One Tip And One Plugin To Retain Your Readers.

Written by Costa on November 7, 2007
Categories: Blogging Tips.

One Tip – Open your links in a new window.

This is something that I always try to do, though sometimes I could be lazy or i just plain forgot. If you click on my outbound links, it opens in a new window. This way, my page is kept opened so readers can switch back and continue from where they left off. It is so simple but yet the majority of blogs don’t practise it. For those who can write simple link codes, all you need to do is to add the “target=”_blank” attribute after the URL you are linking. Example:

<a href=”the domain name” target=”_blank”>Your Anchor Text</a>

An easier way if you don’t like codes will be to use the “Insert Link” function in your WordPress Post Editor. Make sure you are writing with the Rich Visual Editor. Highlight the word that you want to link, then click on the little linked chain image on top of your editor or press. alt+shift+a, to bring up the “Insert/edit link” window. Insert the URL you want to link and choose “Open Link In New Window”. You can also add a “title” of a short text description of the link so when the mouse is hovered over the link, the description will appear.

One Plugin – AskApache Google 404 Plugin for WordPress.

The AskApache Google 404 Plugin for WordPress is such a cool plugin that I feel everyone should use. It practically turns your Error 404 page into a personal Google Search Page for your blog. The results shown will be relevant results of the words that have been used to search for something that is not available in your blog.

It’s easy to install and it blends in with WordPress 2.3 seamlessly. A big thank you to AskApache for leaving a comment here informing me about this great plugin.

The only thing you must have is a 404 page in your theme. If you don’t, you can easily create one. I was thinking of posting on how, but when I googled for the term, “How to create a 404 page” I found that there were already thousands of pages of information available. So I can save my breath.

You must also have a Google account, but these days, who doesn’t? Anyway very clear instructions are given at the WordPress Google 404 Plugin download page. Just follow instruction and you will see your 404 error page turn into something like this. Super Cool!

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Article by Costa Fong

@costafong

Who loves to mod and mess up WordPress Themes.

Costa has written 557 articles here. Some are awesome, some are lame.

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10 Responses to “One Tip And One Plugin To Retain Your Readers.”

Comments

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  1. WishBoNe
    November 7, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    Hmm, I hate new windows actually. So, I guess it’s personal preference.

  2. AskApache
    November 7, 2007 at 10:21 pm

    Glad you like it.. I’m almost finished with another update. BTW, the version available for download currently includes a default 404.php page, and it will install it automatically if you don’t already have one in your template folder.

  3. Frank C
    November 7, 2007 at 10:33 pm

    Opening a new browser window is something that some people like and some people hate with little middle ground.

    Since I use either IE7 with IE7Pro or Firefox 2.0 I set them to open new windows in a new tab instead. I also usually just scroll wheel click links to open them in a new tab anyway.

  4. Michael Clark
    November 7, 2007 at 11:10 pm

    Using target=”_blank” is considered a bad practice, because it can confuse readers who aren’t expecting a new window to open. Also, they can’t simply hit their browser’s back button to get back to your site, they have to close the window. Which is awkward. See:
    http://weblogs.macromedia.com/cantrell/archives/2003/11/target__blank_a_1.cfm
    http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
    http://weblogs.macromedia.com/cantrell/archives/2003/11/target__blank_a.cfm

  5. Darran
    November 7, 2007 at 11:15 pm

    The reason why people or at least myself do not open new windows is because of the standards. Target=”_blank” does not validate your site as XHTML Strict 1.0, a base I want my site to be adhering to.

  6. Costa
    November 8, 2007 at 8:15 am


    Micheal,

    Thanks for the info. Guess i was to used to right click the links I see to have it “open in a new tab” that I did not consider the other “consequences” :-)
    But for me, I still open all the links I see in a new tab because I always get carried away while browsing the new page that I usually forget to go back to the originating page. In fact I set my Firefox to “open all new links in a new tab” so I can easily switchback and forth.

    Anyway, that was great info and I will consider twice before inserting the target=”_blank” in future postings. Thanks.

    Frank C,

    LOL, we have the same habit!

    Darran,

    Wo, I did not go that deep to consider that aspect. Anyway, I think the moment we start posting many things already happened to screw up validation. From what I understand, flash videos like those from YouTube is also a big culprit.

    It would really be stressful to post if I was to keep to those strict rules. :-)

  7. Darran
    November 8, 2007 at 9:09 am

    It is true that the youtube embed code doesn’t actually validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict, and you would have to make some modifications to the code if you want it to work. I am posting on a regular basis and yet keeping to the rules which is so important nowadays.

  8. Useful
    November 8, 2007 at 9:07 pm

    Ctrl click, middle click, or ctrl-middle click

    browsing should be in the hands of the user, not the webmaster

  9. AskApache
    November 9, 2007 at 12:58 pm

    I spent several years obsessing over mastering best-practice CSS and XHTML strict 1 and strict unobtrusive javascript and I still remember when I found out 1 trick that has kept my code XHTML Strict while still being able to do almost anything I want no matter how invalid. The trick is to start out with 100% valid markup and then when you want to add some invalid code like adding a flash movie or adding target=”blank” or whatever, you just make it happen through a single external javascript file.

    I’m assuming that of course you have firebug running on firefox, and at the very least you have the web developer tools for firefox. Go ahead and disable javascript in your browser and check out a page on my site like: Custom boot menu in WinXP.. even though the code is crazy, its valid XHTML strict because anything that would break that I automatically stick in my javascript file.

    Costa, the issue of a validating method of opening new windows for external links is very very old. So you are in luck if you still want to have that capability.. Surf over to sitepoint.com and check out their javascript source code for a really nice standards compliant javascript way to do this.

    BTW, I read just the other day on google that search engines notice when links are opening up new windows and for whatever reason they might penalize your site for it as they say their is no good truly good reason to do that.

  10. AskApache
    November 9, 2007 at 1:02 pm

    A hint to get youtube fully compliant, instead of putting the html youtube code directly into your post, put an empty div in its place instead. Give the div an id=”whatev” and then in your external javascript file do document.getElementById(‘whatev’).innerHTML=’youtube html’;

    that will make your site validate no matter what you add, because javascript is a client side technology, not server!