Open Links in New Tab Blogger: Part 16 — WordsByEkta🌿

How I Accidentally Discovered My Blog Was Sending Readers Away Forever (And the One-Line Fix)

I didn't know I had a problem.

My articles were live. My links were working. Readers could click and go wherever I wanted them to go. Everything looked fine.

Until I actually sat with my blog the way a reader would.

I clicked a link inside one of my articles — a "Back to Index" link — and my article disappeared. Gone. Replaced by the index page. If I wanted to go back, I had to hit the browser's back button and hope the article reloaded where I left it.

That's when I understood: every time a reader clicked any link on my blog, they left my article permanently.

I wasn't losing readers because of bad content. I was losing them because of a missing line of code.

A warm editorial illustration of a small reader figure sitting on an open book, with a dotted path splitting in two directions — one looping safely into a new floating tab and the other leading off a cliff edge into empty white space, with the words target=_blank floating in a soft speech bubble — WordsByEkta
One missing line of code was quietly sending every reader away — WordsByEkta

The Problem Nobody Warns You About

When you add a link in Blogger — or anywhere — the default behaviour is to open that link in the same tab. The page the reader was on simply closes and the new page takes its place.

For a "Next post" link, that's fine. The reader is done with the current article and moving forward.

But for links like:

  • Back to Index / Master Library
  • Related posts
  • Category links

...same-tab behaviour is a problem. The reader clicks away, loses their place, and often just closes the browser entirely instead of navigating back. Your article stays unread. Your bounce rate silently climbs.

The Fix: Two Words in Your Link

Every link in HTML looks like this:

<a href="your-link-here">Link Text</a>

All you need to add is:

target="_blank" rel="noopener"

So your link becomes:

<a href="your-link-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Link Text</a>
That's it. One line. This tells the browser: open this link in a new tab, and keep the current article exactly where it is.

But Don't Add It Everywhere — Here's the Logic

This is the part most tutorials skip.

I didn't add target="_blank" to every link on my blog. I made a deliberate choice.

Add it to:

  • Links to your Index / Master Library / Table of Contents
  • Links to category pages
  • Any link where you want the reader to explore without leaving

Don't add it to:

  • Previous post / Next post links
  • Links within the natural reading flow

Why? Because when a reader clicks "Next Post" they are done with the current article. Opening a new tab there creates unnecessary clutter — too many open tabs, confusing experience. That's bad UX.

But when a reader clicks "Back to Index" mid-article, they probably want to browse other posts while keeping their current read open. New tab = good UX there.

The question to ask yourself for every link:

"Is the reader finished with this article, or do I want them to be able to come back to it?"

If they might come back — new tab.
If they're naturally moving on — same tab.

What Each Part Does (Plain Language)

  • target="_blank" — Opens the link in a new tab instead of replacing the current page.
  • rel="noopener" — A security measure. Without it, the new tab technically has access to your original page through the browser. This closes that backdoor. Always include it when using target="_blank".
  • rel="noreferrer" — Hides your site as the traffic source from the website you are linking to in analytics. Use only when linking to external sites you don't want to credit. Not needed for your own internal links.
  • rel="nofollow" — Tells Google not to pass SEO value through this link. Use only for paid or sponsored links. Never use it on your own internal links — you want Google to follow those and discover all your content.
  • rel="sponsored" — The modern, Google-preferred way to label affiliate or paid links. Like nofollow, it tells search engines: "This is a commercial link." Use this for any link where you earn a commission or were paid to include it.
For your own blog's internal navigation links, the correct code is simply:

target="_blank" rel="noopener"

Nothing more needed.

For Affiliate or Paid Links:

If you are adding affiliate links, you should use nofollow (but not noreferrer*). The correct code is:

target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow"

The nofollow attribute tells Google not to pass your hard-earned SEO authority to the affiliate site. Always pair it with noopener for security.

Alternatively, you can use the more recent Google update, rel="sponsored". The code then becomes:

target="_blank" rel="noopener sponsored"

This explicitly tells search engines: "This is a commercial link; please don't use my blog's authority to rank this product."

*I mentioned not to use noreferrer for affiliate links because you want the site to know that the visitor came from your link.

How to Do It in Blogger

  • Open the post you want to edit
  • Click the HTML view (not Compose)
  • Find your index or library link — it will look something like this: <a href="https://yourblog.blogspot.com/p/library.html">Back to Index</a>
  • Add target="_blank" rel="noopener" inside the opening tag: <a href="https://yourblog.blogspot.com/p/library.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Back to Index</a>
  • Save and preview

Repeat for every post that has an index or library link.

The Honest Part

Yes, you have to do this manually for every post. There is no magic button in Blogger that updates all links at once.

It takes time. I won't pretend otherwise.

But here is the difference between my hours and yours: I didn't know what I was doing or why. I figured it out link by link, post by post.

You already know exactly what to add, where to add it, and why it matters.

Your time will be purposeful. Mine was a discovery. Both were worth it.

Technical SEO is often seen as a cold, mechanical task. But for me, these hours were a quiet meditation. Every link I updated was a promise to my readers: "I value your time, I value your journey, and I want you to find your way back to the heart of my library safely."
Written by WordsByEkta🌿
For the bloggers who are figuring it out — one post at a time.

Everything I Learned — So You Don't Have To Figure It Out Alone

The technical mistakes I made in year one — the full HTML inside Blogger, the missing meta descriptions, the duplicate H1 tags, the links closing articles — I have written all of it down. Every fix. Every discovery. Every hour of confused trial and error turned into a clear guide.

🌿 The WordsByEkta Blogger Technical Series

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