Open all Joomla! external links in a new window

When you’re building a website, you probably know that you’ll want to keep your customers on your site as long as possible.  even if you’re linking to another source, you’d want the visitor to “stay” on your website.  A simple way to achieve this is by opening external links in a new window.  That way, your visitors won’t leave your website. 

This kind of functionality is built into Joomla!.  When you’re creating menu items or adding a link in an article, there’s an option to open it in a new window (or tab).  But there’s an easier way to achieve the same goal as well.  You can install a plug-in that will recognize any links to an external website; and if a visitor clicks that link it will always be opened in a new window automatically. 

One of the plug-ins that you can use for this goal is mfBlank; a simple plug-in with one purpose:  to open all links to external sites in a new window. 

Instructions

1)  Download the plug-in.  You can find it here. 
2) Install the plug-in.
3) Navigate to Extensions > Plugin Manager and find the mfBlank plug-in
4)  Choose whether you want to display an icon next to an ‘external link’ or not, and publish the plug-in.

Now, when someone clicks a link to an ‘external website’, the plug-in will open it in a new window for you.  No more ‘configuring’ of your links, it’s all been done for you!

Do you use this plug-in?  Or do you prefer an alternative?  Let us know in the comments!