External Link SEO - Tag - Technical Manualhttps://manual.toulan.fun/en/tags/external-link-seo/External Link SEO - Tag - Technical ManualHugo -- gohugo.ioen-USWed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000A Comprehensive Guide to the HTML <a> Tag's rel Attribute: Safety, Privacy, and SEO Best Practiceshttps://manual.toulan.fun/en/html-a-rel-attribute-guide/Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000HenryZhttps://nodewee.github.io/nodewee@gmail.comhttps://manual.toulan.fun/en/html-a-rel-attribute-guide/Hi, I’m HenryZ.
This article discusses a pitfall that every front-end developer has encountered but often glosses over: the rel attribute of the <a> tag.
After reading this, you’ll be able to tell yourself: “From now on, whenever I use target="_blank", I’ll first write noopener and then add others as needed.”

Question One-sentence Answer
What is rel for? It tells the browser “what my relationship with that link is” and decides whether to hand over information from the previous page.
Why is it always used with target="_blank"? A new tab will get the window.opener pointer, which can tamper with the source page in reverse—this is called reverse tabnabbing.

2. The Safety Duo: noopener / noreferrer

Attribute What It Does Additional Effect Recommended Scenario
noopener Cuts off window.opener None Add to all target="_blank" links to ensure safety first
noreferrer Does not send the Referer request header Modern browsers also cut off window.opener Use when you don’t want the target site to know where you’re coming from

What does “cutting off window.opener” mean?
By default, the window.opener in a new tab points to the page that opened it.
With this “key to go back,” the new page can:

]]>