Does opening links in a new tab affect SEO?

What the setting adds to the link

In the block editor, selecting a link and switching on Open in new tab adds a target attribute, and the editor adds a rel value containing noopener (some versions add noreferrer as well):

<a href="https://example.org/study" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the study</a>

Each piece has a different audience:

• href is what crawlers use. It is unchanged.
• target="_blank" tells browsers to open a new browsing context. Crawlers ignore it.
• rel="noopener" stops the newly opened page from getting a script handle on your page, an old security weakness. It says nothing about endorsement.
• rel="noreferrer" additionally hides your page's address from the destination site, so your visits may not show as referrals in their analytics. It also says nothing about endorsement.

None of these is nofollow. A link with rel="noopener noreferrer" is a normal, followed link as far as Google is concerned. People sometimes strip noopener in the belief that it weakens the link. It does not.

What changed in WordPress 6.7

For years WordPress scanned post content when it was saved and added rel="noopener" to any link with a target. That behaviour was retired in version 6.7: the function that set it up is now deprecated and does nothing.

The reason is that browsers caught up. Current browsers treat every target="_blank" link as if it had noopener unless the link says otherwise, so the attribute is no longer needed for safety. The editor may still write it, and old content still contains it, which is harmless.

For SEO this change is a non-event. If an audit tool flags "links to cross-origin destinations are unsafe", it is checking for the attribute on target="_blank" links; with modern browsers the practical risk it describes has gone.

So when should a link open in a new tab?

This is a usability decision. The long-standing accessibility advice is to leave the choice to the visitor, who can always open a link in a new tab but cannot easily undo being forced into one. New tabs break the Back button, multiply open tabs on phones, and surprise people using screen readers unless they are warned.

Reasonable exceptions:

• The visitor is in the middle of something they would lose: a form, a checkout, a video or audio player.
• The link is reference material for a task in progress, such as help text beside a form field.
• The link opens a non-HTML file, such as a PDF, where returning to the page is awkward.

For ordinary links in an article, internal or external, the same tab is the considerate default.

The belief that new tabs help SEO by "keeping people on the site" does not hold up. A tab left open in the background is not engagement, and nothing in Google's documentation treats that kind of time-on-site trick as a ranking input.

Site-wide switches, and what to check

Some sites force every external link into a new tab. Hydrogen SEO has an Open External Links in New Tab/Window switch in general settings that adds target="_blank" to external links in content, and its output includes noopener. It is off by default. If you turn it on, do so because you prefer the behaviour, not for rankings, and consider telling readers with a small icon or "(opens in new tab)" text.

Things worth a quick review:

• Internal links should not open in new tabs. A reader moving around your own site should keep their history.
• Menus. The Menus screen has an "Open link in a new tab" checkbox per item (enable Link Target under Screen Options). Reserve it for external destinations.
• Affiliate and sponsored links. These need rel="sponsored" or nofollow because they are paid, which is a separate matter from how they open.
• noreferrer on links to partners. If a partner needs to see your referrals, remove noreferrer and keep noopener.

To see what your links carry, view a post's source and search for target="_blank". The combination you find there is fine for SEO whichever it is.