window as you want your reader to focus on the action of joining, giving email details or buying your offer.

As a reader myself, I tend to riight-click on links to open in new tab (available in tabbed browsers like Firefox, Flock, etc) when I want to stay on the page. However for a great many of internet users with older machines and browsers (particularly Internet Explorer) they don't do this so it PAYS to do this for them.

[calison]

Originally Posted by briant97

I would like to readers thoughts on this very topic. In the 30 day challenge we have them open in new windows I myself hate when sites do this. I also as this article say close them quickly. This is just something small that I wanted to bring up. It may however have some relevance. I mean ever little bit helps.

Firstly, do you wish your blog/site to be LIKED or to be SUCCESSFUL??
If you wish it to be liked then lead readers off to all corners of the globe to watch them fail to return. They will love you for this..love you short time !

However send them to a new window no matter how the few might be infuriated and guess what, they are still at your site....love me long time !

I would also dispute what the writer in your article says...in fact I laugh at it.
Rule No.1 of marketing web design. NEVER...let me repeat that for the deaf dumb and blind NEVER allow the reader a link off your site if you can avoid it. and IF you must make sure that you open it in another window.

Who cares if he doesnt like it. Its not your job to entertain him its your job to sell to him and part of that is keeping his ass at YOUR site.

I would dispute Gross's assertion that most people dislike it when I site opens a new window. In todays world of tabbed browsers (as opposed to archaic ones that always tiled another instance of themselves) most people are not concerned. Its your site and it;s your job to cater to your best interests not those of the reader. You should do it with the reader in mind but not your detriment. And sening the user to other sites (unless they are your own and its part of the sales process), without leaving them first anchored to yours is madness. We are of course referring specifically to offiste links not a link in your sales chain process

If for some valid reason you do provide links from your site to others if you build your site well as an authority of the niche people will actually WANT you to anchor them to your site so they can find more information after their "sidetrip" to your linked site.

Theres always a sense of confusion amongst people learning marketing online. They strive hard to make their site the"prettiest" and to give the most possible "fire escapes" or sidetrips for their readers. THAT is plain DUMB marketing. AS a marketer its not your primary job to be liked,its your primary job to be effective at converting visitors to customers, and thats the bottom line.
I

[Lindiop]

Originally Posted by calison

. AS a marketer its not your primary job to be liked,its your primary job to be effective at converting visitors to customers, and thats the bottom line.
I

I'd like customers who liked me enough to keep coming back to my site, to bookmark it in their favourites, to add it to their rss. That way I wouldn't be totally reliant on search for every new lead. People might even pass my site on to their friends. I love that, when you see in the analytics that a whole group of people have turned up from an e-mail! It bugs me slightly that I can't read what they wrote but it must be good.
Anyway, trapping people on your site, what's that about then? You have such a low opinion of your visitors you think they can't find a way to leave? Sheesh, that's the sort of spammy site I avoid like the plague, y'know the one that you try to leave and a pop-up asks "Are you're sure you want to go?"
I might visit once but I am never, ever going back!
Open in the same window works fine. People can and will find their way back if they want. Hopefully the link they clicked is the one you subtly suggested to them anyway and they've gone to do exactly what you wanted them to

So if they've gone off and bought your offer why would you want them to find themselves back on your site wondering how to get away?

[bsawards]

Very interesting discussion. As someone who uses the Internet a lot, I remember all of this evolving. I used to hate it when a new window popped up, which is why the popup and popunder ads were so unpopular. When tabbed browsing came out, I, like one of the responders noted, use the right click to open in a new tab. I do this because I know it is often difficult to even remember where you were five minutes ago.

It really isn't websurfing anymore, but more like web hopping. If you don't leave a shadow of where you were, you won't get them back. If they like your content and feel it will be useful, they'll click back over to your window and subscribe/bookmark it.

[calison]

Originally Posted by Lindiop

I'd like customers who liked me enough to keep coming back to my site, to bookmark it in their favourites, ........

I must apologize for being misleading. There are those out there that arent interested in BIG incomes and merely want nice friendly sites that bring in modest profits

Thats perfectly fine if you want your site to be the quaint village teahouse that people like to stop in on weekends to sip earl grey and eat scones. You might make your 500 pound a week profit. But if you want to compete in a bigger league like a McDonalds or a Starbucks etc you have slick A-B-C-D systems, no diversions, not portholes to gaze out of along the way. They are the companies that make money. These companies make millions by NOT being friendly cute little country tearooms. Everyone agrees they hate them, everyone agrees their food and coffee are crap, everyone ridicules them, yet go look in a store any hour of the day, to see the long line of liars lined up for lunch

Originally Posted by Lindiop

trapping people on your site, what's that about then? You have such a low opinion of your visitors you think they can't find a way to leave? Sheesh, that's the sort of spammy site I avoid like the plague...........

I find that comment an curious emotional reaction. Do you know so little about marketing that you think that clever systems that lead clients to a destination without exits is both spammy and shows a disrespect for your customers? Nobody said it has to be spammy, nobody said you had to have a dozen popups begging you to stay if they attempt to "click the X" That was simply a poor assumption you made !

We personally always send customers down a "cattle race" and we have the greatest of respect for our clients, and the brilliant success we had and the enormous repeat visits and customer loyalty we generated will attest to that.
We also provided more than sufficient authority on our sites so that they never found the need to go offsite for their requirements. We didnt link to once outside sites, with the exception of some strategic partners and our own satellite sites, and even then all links opened without one complaint in a new tab. Sophisticated users dont open windows in new browsers anymore but rather in another tab or the existing browser.

You mentioned that customers if your site is a good enough one will always find their way back to it after leaving on an outward bound link. However the many studies done over the years confirm just the opposite of your statement.

Originally Posted by Lindiop

Hopefully the link they clicked is the one you subtly suggested to them anyway and they've gone to do exactly what you wanted them to

So if they've gone off and bought your offer why would you want them to find themselves back on your site wondering how to get away?

Firstly why "hopefully"? If you have enough faith in your sales copy, your offer and your metrics then you already know who and how many will click the link and then its merely a matter of numbers. So rather than subtly "suggest" why not have faith in your product and your process to simply say, "and your next step is..." ?

Lastly you totally missed the point of the argument. It was about linking away to OTHER sites during a process..not to your own site.

[tiptopcat]

I hate it when the link does not open in a new tab. When this happens I almost always immediately back click so I have the original page then do the right click thing.

Pages have so many links these days it is hard to remember where you originally started. A bit like clicking through TV channels during the ad break and forgetting where you were to begin with.

I hate that.

[derrick0408]

This is an interesting thread.
I am curious though that if you are getting a lot of the content for your Blog via peoples articles (as Ed showed) - he states you need to provide a link at the end of the Blog, in his lesson.
Are you saying that we shouldn't do this?
I can see the logic of not wanting to send people offsite.
What is the workaround for this?
Is it simply to ensure the link opens in a new window?

Cheers,
Derrick

[musignr]

easy answer: open link to external sites in a new window.

every time.

[calison]

Derrick in certain tpye of sites etc you cant avoid having outbound links but like the previous poseter mentioned if you must have outbound links from your site open them in a new window so your site remains sticky