(Entry was posted by Ryan Hoek on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 02/06/2020).

Open in a new window or just go straight to the product page?

Do you guys have your affiliate links open in a new window or just go straight to the product page having the user need to click back to go to your money site?What do you think is better conversion rate wise?

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

The-Nomad Sam: Ive always followed the notion of new tab. Making them have to return back to the original tab again after theyâ€™ve finished/bounced on the new tab.

They may scroll to another link, and generally have more time on your page overall-ranking factor.
Michael Martinez: It is safer for the visitor to open links in new browser tabs or windows because the site you`re sending them to could have a problem.

However - and this is very important - visitors using screen readers need to be warned and your markup should follow accessibility guidelines. My outbound links are guilty of some accessibility sins but I`ve been working on improving that.

A Website can cause the browser to freeze, or it can run an unwanted script. By isolating the other site in its own tab you improve security for the visitor while preserving the trail of clicks that led them to your page.

I don`t do it to keep people on a site - that certainly has no effect on search engine rankings. I do it to ensure that people can get off another site that is not behaving as expected. In some cases they may have to close the browser anyway, but at least you give them a chance.

In my own personal browsing I almost always open links in a new "private mode" browser tab. It`s just a safer practice than blindly clicking on a link (especially on a mobile phone).