Pros and Cons of Opening Aff Links in New Windows?

[PROFRBcom]

I'm thinking that opening in a new window increases the opportunity that the viewer will spend more time on your site. Both from a perspective of 1) they might come back and read your site after signing up at whatever site you referred them to and 2) perhaps google analytics keeps counting them as on site and thus increases your average time on site in the eyes of rankbrain = better seo scores?


On the negative side, some pop-up blockers may not allow your aff links to open in new windows and lower your conversions.



Thoughts on this? Other observations? Theories?

[DanHorvat]

Opening in a new window is a red flag for ad blockers so the ad (in shape of a banner or an image) is more likely to be invisible to the user who has an ad blocker.

I personally hate it when I'm forcefully sent to a new window myself. That's bad UX, people who want that behavior do it themselves with the middle click or right click + open in new window.

It gets even more annoying on mobile.

Of course, since it's such bad UX, Yahoo use it in their SERPs.

[MMM]

There was a very long thread on the topic here. Try to search for it.

i do use open in new tabs for most, besides those with ads. in the url.

[good4bonus]

i do not use links to open "automatically" open in new window
basically, the browsers today have option to "open in new tab" and "open in new window"
i don´t put anything, if the visitor really wants to read more of your site the visitor will do right click and open it in new tab or window.
I think you should allow the user to choose it instead of try to "guess" what the visitor likes.
Using the "open in new window" can be good for seo in some matters, but can be worst in others, the way that can count as "user stays more time with my site opened", can also count like "this site opens in new window, i don´t like it, so i will close this site" and stays less time....
so, i repeat, in my opinion, user who must choose, not you.
also, as "google" says "think in your visitors, not in google"

[PROFRBcom]

There was a very long thread on the topic here. Try to search for it.

I had trouble finding it before, and even after. I finally found it using a search for "_blank" In order to save others the trouble, here is a link to, what I am pretty sure is, the thread you were referring too: https://www.gpwa.org/forum/afiliate-...ghlight=_blank

[wonderpunter]

For mobile users I can't see any benefit, if content is good visitors always click bacj, i sometimes see 3 or 4 click out to aff links from the same visitors.. And this pattern nearly always ends in a conversion

[sweetbet]

Here's a good article about it. Old but still very relevant.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/200...n-new-windows/

[PROFRBcom]

There seem to be reasonable arguments made on both sides. I think I'm just going to attempt to run a test for myself on what option works best for our customers. Though I'm not entirely sure we'll end up with results with an appreciable sample size to draw any realistic conclusions.

[azbookmakers]

I am also interested in this topic. Some pro to share his opinion ?

[casius14]

With bet365 and a few others I find that 'open a new window' link doesn't work with pop up blockers and the page opens then instantly closes. I just use open within window and it seems to work fine.

[PROFRBcom]

With bet365 and a few others I find that 'open a new window' link doesn't work with pop up blockers and the page opens then instantly closes. I just use open within window and it seems to work fine.

Yes, there are a few sites that do this for sure. Adblock Plus implemented this late 2016, though it only affects a handful of sites that I'm aware of.

[sweetbet]

I've changed all my links to open in the same window shortly after this thread began and I honestly don't see any adverse effects.

[PROFRBcom]

I looked into the sites we offered with research and hands on testing. All the sites that adblocker plus detects and shuts down in new windows I changed to open in same window. The rest of my affiliate links I left as open in new window. I suppose I came to this conclusion because I like it when a website I'm reading opens other websites in new windows. I also thought there might be some small bit of better time on site/bounce rate stats to help nudge the search algos in my favor.

I don't really know how I could easily test this theory with a large enough sample size to make the data valid, so I went with my gut. Would love to hear actual metrics from anyone that's studied this on their sites.

[Cash Bonus]

Hello PROFRBcom,

I have to say that a user should be able to choose where he or she wants to open any links. Be it in a new window, a new incognito window or even in a new tab. It can be very distracting if you just suddenly click on a link and it opens a full blown window so quickly right before your eyes that you get confused and you have lost where you were with your previous work that might not have even been saved and gets accidentally closed without having the chance to save it and you lose all of your data. Except if you have a regular backup plan in place. I hope I've helped you today.

Also, sometimes. I have noticed that the Google Chrome Web Browser will just suddenly crash when I open a new window or when I'm just innocently browsing through the web and that ridiculous cursor will change into a blue colored spinning circle and it makes my computer go crazy and starts to take up all of the CPU usage and you can actually hear the fans working harder and harder and then I either have to restart the machine or shut it down. The worst part is sometimes, even when you uninstall and reinstall Google Chrome, it will do the same thing again. It seems to have something to do with the bookmarks and also the other imported bookmarks that make it crash. I don't really know for sure though.

I noticed that when I did a fresh and clean install of Google Chrome, I did it with the Google Chrome Beta version. Ever since I've been using Google Chrome Beta, it hasn't been giving me any problems whatsoever.

[PROFRBcom]

I did a check up against five of my top competitors to see what they do, for comparison's sake.

2 were same window for aff links
3 were new window

I'm taking a hybrid approach. Given what I'm up against, i.e. people who in theory are better at ranking and converting, I feel I have the best of both worlds for now. I suppose time will tell.

[TravG]

I use to never have the link open a new window because I myself am always weary when a website does that, however after a few years and listening to a lot of other affiliates I do now open a new window and I do believe it leads to more conversions. The reasoning I guess is if the visitor does not like the casino they clicked on and wants a different recommendation, your website is still open and the user can just go right back to your website rather than hitting the back button (and in some cases with affy links the back button will not work).

I struggled with this decision for a long time but all my links now open a new window and I do believe that is best for conversions.

[Progger]

Im not stupid enought to open Money Links in the same window..

1.Bouce rate
2.The Casino overwrite the redirect and the back button / visitor is gone
3.The typical player click more than one link...

hybrid???

Regards

[PROFRBcom]

hybrid???

As described here: https://www.gpwa.org/forum/pros-cons...tml#post863110

[bonusfriend]

I use "new tab" and have used it for many years.
After reading this post i will set up a test to open in same window.

If i just think of my own preferences i agree that the user should choose themselves. I always use the right click open in new tab when browsing.
I think you will scare a lot of people hen opening new tabs and windows that the user din't ask for. It's spam behaviour.

If you indicate on your site that clicking on a item will take you to another page, I think opening in the same window tab would be correct/expected behaviour. I don't have any statistics supporting this. It would be interesting to know what "none affiliate" large online businesses have as standard regarding this question.

[ExeQtor]

With most affiliate links I use "new tab". I let some of them open "normally" in the same tab and do not see a great difference in the performance. But in most cases the reader will not come back to your site wenn it is closed.