Do you use _blank on most of your links to other sites?
 

Curious how you guys handle _blank... I use it most of the time.

no, reduces sales by alot

Really ?

I always use it too, if the offer they clicked on is finally not interesting to them, at least my page is still open there...


Care to explain ? :thumbsup

Can't explain!

On some sites yes, on others no.

As has been said, you'll definitely lose a lot of sales with _blank

Can someone explain the thought behind why you feel using _blank will loose you sales?

:1orglaugh

People are naturally lazy. You've just got them as far as clicking to go somewhere but because of _blank they didn't get there and you've made them have to do something extra to swap tab.

In what browser are you forced to manually change tabs after clicking a link? Here you get sent to what you clicked, but if you close that tab you're back at the original page because it's still open

If the link goes outside my network I like using _blank so that I know the visitor can still see my site. If not, I use a normal link. It's generally better to use a normal link where you can because most people now know how to open a link in a new tab if they want to do that. You will annoy some when you force it upon them.

Firefox does that for me and I don't remember deliberately adjusting any settings.

We always

Firefox loads up a new tab and shows it to me just like Chrome does here

I used it a lot, sales have good so far. :2 cents:

lose sales with _blank, wtf???? No idea who started that ridiculous piece of BS, probably matt cutts going by what most webmasters believe.

You're saying a surfer is too lazy to switch the tab to what he wants to see, or else he wouldn't have clicked on it, that displays straightaway anyfuckingway, and doesn't need any extra clicks, and even if it did AND he was too lazy to do that, he obviously would close the original page as he wouldn't want to be doing that extra click (that he doesn't actually need to do anyway), whereupon the link clicked shows anyagainway?

Fuck, get a clue..

And what, they close the link they wanted to see out of spite? Close their eyes and whistle and pretend to be uninterested? Please...

Only annoying thing I can think of is forcing your users to close a tab VS using their back button.. But honestly as webmasters are we trying to encourage use of the back button between different sites?

Jel, I'm not the guy who said it hurts sales. But I do find it annoying if every link always goes to a new tab. There's no easy way for me as an advanced user to easily force it to load in the same tab. OTOH if you leave it as a normal link I can load it in a new tab easily by using the middle mouse button should I wish. It's just a preference. I prefer being able to choose on my own.

Generally speaking, I like to use it on sites which depend more on search traffic b/c it will increase time spent on page.
On sites that have more gallery traffic or any other type of non-search traffic, I don't use it.

I use _blank on all trades or other non-money links. My goal is to get surfers to the sponsor so those open in the same window. Once the visitor ends up at the sponsor, my site has done its job.

Just please don't use it on links within the same site! Sites that want to open new teams or windows for every fucking page are so damn annoying.

Prospects who are willing to enter their CC/personal info at some point already know how to open a link in a new window/tab. From a surfers POV don't ever try to take control of my browser. The trust factor drops to zero, zip, nada.

The result of _blank is not the same for everyone depending on their browser, settings and blocker.

I never want the user to leave MY site tho. Relying on the user remembering where they just came from and that they need to hit back doesn't work for me.

Some people think using _Blank isn't cool because it doesn't allow the users settings to decide and takes that control away.

Personally as a user I want every link opened in a new Tab so _Blank or _New works for me.