Should website links open in a new tab?

Key takeaways

Most links on a business website should open in the same tab. Opening every external link in a new tab breaks the back button and can disorient visitors, especially on phones. Nielsen Norman Group advises deciding by the visitor's task: a new tab can help when someone is midway through a form or needs to refer back. Warn visitors when it happens.

• Default to the same tab for internal and most external links.
• Use a new tab when leaving would lose work, such as a half-filled form.
• Say when a link opens a new tab, for example with an icon and text.
• Do not force new tabs to keep visitors on your site.

Why do businesses open links in new tabs?

The usual reason is to keep visitors on the site: if an external link opens in a new tab, your page stays open behind it. In practice visitors are capable of returning, and many find unexpected new tabs annoying, especially on mobile, where switching tabs is less obvious.

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What problems do new tabs cause?

Nielsen Norman Group's long-standing guidance lists the problems: the back button stops working for the new tab, visitors lose track of where they came from, and on phones the switch can go unnoticed. Screen reader users may not be told a new tab has opened. These costs apply to every forced new tab.

When does a new tab make sense?

A new tab makes sense when leaving the page would lose something: help or terms linked from inside a form, a map while filling in a booking, or a document a visitor needs to read alongside the page. Decide by what the visitor will do next, not by whether the link is internal or external.

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How do you warn visitors about new tabs?

Tell visitors before they click. Add a small icon and text, such as '(opens in new tab)', that is visible or available to screen readers. WCAG recommends warning people about changes of context so they are not surprised.

What about PDFs and documents?

Links to PDFs and other documents surprise visitors because they open in a different viewer. Say what the link is and how big it is ('Price list, PDF, 1.2MB'). Better still, put important content such as price lists and menus on a normal web page.

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What about social media links?

Social icons in a footer are often set to open in new tabs. That is a reasonable choice if you warn visitors, but ask first whether you want to send visitors away to social media at all from a page where they could enquire.

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What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: every link on a site, including internal ones, opens a new tab, and mobile visitors end up with several copies of the site open. Setting internal links to open in the same tab restores normal back-button behaviour.

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Link behaviour checklist

• Open internal links in the same tab.
• Open most external links in the same tab.
• Use new tabs only to protect work in progress.
• Warn visitors when a link opens a new tab.
• Label document links with type and size.
• Move key PDF content onto web pages.

Next step

Click five links on your site on a phone and note which open new tabs without warning.