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?
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.
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