Executive education | The Dickson Poon School of Law | King’s College London

Research & Expertise | The Dickson Poon School of Law | King’s College London

Alumni | King’s alumni | King’s College London

Campus tours | King's College London

King's & London | King’s & London | King’s College London

Information for applicants | Summer Programmes | King’s College London

Welcome to King’s | King's College London

About Service | Service at King’s | King’s College London

Privacy policy | King's College London

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

August 2025

July 2025

King's College London

	Title / URL	Issues
	Executive education \| The Dickson Poon School of Law \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/law/executive-education	16
	Research & Expertise \| The Dickson Poon School of Law \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/law/research-expertise	16
	Alumni \| King’s alumni \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/alumni/index	15
	Campus tours \| King's College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/study/campus-tours	15
	Alumni \| King’s alumni \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/alumni	15
	King's & London \| King’s & London \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/london/index	12
	Information for applicants \| Summer Programmes \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/summer/applying/information-for-applicants	11
	Welcome to King’s \| King's College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/new-students	11
	About Service \| Service at King’s \| King’s College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/service/about-service	10
	Privacy policy \| King's College Londonwww.kcl.ac.uk/terms/privacy	9

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

King's College London

Where this issue has occurred