GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 40- February 2018

#1 PROFRBcom 9 August 2017, 3:11 p.m. Private Member I’m thinking that having affiliate links open in a new window increases the opportunity the viewer will spend more time on your site for two reasons: 1) They might come back and read your site after signing up at whatever site you referred them to. 2) Perhaps Google analytics keeps counting them as on site and thus increases your average time spent on site in the eyes of RankBrain, which could mean better SEO scores. On the negative side, some pop-up blockers may not allow your affiliate links to open in new windows and that would lower your conversions. Thoughts on this? Other observations? Theories? “ Reply With Quote #2 DanHorvat 9 August 2017, 4:27 p.m. Private Member Opening in a new window is a red flag for ad blockers, so the ad (in shape of a banner or an image) is more likely to be invisible to the user who has an ad blocker. I personally hate it when I’m forcefully sent to a new window myself. That’s bad UX; people who want that behavior do it themselves with the middle click or right click + open in new window. It gets even more annoying on mobile. Of course, since it’s such bad UX, Yahoo uses it in their SERPs. “ Reply With Quote #3 good4bonus 9 August 2017, 5:16 p.m. Private Member I do not use links to open “automatically” open in a new window. Basically, the browsers today have an option to “open in new tab” and “open in new window.” I don’t put anything. If the visitor really wants to read more of your site, the visitor will right click and open it in a new tab or window. I think you should allow the user to choose instead of trying to guess what the visitor likes. Using the “open in new window” can be good for SEO in some matters, but can be worse in others. It can count as “user stays more time with my site opened” and it can also count as “this site opens in new window.” So, in my opinion, allow the user to choose, not you. Also, as Google says, think like your visitors, not like Google. “ Reply With Quote #4 wonderpunter 10 August 2017, 4:58 p.m. Private Member For mobile users I can’t see any benefit. If the content is good, visitors always click back. Sometimes I see three or four clicks out to affiliate links from the same visitors. And this pattern nearly always ends in a conversion. “ Reply With Quote After a few years and listening to a lot of other affiliates , I do now open a new window . . . I struggled with this decision for a long time, but I do believe that is best for conversions . 47 W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G