NewCodeByte

Take full control of your WordPress site’s links with Smart External Links Manager! 
The professional solution for managing external links on modern WordPress sites. Reliably handles dynamic content (AJAX, infinite scroll) and gives you complete control over SEO and style.
This powerful plugin ensures all external links open in a new browser window or tab, enhancing user experience and keeping visitors on your site longer. Built with SEO best practices and XHTML Strict compliance in mind, it offers a seamless integration for both users and search engines.
Its highly configurable settings panel allows you to precisely tailor link behavior to your needs. The core mechanism uses JavaScript to open links, the preferred method for XHTML 1.0 Strict compliance, avoiding <code>target</code> attribute modifications that could invalidate your markup. If JavaScript is disabled, links gracefully open in the current window. 
Ideal for blogs, affiliate sites, magazines, and business websites that rely heavily on external links.
<h3>Who is this plugin for?</h3>
<ul>
<li>Bloggers and Content Creators who want to improve user engagement.</li>
<li>Affiliate Marketers who need to manage rel=”sponsored” and “nofollow” attributes correctly.</li>
<li>Website owners using modern themes with infinite scroll or AJAX-loaded content.</li>
<li>Developers who need a reliable, XHTML Strict compliant, and lightweight solution for their clients.</li>
<li>Anyone who wants a simple, set-and-forget tool to manage external links professionally.</li>
</ul>
Key Features Include:
<ul>
<li>Automatic New Tab for External Links: Improve site engagement by default.</li>
<li>Optional Link Icon: Visually indicate links that open in a new tab with a customizable Dashicon or symbol (e.g., 🔗, ↗).</li>
<li>Custom Styling via CSS Class: Optionally add a specific CSS class to modified links, giving you a clean hook to style them exactly as you want from your theme.</li>
<li>Link Tooltip: Option to display a customizable text tooltip on mouse hover for all modified links.</li>
<li>XHTML Strict Compliant: Uses JavaScript for <code>window.open()</code>, preserving markup validity.</li>
<li>Security First: Automatically adds <code>rel="noopener"</code> to all modified links.</li>
<li>SEO Enhancements:
<ul>
<li>UGC Ready: Works seamlessly with WordPress’s default rel=”ugc” on comment links, ensuring best practices for user-generated content.</li>
<li>Option to add <code>rel="noreferrer"</code> for enhanced privacy.</li>
<li>Option to add <code>rel="nofollow"</code> for specific link types.</li>
<li>Option to add <code>rel="sponsored"</code> for paid or affiliate links.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Granular Control with Lists:
<ul>
<li>Force List: Specify URLs or patterns (e.g., internal PDFs, specific pages) that should always open in a new tab.</li>
<li>Ignore List: Define URLs or patterns that should never open in a new tab, even if external (highest priority).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>User-Friendly Settings: Intuitive interface to manage all options, including dynamic lists.</li>
<li>Lightweight & Efficient: Designed to be performant and not slow down your site. Dynamically processes new links added via AJAX.</li>
<li>Internationalization Ready: Easily translatable into any language.</li>
</ul>
Why Choose Smart External Links Manager?
<ul>
<li>User Experience: Keep users on your site while allowing them to explore external resources.</li>
<li>SEO Friendly: Proper use of <code>rel</code> attributes (<code>noopener</code>, <code>noreferrer</code>, <code>nofollow</code>, <code>sponsored</code>) without altering <code>href</code> for search engines.</li>
<li>Compliance: Adheres to XHTML Strict standards for modern web development.</li>
<li>Flexibility: Extensive configuration options to suit any website’s needs.</li>
<li>Developer Support: From the creator of NewCodeByte, with a commitment to quality and updates.</li>
</ul>
Future Enhancements Planned: 
* Excluding specific links via CSS selectors. 
* Advanced management for internal link behavior. 
* And much more!
<h3>Support</h3>
If you need help or have a question, the best place to ask is the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smart-external-links-manager/" rel="ugc">support forum on WordPress.org</a> (once the plugin is listed). 
You can also visit <a href="https://newcodebyte.altervista.org" rel="nofollow ugc">NewCodeByte</a> for more information.
Found this plugin useful? Please consider <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smart-external-links-manager/reviews/#new-post" rel="ugc">leaving a ★★★★★ review</a>! 
Want to support future development? <a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/codebytewp" rel="nofollow ugc">Buy me a coffee ☕</a>!

External Links Manager – Open new window in a new tab + nofollow, noreferrer

Manage external links: new tabs, add rel attribute nofollow, noopener, noreferrer, sponsored, show icon on/off. SEO, secure, XHTML Strict compliant.

WebFactory

Manage all external & internal links on your site. Control icons, nofollow, noopener, ugc (User Generated Content), sponsored and if links open in new window or new tab.
<a href="https://getwplinks.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">WP Links</a> plugin was completely rebuilt in v2 and has lots of new features, like noopener, ugc and sponsored values for rel; font icons, internal links options and full WPMU support.
<h4>Link Scanner – PRO feature</h4>
Check every single link on your site! See if it’s broken or not, if it’s redirected, what’s the target and rel attribute and what page exactly it’s linking to. This feature is a part of the <a href="https://getwplinks.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">WP Links PRO</a> plugin.
Having problems with spam, bots, or AI scrapers? Have a look at our <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-google-recaptcha/" rel="ugc">free Captcha plugin</a> used on over 200,000 sites.
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Manage external and internal links</li>
<li>Open links in new window or tab</li>
<li>Add follow or nofollow (for SEO)</li>
<li>Add noopener and noreferrer (for security)</li>
<li>Add ugc (User Generated Content) and sponsored values to rel (<a href="https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify.html" rel="nofollow ugc">Google announcement</a>)</li>
<li>Add link icons (FontAwesome and Dashicons)</li>
<li>Set other attributes like title and CSS classes</li>
<li>Scan complete page (or just posts, comments, widgets)</li>
<li>SEO friendly</li>
<li>Link Scanner – check all links on your site – PRO feature</li>
<li>Exit Confirmation – protect visitors and traffic when external links are clicked – PRO feature</li>
<li>Link Rules – create advanced link rules for chosen link groups – PRO feature</li>
</ul>
<h4>And more…</h4>
<ul>
<li>Network Settings (WPMU support)</li>
<li>Use template tag to apply plugin settings on specific contents</li>
<li>Set data-attribute to change how individual links will be treated</li>
<li>Use built-in actions and filters to implement your specific needs</li>
</ul>
<h4>Easy to use</h4>
After activating you can set all options for external and internal links on the plugins admin page.
<h4>On the fly</h4>
The plugin filters the output and changes the links on the fly. The real contents (posts, pages, widget etcetera) will not be changed in the database. 
When deactivating the plugin, all contents will be the same as it was before.
<h4>GDPR compatibility</h4>
We are not lawyers. Please do not take any of the following as legal advice. 
WP External Links does not track, collect or process any user data. Nothing is logged or pushed to any 3rd parties. We also don’t use any 3rd party services or CDNs. Based on that, we feel it’s GDPR compatible, but again, please, don’t take this as legal advice.
Like the plugin? <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/wp-external-links" rel="ugc">Rate it</a> to support the development.
If you’re having problems with SSL or HTTPS try our free <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-force-ssl/" rel="ugc">WP Force SSL</a> plugin. It’s a great way to enable SSL and fix SSL problems.
<h3>Documentation</h3>
After activating you can set all options for external and internal links.
<h4>Data attribute “data-wpel-link”</h4>
Links being processed by this plugin will also contain the data-attribute <code>data-wpel-link</code>. 
The plugin could set the value to <code>external</code>, <code>internal</code> or <code>exclude</code>, meaning how the 
link was processed.
You can also set the data-attribute yourself. This way you can force how the plugin will process 
certain links.
When you add the value <code>ignore</code>, the link will be completely ignored by the plugin:
<pre><code><a href="http://somedomain.com" data-wpel-link="ignore">Go to somedomain</a>
</code></pre>
<h4>Action “wpel_link”</h4>
Use this action to change the link object after all plugin settings have been applied.
<pre><code>add_action( 'wpel_link', ( $link_object ) {
 if ( $link_object->is_external() ) {
 // get current url
 $url = $link_object->getAttribute( 'href' );

 // set redirect url
 $redirect_url = '//somedom.com?url='. urlencode( $url );
 $link_object->setAttribute( 'href', $redirect_url );
 }
}, 10, 1 );
</code></pre>
The link object is an instance of <code>WPEL_Link</code> class.
<h4>Action hook “wpel_before_apply_link”</h4>
Use this action to change the link object before the plugin settings will be applied on the link. 
You can use this filter f.e. to ignore individual links from being processed. Or change dynamically how 
they will be treated by this plugin.
<pre><code>add_action( 'wpel_before_apply_link', function ( $link ) {
 // ignore links with class "some-cls"
 if ( $link->has_attr_value( 'class', 'some-cls' ) ) {
 $link->set_ignore();
 }

 // mark and treat links with class "ext-cls" as external link
 if ( $link->has_attr_value( 'class', 'ext-cls' ) ) {
 $link->set_external();
 }
}, 10 );
</code></pre>
<h4>Filter hook “wpel_apply_settings”</h4>
When filter returns false the plugin settings will not be applied. Can be used when f.e. certain posts or pages should be ignored by this plugin.
<pre><code>add_filter( 'wpel_apply_settings', '__return_false' );
</code></pre>
See <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-external-links/faq/" rel="ugc">FAQ</a> for more info.

External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window


Broken Link Checker is a better free option. It does what this plugin does and also scans your links for free.


there are better free options

Internal links & external links manager: open in new window or tab, control nofollow, ugc, sponsored & noopener. SEO friendly.

External Links Manager – Open new window in a new tab + nofollow, noreferrer vs External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window