Noreferrer and Noopener Tag: What is and How Rel=” Affects SEO? Taking care of your website’s security is one of the most important aspects of a website owner. For example, you might understand the importance of having HTTPS in your URL prefix or needing an SSL certificate. But do you know what the no opener, no-referrer HTML tag attributes mean and when you should use them?
Noreferrer and Noopener Tag: What is and How Rel=” Affects SEO?
This article will go over what rel=” noopener noreferrer” means, when and should use it, And how does this affect your website from an SEO perspective? So let’s dive right away.
What is rel=” noreferrer”?
So, the rel = “noreferrer” tag is a special HTML attribute that you can add to the link tag (). Removing the referrer information from the HTTP header prevents the referrer information from being passed to the target website.
This means that in Google Analytics traffic from links with the attribute rel =” noreferrer”. So, will appear as direct traffic rather than references.
This is what the noreferrer attribute looks like in an HTML view.
<a href=”https://www.examples.com” rel=”noreferrer”>Link to Example.com</a>
When to use rel=” noreferrer”?
If you don’t want other sites to know that you’re linking, use the rel = “noreferrer” attribute on outbound links. So, can’t think of a good reason why you want to do this, but it is.
Do not use the rel = “noreferrer” attribute for internal links. This can confuse Google Analytics reports.
rel=” noreferrer” and SEO
Adding the noreferrer tag to your links will not directly affect SEO. And so, you can use it with confidence without worrying about anything.
But it has an indirect effect on your link building and promotion efforts because:
One way to get the attention of other webmasters is to link to their website. So, all webmasters check their Google Analytics on a daily basis, especially “referral traffic”.
So, when they see traffic from a website, they can also comment and share pages on social media, follow authors, and provide links.
This is good for SEO, in fact, Google recommends it as an effective way to get links from other sites (see related references in Google docs below).
If you add the noreferrer tag to a link, traffic from your site will not appear as a “reference” in Google Analytics, so none of the above will occur and other webmasters will not know that you linked to them.
You might think, “Why are you talking about this, I won’t add it to the link, so that’s it.”
This issue became common because WordPress added a “noreferrer” tag to all outbound links that are set to open in “new tabs” by default.
Noreferrer and WordPress
So when using WordPress, if you add an external link to your content and so set it to open in “new tab” (target = “_ blank”), and WordPress will automatically add a rel = “noopener noreferer” link. You need to know that it will open.
This was done to improve the security of the WordPress Rich Editor (TinyMCE); and prevent tabnapping and so other phishing attacks.
Here is an example:
<a href=”https://www.externalsites.com/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>my external link</a>
So, as explained above, this prevents the information from being redirected to a new tab and eventually, the traffic sent from the site to the linked site (clicking on the link) is no longer displayed in Google Analytics. increase.
And how to remove rel=” noreferrer” from WordPress links
The easiest way to stop WordPress from automatically adding properties to external links is not to open the link in a new tab. In other words, the link will open in the same window.
This is the easiest way to deal with this, but the downside is that users who click on external links will leave your site, which will increase your bounce rate, reduce time spent on your site, etc.
However, since most of your traffic now comes from mobile devices, you don’t have to worry too much about users abandoning your site; as the “new tab” behavior on mobile devices can make it difficult for users to return to the previous window.
Some plugins prevent WordPress from adding rel=” noreferrer” to external links, but they only work when using TinyMCE instead of the new editor (Gutenberg).
The recommendation is not to mess with this, just avoid opening external links in a new tab, and you are good to go.
Noreferrer and Affiliate links
So, noreferrer has no control over affiliate links. This is because most affiliate programs do not rely on “reference traffic” to get conversions but on the affiliate ID contained in the link. for example:
<a href=”//www.Exemples.com/sem/?ref=15096612″ rel=”noreferrer noopener” target=”_blank”>
So, you have nothing to worry about.
The Difference Between Nofollow and Noreferrer
When you add rel= “nofollow” to external links, you are telling search engines not to pass PageRank from the page. So, in other words, you tell them to ignore the link for SEO purposes.
So, the difference between nofollow and noreferrer is that noreferrer doesn’t pass any referral information to the browser but instead follows the link. With nofollow, the referral information is passed to the browser, but the link is not followed.
So they are not the same. Use nofollow links that you don’t trust and use noreferrer when you don’t want other sites to know you’re linking to them.
What is rel=” noopener” tag?
So, rel=” noopener” is an HTML attribute that can add to external links. It prevents the opening page from gaining access to the original page.
And here is an example of a link with the rel=” noopener” tag:
<a href=”https://www.examples.com” rel=”noopener”>Link to Example.com</a>
For security reasons, it’s a good idea to keep it as WordPress will automatically add it to all external links that open in new tabs.
If you’re not using WordPress, it’s good to add rel = “noopener” to every external link that opens in a new tab.
When to Use “noopener noreferrer”
You want your website to be as secure as possible for your visitors. Because you want to build and leverage a strong backlink strategy, you won’t use rel=” noopener noreferrer”. For example, you should avoid using it when linking to internal pages within your site.
Using rel=” noopener noreferrer” tells Google about link security. And you don’t want certain sites to recognize your site as a referral.
How do noopener, noreferrer & nofollow affect SEO:
If you’re concerned about search engine optimization efforts, don’t worry if you have rel = “noopener” and rel = “noreferrer”; these two tags don’t directly affect your search engine optimization efforts. .. Rel = “nofollow” will affect SEO instead. Let’s partially explain the impact.
Impact of noopener & noreferrer on SEO
Many developers think that nofollow, noopener, and noreferrer affect SEO as well as nofollow, but in reality, no search engine cares about noopener and noreferrer tags. The same is true for SEO. These tags only deal with the security aspects of the link, not the SEO part.
In fact, the rel = “noopener” attribute is just a command to stop the browser from using a javascript object called window.opener and has nothing to do with search engines. Also, the rel = “noreferrer” tag prevents you from knowing where the link actually came from. Therefore, this tag works at the analytics or browser level as well as at the search engine level.
Noreferrer can cause problems tracking incoming traffic to your site by source of traffic, but the ability of search engines to crawl, index, or rank web pages Does not affect.
Impact of nofollow on SEO
So, using rel = “nofollow” can greatly impact SEO. This is because this tag affects Google’s ability to crawl and index links and pass page rank. Nofollow ensures that the link does not count as a recommendation for another site and does not pass PageRank or other ranking signals.
Key Learnings
Handling HTML tags and attributes confuses many people, but this should not be the case with noreferrer and noopener.
None of them will negatively impact your SEO, so use them with confidence. These tags are automatically added to external links that open in new tabs when using WordPress.
noopener is required to increase the security of your website and prevent other websites from accessing your pages (through a browser session).
noreferrer is used to prevent referral information from being passed to the destination website, which also hides referral traffic in Google Analytics.
If you want other sites to see traffic as “referral traffic”, don’t open external links in a new tab. This will stop WordPress from automatically adding the attribute to the link and you’ll be fine.
Nofollow is not the same as noreferrer. So, when the rel=” nofollow” is added to a link, it instructs search engines not to use it for SEO purposes. However, Noreferrer does pass link juice from one website to the other.
Conclusion
Now that you know What is noreferrer and noopener tag and how rel=” affects SEO and how to use rel = “noopener noreferrer” on your site. If necessary, consider creating a table of external links to include in your website. It also keeps track of the pages on which they are displayed and their attributes. This is useful as a quick reference if you need to make changes in the future.