jQuery to Auto Open all External Links in new Window

Tired of putting target="_blank" to every external link in your blog to make them in a new window when clicked. Here’s a simple jQuery script to automatically open all your external links in a new window. The script detects external hostnames and will automatically +add target="_blank" attribute to the external link when clicked. Thus making your readers stay in your blog itself and thus reducing bounce rates and increasing pages views.
The script works in both blogger and wordpress.

HOW TO OPEN ALL YOUR EXTERNAL LINKS IN A NEW TAB

1. Navigate to Blogger Dashboard > Template
2. Now choose Edit HTML. (Note: Always do a backup while editing your template)
3. Search for </head> and just above it paste the below code.

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'></script> <script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function() {
  $("a[href^='http://']").each(
    function(){
     if(this.href.indexOf(location.hostname) == -1) {
        $(this).attr('target', '_blank');
      }
    }
  );
$("a[href^='https://']").each(
function(){
if(this.href.indexOf(location.hostname) == -1) {
$(this).attr('target', '_blank');
}
}
);
 
});
</script>

4. Save the template.
NOTE 1: Do not add the bolded code if your blog template already have jQuery library linked in.
NOTE 2: If you change == -1) in the code highlighted in yellow to == 1) then all your internal links will start opening in a new tab.
That’s it. Just check your blog and click on any external link to see it working. Hope this was helpful.
Credits: This script was originally shared by Mohammad Mustafa Ahmedzai of MBT. You should thank him. Peace:)