GC Journeys | Georgia College & State University

Employees | Georgia College & State University

Registrar's Office | Georgia College & State University

John H. Lounsbury College of Education | Georgia College & State University

The Graduate School | Georgia College & State University

J. Whitney Bunting College of Business and Technology | Georgia College & State University

Leadership Programs | Georgia College & State University

Campus Life | Georgia College & State University

Home | Georgia College & State University

Alumni | Georgia College & State University

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

June 2025

May 2025

Georgia College

Title / URL	Issues
GC Journeys \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/gcjourneys	63
Employees \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/employees	43
Registrar's Office \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/registrar	42
John H. Lounsbury College of Education \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/education	35
The Graduate School \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/graduate	33
J. Whitney Bunting College of Business and Technology \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/business	21
Leadership Programs \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/leadership	21
Campus Life \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/campuslife	21
Home \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/	20
Alumni \| Georgia College & State Universitywww.gcsu.edu/alumni	20

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Georgia College

Where this issue has occurred