WebberZone

Ajay

WebberZone Link Warnings helps you warn users when links open in a new window or take them to external websites. It adds accessible indicators, confirmation dialogs, or redirect screens — helping you align with accessibility best practices without rewriting your content.
WebberZone Link Warnings uses a two-layer approach to process links across your entire site. For post content, it uses WordPress’s native <code>WP_HTML_Tag_Processor</code> class to efficiently parse and modify links at render time. For everything else — navigation menus, footers, sidebars, widgets, and theme output — a lightweight JavaScript scan runs after the page loads and applies the same rules. It adds appropriate ARIA attributes, visual indicators, and optional JavaScript-based warnings based on your configuration. Your stored content remains untouched — the plugin only alters rendered output and does not interfere with REST API responses or admin editing screens.
<h3>Why warn users about external links?</h3>
<ul>
<li><code>target="_blank"</code> can disorient screen reader users</li>
<li>Sudden context changes impact usability</li>
<li>Accessibility audits often recommend user warnings</li>
<li>Agencies and site owners often need documented user warnings during accessibility reviews</li>
</ul>
<h3>Key features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Multiple Warning Methods: Choose from inline indicators, modal dialogs, or redirect screens — or combine them</li>
<li>Flexible Scope: Target external links only, or external links plus all <code>target="_blank"</code> links</li>
<li>Customizable Indicators: Configure visual icons, text, or screen reader-only warnings</li>
<li>Modal Dialog: Show a confirmation dialog before users navigate to external sites with keyboard navigation and focus management</li>
<li>Redirect Screen: Display an intermediate page with a configurable countdown before external navigation</li>
<li>Force External: Add a class to any link or wrapper element to force it to be treated as external — useful for affiliate links or tracking URLs that use internal paths</li>
<li>Domain Exclusions: Allow trusted domains to treat them as internal links</li>
<li>Sitewide Coverage: Links in navigation menus, footers, sidebars, widgets, and theme output are processed alongside post content</li>
<li>Post Type Control: PHP-side processing is scoped to configured post types; JS scanning covers the full page regardless</li>
<li>Built to support accessibility best practices for external link behaviour in WordPress: Adds screen reader text, ARIA attributes, and keyboard-friendly modal confirmations</li>
<li>Setup Wizard: Get started quickly with a guided setup wizard on first activation</li>
<li>Template Override: Override the redirect screen template in your theme for full design control</li>
<li>RTL Support: Full right-to-left language support for all frontend and admin styles</li>
<li>Multisite Compatible: Network activate and configure per-site settings</li>
<li>Privacy Focused: Does not collect personal data or send link data to third-party services</li>
<li>Performance Optimized: Uses WordPress’s native <code>WP_HTML_Tag_Processor</code> class to process links at display time</li>
<li>Developer-Friendly: Filters and actions allow developers to customize behavior, exclude domains, and output</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
This plugin assists with user awareness of external navigation. It does not automatically make your website fully accessible or legally compliant.
</blockquote>
<h3>How it works</h3>
After activation, the setup wizard guides you through the initial configuration. You can also configure the plugin at Settings > WebberZone Link Warnings.
Warning Methods:
<ul>
<li>Inline indicators only (visual and/or screen reader text)</li>
<li>Modal dialog (JavaScript-based confirmation)</li>
<li>Redirect screen (intermediate page with countdown)</li>
<li>Combined approach (inline + modal)</li>
<li>Combined approach (inline + redirect)</li>
</ul>
Link Scope:
<ul>
<li>External links only</li>
<li>External links and all <code>target="_blank"</code> links</li>
</ul>
Visual Indicators:
<ul>
<li>Icon only (↗)</li>
<li>Text only (customizable)</li>
<li>Icon + text</li>
<li>None (screen reader only)</li>
</ul>
Advanced Settings:
<ul>
<li>Custom modal messages and button text</li>
<li>Custom redirect page content and countdown duration</li>
<li>Domain exclusion list</li>
<li>Post type selection</li>
<li>Force-external class name (default: <code>wzlw-force-external</code>)</li>
</ul>
<h3>GDPR</h3>
WebberZone Link Warnings doesn’t collect personal data or send information to external services — making it GDPR-friendly by default.
You remain responsible for your site’s overall GDPR compliance.
<h3>Contribute</h3>
WebberZone Link Warnings is also available on <a href="https://github.com/WebberZone/webberzone-link-warnings" rel="nofollow ugc">Github</a>. 
So, if you’ve got a cool feature you’d like to implement in the plugin or a bug you’ve fixed, consider forking the project and sending me a pull request.
Bug reports are <a href="https://github.com/WebberZone/webberzone-link-warnings/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">welcomed on GitHub</a>. Please note that GitHub is not a support forum, and issues that aren’t suitably qualified as bugs will be closed.
<h3>Translations</h3>
WebberZone Link Warnings is available for <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/webberzone-link-warnings" rel="nofollow ugc">translation directly on WordPress.org</a>. Check out the official <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/plugin-theme-authors-guide/" rel="nofollow ugc">Translator Handbook</a> to contribute.
<h3>Other Plugins by WebberZone</h3>
WebberZone Link Warnings is one of the many plugins developed by WebberZone. Check out our other plugins:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/contextual-related-posts/" rel="ugc">Contextual Related Posts</a> – Display related posts on your WordPress blog and feed</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/top-10/" rel="ugc">Top 10</a> – Track daily and total visits to your blog posts and display the popular and trending posts</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-to-all/" rel="ugc">WebberZone Snippetz</a> – The ultimate snippet manager for WordPress to create and manage custom HTML, CSS or JS code snippets</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/knowledgebase/" rel="ugc">Knowledge Base</a> – Create a knowledge base or FAQ section on your WordPress site</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/" rel="ugc">Better Search</a> – Enhance the default WordPress search with contextual results sorted by relevance</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoclose/" rel="ugc">Auto-Close</a> – Automatically close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks and manage revisions</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/popular-authors/" rel="ugc">Popular Authors</a> – Display popular authors in your WordPress widget</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/where-did-they-go-from-here/" rel="ugc">Followed Posts</a> – Show a list of related posts based on what your users have read</li>
</ul>

WebberZone Link Warnings


II needed a plugin to highlight external links on my site, have a nice appearance, and be accessible and not hinder the user. This plugin is perfect for that purpose.



I configured it to show an inline icon and a modal dialogue. The dialogue is great because it allows a user to stay on the site if desired and prevents accidental click-throughs. Perhaps in a later version, you can persist a small cookie and add a checkbox to skip the modal (from the user's perspective).



The icons on the links look great. I changed mine to a dark background and white foreground, using one of the supplied plugin icons. It looks great on buttons and also regular links.



I'm pleased that you can enable/disable this for post types. And the domain exclusions are a nice feature.



I did add some custom CSS as I thought the icon was a little too bunched up.



body .wzlw-icon {	padding: 5px;	border-radius: 4px;}



Thanks for the great plugin Ajay.


Wow. This is an amazing accessbility and UX enhancement

Add accessible warnings for external links and target=&quot;_blank&quot; links in WordPress — using icons, modals, or redirect screens.

WebFactory

Opens external links in a new tab or a or new window. You can set URLs that should either be forced to open in a new window or ignored.
The plugin produces XHTML Strict compliant code and is search engine optimized (SEO). 
This is done using JavaScript’s <code>window.open()</code>-function. It adds only a few lines of vanilla JavaScript to the page, and does not require any external libraries like jQuery.
Most other plugins perform a hack by altering the <code>target</code> parameter (i.e. <code><a href="http://somewhere.example" target="_blank"></code>). That method is not XHTML Strict compliant. 
This plugin handles the links client-side, which lets search engines follow the links properly. Also, if a browser does not support JavaScript, the plugin is simply inactive, and does not result in any errors.
If you need a more advanced plugin, with more options try our <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-external-links/" rel="ugc">free WP External Links</a> plugin.
Credits 
Inspired by the <a href="http://www.zappelfillip.de/2005-12-05/zap_newwindow/" rel="nofollow ugc">Zap_NewWindow</a> plugin by <a href="http://www.zappelfillip.de/" title="His website is mostly in German" rel="nofollow ugc">Tom Köhler</a>. 
The banner is a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/monja/1367946568/in/photostream/" rel="nofollow ugc">photo</a> by <a href="http://www.monja.it/" rel="nofollow ugc">Monja Da Riva</a>.
Translations 
Danish by <a href="https://kristianrisagerlarsen.dk" rel="nofollow ugc">Kristian Risager Larsen</a> 
Dutch by <a href="http://www.collectief-it.nl/" rel="nofollow ugc">Paul Staring</a> 
Lithuanian by <a href="http://Host1Free.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Vincent G</a> 
Other translations will be appreciated!
Known bugs 
The plugin conflicts with other plugins that change the links’ `onClick´ attribute.
Original developer 
Kristian Risager Larsen – <a href="http://kezze.dk" rel="nofollow ugc">kezze.dk</a>

External Links in New Window / New Tab

Open external links in a new window or new tab. SEO optimized and XHTML Strict compliant.

WebberZone Link Warnings vs External Links in New Window / New Tab