In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about noopener and noreferrer and why you should use them with links that have blank targets.

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Show Notes

03:35 - What’s the big deal?

• If you have a link that is target="_blank" you should add rel=“noopener” and rel=“noreferrer”
• Retail Me Not uses it
• Valid use cases:
  • Same domain change the page from a popup
  • Cross domain changing page data
• Example: https://mathiasbynens.github.io/rel-noopener/

05:39 - Why doesn’t the browser just fix it?

• Safari did - You can use rel=“opener” to allow it
• Firefox did
• Chrome hasn’t yet
• https://twitter.com/HugoGiraudel/status/801475801397030912

10:48 - Does this hurt SEO?

• It breaks analytics of the recipient site, turning a referral visit from your site into direct traffic, unless the link has UTM or similar tracking parameters. If you have a site where passing traffic offsite is part of the business model, links need an affiliate id instead.

Links

• @argyleink

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