Make a link open in a new tab in WordPress – How to tutorial

When you have links within your website that send your visitors to another site. How do you make sure they don’t lose your site? The answer is to make sure your links always open in a new browser tab. That way, your site is open in your visitor’s browser, easier for them to return to you. In this post, I show you how to make a link open in a new tab in WordPress, links in your main menu, within your content, and in your images.

Let’s get started.

• Links in your main menu
• Making links in your post open in a new tab
• Links in your blog post images
• Links open in a new tab video tutorial
• Conclusion

Main menu links

Let’s start by having one of the categories in your main menu open in a new tab when a visitor clicks on it.

This is my main menu in my example website. I have ‘Home’, ‘Domains’, ‘SEO’, and ‘WordPress’.

I am going to add ‘YouTube’ to this menu, I will make ‘YouTube’ open in a new tab.

First, we hover our mouse over ‘Appearance’ in the WordPress menu and select ‘Menus’ from the popup menu.

Once we come to the menu page, we are looking for ‘Custom links’ from the ‘Add menu items’ list on the left. Open up that drop-down, now we have a box to enter our destination URL and add the title of the tab in our menu.

I have a YouTube channel, I am going to paste that URL in the ‘URL’ box and in the ‘Link text’ box, I am going to type ‘YouTube’. Once you have finished entering your details, select ‘Add to Menu’.

Now you can see that I have ‘YouTube’ included in my main menu. To get this link to open in a new tab, we need to check one more setting.

Go to the top of your WordPress admin screen and select ‘Screen options’. From ‘Screen options’, tick the ‘Link Target’ box.

Then select ‘Screen options’ again to close. Now, we go back to our new menu label and click to open. Now, we have an option to open this link in a new tab, tick that box.

Finally, select the blue ‘Save Menu’ link on the top or bottom right. Now when a visitor clicks on ‘YouTube’, YouTube will open in a new tab.

Here is my new menu with ‘YouTube’.

Blog post links

Here is my example blog post.

I am going to make ‘open in a new tab’ into a link that opens in a new tab. First, we highlight the part of the text we want to be the link. Then, click on the ‘Link’ icon.

Once you click on the ‘Link’ icon, you get a box to insert your destination URL. Once you have typed or pasted that, click on the down arrow on the right.

I am going to insert my website URL into the box, click on the apply icon, and then select the ‘Open in a new tab’ option.

Once you have completed entering your information, don’t forget to select ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’. This is how you make a link open in a new tab in blog posts.

This is my example post. The link is in red.

Images links

Let’s go back to my example blog post and insert an image.

To insert an image, click on the ‘Plus’ icon and select the image block.

You can upload a new image or use an image from your media library.

Once you have uploaded your image, select the ‘Link’ icon.

Now you have a box to enter your destination URL. Once you have entered your URL, click on the ‘Apply’ icon and then select the down arrow on the right. Slide the button to the right to activate the ‘Open in a new tab’ option.

After you have finished editing, click on the blue ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button on the top right.

That’s how to make a link open in a new tab in an image.

Let’s have a look at my example website once again.

I made a link in my main menu, in my blog post content, and finally in my image.

Links open in a new tab video tutorial

Conclusion

If you have external links within your website, it is better to set them to open in a new tab so that your visitor still has your website in their browser. Having your external links open in the same tab could make it difficult for your visitor to return to your site.

In my post, I have shown you how to create links that open in a new tab in your menus, blog posts, and in your images.

If you have any questions about this post, please leave them in the comments box below. I check comments at least once a day.

For a tutorial on setting up menus in WordPress, please visit my ‘how to create a drop-down menu in WordPress‘ post.

I also have a YouTube channel, with tutorials on using WordPress, SEO, keyword research, and the Amazon affiliate program.

Comments

Do you set your links to open in a new tab or the same tab?

I look forward to reading your comments and answering your questions.

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