Open a New Window with rel="external nofollow"

Do you use rel="external" on your webpages so links will open in a new browser window? Well, your external.js code isn't going to work for you if you ever decide to use rel="external nofollow."

In other words, the link no longer opens in a new window! What to do? Replace your current external.js file with the code below. Now your external links will, once again, open in a new browser window.

PS: The "nofollow" parameter tells Google and other search engines not to credit any PageRank to the external link. The "external" parameter tells the browser to open the link in a new window.

function externalLinks() {
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i=0; i<anchors.length; i++) {
var anchor = anchors[i];
if (anchor.getAttribute("href") &&
anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external")
anchor.target = "_blank";
}
}
window.onload = externalLinks;
function externalLinks() {
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) {
return;
}
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i = 0; i < anchors.length; i++) {
var anchor = anchors[i];
if (anchor.getAttribute("rel")) {
var rel = anchor.getAttribute("rel");
var external = false;
if (rel.indexOf(" ") > 0) {
while (rel.indexOf(" ") > 0 && external == false) {
if (rel.substr(0, rel.indexOf(" ")) == "external") {
external = true;
}
rel = rel.substr(rel.indexOf(" ") + 1, rel.length - rel.indexOf(" ") + 1);
}
}
if (rel == "external") {
external = true;
}
if (anchor.getAttribute("href") && external == true) {
anchor.target = "_blank";
}
}
}
return;
}

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