Report it! Sort it! | Merton Council

Apprenticeships | Work for Merton | Merton Council

Values | Work for Merton | Merton Council

About Merton | Work for Merton | Merton Council

Safer Streets Team | Our Four Pledges to you | Merton Council

Children’s social care | Work for Merton | Merton Council

What to put in your bins, bags and recycling boxes | Merton Council

Working for us | Work for Merton | Merton Council

Early careers | Work for Merton | Merton Council

Smoke Free Merton | Merton Council

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

London Borough of Merton Council

	Title / URL	Issues
	Report it! Sort it! \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/streets-parking-transport/report	10
	Apprenticeships \| Work for Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/jobs/apprenticeships	7
	Values \| Work for Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/jobs/values	6
	About Merton \| Work for Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/jobs/about-merton	6
	Safer Streets Team \| Our Four Pledges to you \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/fourpledges/saferstreets	6
	Children’s social care \| Work for Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/jobs/childrens-social-care	6
	What to put in your bins, bags and recycling boxes \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/rubbish-and-recycling/what-goes-in	6
	Working for us \| Work for Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/jobs/working-us	6
	Early careers \| Work for Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/jobs/early-careers	6
	Smoke Free Merton \| Merton Councilwww.merton.gov.uk/healthy-living/smoke-free	6

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

London Borough of Merton Council

Where this issue has occurred