First time visit: View without clicking anything

City of San José | Home

Mayor and City Council | City of San José

Borrow Tech Devices & Free Public Wi-Fi | City of San José

Recycling & Garbage | City of San José

Development Services Permit Center | City of San José

Payments | City of San José

Volunteer with the City | City of San José

Businesses | City of San José

Avoid opening links in a new tab or window. Where you must do this, include an explanation
in the text of the link.

## Why this matters

Opening links in a new tab or window breaks the back button and can be disorientating for 
novice web users, and the visually impaired. Generally you should avoid opening links in a
new tab or window, but if you have to, you should include text explaining that this will happen.

## How to fix

An explanation must be clear in the accessible text for the link. For example:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank">
    Products (opens in new window)
</a>
```

Or, for an image inside a link:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank">
    <img src="products.jpg" alt="Products (opens in new window)">
</a>
```

Rather than updating all of your links manually to do this, you can add a simple CSS
selector, such as:

```css
a[target="_blank"]:after {
    content: " (opens in new window)";
}
```

Note that doing this with an icon, is not sufficient to pass this check. The text must be
readable by screen readers.

Alternatively you can override the link text for accessible technologies (like screenreaders),
so that the appearance of the link does not change. For example:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank" aria-label="Products (opens in new window)">
    Products
</a>
```

Note that if you do this, the `aria-label` will replace the text content of the link completely,
so it must still make sense in isolation.

## Terminology

Although it is common to say "opens in new window", almost all browsers now use tabs, and
so this terminology is potentially confusing. You may prefer: "opens in new tab".

## Methodology

1. Silktide considers all links on a page with a `target` attribute of `_blank`.
2. For each link, Silktide considers the screen-readable text of the link, which includes:
   * The text content of the link
   * Any `alt` text inside any images inside the link
   * Any `aria-label` or `aria-labelled-by` text
   * The `content` of the pseudo-elements `:before` and `:after`
3. This text is analysed for the presence of common text, including "opens new tab"
    and "opens new window". If the text is not found, the link fails the test.

## Further reading

Generally best practice is to avoid opening links in a new tab or window.  

The W3C provides detailed guidance on 
[when opening a link in a new window may be appropriate](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G200.html).

link-text-explains-open-in-new-window

December 2025

November 2025

City of San Jose

	Title / URL	Issues
	First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.sanjoseca.gov/	100
	City of San José \| Homewww.sanjoseca.gov/	100
	City of San José \| Homewww.sanjoseca.gov/home	100
	Mayor and City Council \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/mayor-and-city-council	61
	Borrow Tech Devices & Free Public Wi-Fi \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/residents/digital-inclusion/borrow-tech-devices-free-public-wi-fi	51
	Recycling & Garbage \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/environmental-services/recycling-garbage	48
	Development Services Permit Center \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/business/development-services-permit-center	46
	Payments \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/residents/payments	44
	Volunteer with the City \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/residents/volunteering	43
	Businesses \| City of San Joséwww.sanjoseca.gov/business	42

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

City of San Jose

Where this issue has occurred