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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Hasty Treat - Target=_blank security issue? What's the deal with noopener and noreferrer?

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