Guidelines for opening links in new tabs

When adding links to pages, menus and footers, you have the option to force the user's browser to open the link in a new tab or window. However, we recommend using this feature sparingly to follow general web and accessibility standards. This applies to links that point to other pages in your website and external links that point to other websites. 

Web standards for opening links 

According to web standards, it's best to give users as much control as possible over their experience of your website. Since users can open a link in a new tab manually if they desire, forcing links to open in new tabs takes control of the site experience out of your users’ hands and therefore goes against web standards. 

Accessibility standards for opening links

Forcing users' browsers to open links in new tabs also creates accessibility issues. For example, people that use screen readers and other assistive devices to visit websites are likely to get lost because they aren't able to identify when a new tab opens, which disrupts their experience of your website.