Title: Leaving Notice Popup For External Links – nofollow, noopener & New Tab
Author: Jose Varghese
Published: June 1, 2025
Last modified: June 30, 2026
---
Search plugins
# Leaving Notice Popup For External Links – nofollow, noopener & New Tab
By [Jose Varghese](https://profiles.wordpress.org/josevarghese/)
[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links.1.4.3.zip)
* [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/#description)
* [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/#reviews)
* [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/#installation)
* [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/#developers)
[Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/)
## Description
**Leaving Notice Popup for External Links** is a lightweight WordPress plugin that
displays a customizable **exit popup** (also known as a leaving notice, exit confirmation
dialog, or outbound link warning) whenever a visitor clicks an external link, giving
them a moment to continue or stay on your site.
Beyond the leaving notice, the plugin lets you fully manage your outbound links:
automatically apply `rel` attributes like `nofollow`, `noopener`, `noreferrer`, `
sponsored`, `ugc`, and `external`; display SVG icons next to external links; choose
whether the Continue button opens links in a new tab or the same tab; and whitelist
trusted domains so they bypass the popup entirely.
It is an essential tool for **affiliate marketers**, **government sites**, **educational
portals**, and any site that needs an exit popup, exit intent modal, outbound link
interstitial, or legal disclaimer before visitors leave for third-party content.
**Why use this plugin?**
* **Exit Popup / Leaving Notice**: Show a fully customizable
exit confirmation modal (exit popup, exit intent dialog, or outbound link warning)
whenever a visitor clicks an outbound link, protecting your traffic and reducing
unintended exits. * **nofollow, noopener & More**: Automatically add `rel="nofollow"`,`
rel="noopener"`, `rel="noreferrer"`, `rel="sponsored"`, `rel="ugc"`, or `rel="external"`
attributes to external links for better SEO control and security. * **Open in New
Tab Control**: Choose whether the Continue button opens external links in a new
tab or the same tab. * **External Link Icons**: Display one of 5 built-in SVG icons
next to outbound links, with left/right positioning and an option to skip icons
on linked images. * **Smart Domain & URL Whitelist**: Exclude trusted affiliate
partners or sister sites by domain, exact URL, or wildcard pattern (e.g. `https://
www.facebook.com/sharer/*`); they will open without triggering the popup. * **CSS
Class Exclusion**: Skip the popup and rel attribute processing entirely for links
that carry specific CSS classes. * **Advanced Page Filtering**: Restrict the leaving
notice to specific Page IDs, or enable it conditionally on archives, categories,
and the home page using built-in filters.
### Key Features
* **Customizable Popup**: Change the title, message, and button text to match your
brand
* **Button Color Control**: Choose custom colors for both the “Continue” and “Stay”
buttons
* **rel Attributes**: Add nofollow, noopener, noreferrer, sponsored, ugc, or external
to outbound links
* **New Tab Toggle**: Control whether Continue opens the external link in a new
tab or same tab
* **SVG Link Icons**: Show one of 5 icons beside external links, positioned left
or right
* **Domain Whitelist**: Exclude specific domains from triggering the notice
* **URL Whitelist with Wildcard Support**: Exclude specific URLs or wildcard patterns(
e.g. `https://example.com/share/*`) from triggering the notice
* **CSS Class Exclusion**: Skip links that carry a specified CSS class
* **Page-Level Filtering**: Show the popup only on chosen pages, posts, archives,
or categories
* **Widget Support**: rel attribute processing also applies to widget text areas
* **Responsive Design**: Works perfectly on all devices and screen sizes
* **Accessible**: Built with accessibility best practices
* **Lightweight**: Minimal impact on page load time with deferred script loading
* **Easy Setup**: No coding required, just activate and configure
### Use Cases
* Show an exit popup or exit confirmation dialog when visitors click outbound links
* Add nofollow to external links to protect SEO link equity
* Add noopener and noreferrer to external links for security
* Mark affiliate links with rel=”sponsored” per Google’s guidelines
* Display an external link icon to signal outbound navigation
* Provide a legal disclaimer before visitors leave for third-party sites
* Whitelist trusted domains so affiliate partners open without interruption
* Meet legal or compliance requirements for certain jurisdictions
### Privacy
This plugin does not collect or store any personal data from your visitors.
### My other small free plugins projects on WordPress
* [Super Web Share](https://wordpress.org/plugins/super-web-share/) – For Native
social sharing
* [Copy Link to Heading](https://wordpress.org/plugins/super-web-share/) – quickly
add a copy icon near to your headings
* [Social Profile Frame Generator](https://wordpress.org/plugins/profile-frame-generator/)–
Custom Social Media Frames Creator
## Screenshots
[⌊Plugin settings page with option to customize the button color, text and whitelist
configuration⌉⌊Plugin settings page with option to customize the button color, text
and whitelist configuration⌉[
Plugin settings page with option to customize the button color, text and whitelist
configuration
[⌊Frontend popup when an external link is clicked⌉⌊Frontend popup when an external
link is clicked⌉[
Frontend popup when an external link is clicked
[⌊Screenshot of the SEO and security attributes settings for the external links
like nofollow, noopener and noreferrer⌉⌊Screenshot of the SEO and security attributes
settings for the external links like nofollow, noopener and noreferrer⌉[
Screenshot of the SEO and security attributes settings for the external links like
nofollow, noopener and noreferrer
## Installation
1. Upload the `leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links` folder to the `/wp-content/
plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Go to Settings > Leaving Notice Popup to configure the plugin
## FAQ
### Will this work with all themes?
Yes, Leaving Notice Popup is designed to be compatible with all WordPress themes.
The popup is added to the page dynamically and does not interfere with your theme’s
design.
### Does this work for all external links?
The plugin works for all standard links that lead to external domains. It will not
trigger for special links like mailto:, tel:, javascript: or anchor (#) links.
### Can I exclude certain domains from triggering the notice?
Yes, in the plugin settings you can add domains to a whitelist. Links to these domains
will not trigger the leaving notice popup.
### Can I exclude specific URLs from triggering the notice?
Yes, you can add specific URLs to a whitelist in the plugin settings. These URLs
will not trigger the leaving notice popup.
You can also use `*` as a wildcard to match any characters in a URL. For example,
entering `https://www.facebook.com/sharer/*` will whitelist all Facebook share URLs(
like `https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=...`) without whitelisting the
entire Facebook domain. This is useful for social sharing links, affiliate redirect
paths, or any URL pattern where you need partial matching.
### Can I show the notice only on specific pages?
Yes, you can use the `externallinknotice_allowed_pages` filter for specific pages(
Pages, Posts, Custom Post Types).
Example: add_filter( ‘externallinknotice_allowed_pages’,
function( $pages ) { return array( 10, 25 ); // Replace with your Page IDs } );
Note: This will ONLY work for singular pages/posts. It will not work for archives
or categories.
### Can I show the notice on Archives, Categories, or Home page?
Yes, for more advanced control, use the `externallinknotice_is_enabled` filter.
Example: add_filter( ‘externallinknotice_is_enabled’, function( $enabled ) { if (
is_home() || is_archive() ) { return true; } return $enabled; } );
### Will the notice appear when clicking on internal links?
No, the popup only appears when users click on links that lead to domains other
than your own website.
### Does the plugin work with embedded content or iframes (YouTube, Google Maps, etc.)?
No, the Leaving Notice Popup does not detect or intercept links inside embedded
content or iframes. This is by design and is a technical limitation that applies
to all similar plugins. Here’s why:
Embeds and iframes (such as YouTube videos, Google Maps, social media widgets, or
any other third-party embed) are sandboxed content rendered entirely by the external
provider’s server inside an isolated frame. They are not standard anchor (``)
links on your page; they are self-contained mini-pages loaded from a third-party
domain. Because of browser security policies (specifically the Same-Origin Policy),
no WordPress plugin or JavaScript running on your site can access, modify, or listen
to click events happening inside an iframe from a different domain.
In short:
* Embedded/iframe content is **not detectable** as an external link by
our plugin because it is not a clickable link on your page. * Attempting to intercept
iframe interactions could **break the embed’s functionality** entirely (e.g., stopping
a YouTube video from playing or a map from being interactive). * The plugin is intentionally
scoped to standard HTML anchor links (``) that exist directly in your
page’s DOM.
If you are using embeds and notice that those links do not trigger the popup, this
is expected and correct behaviour. The popup will continue to work for all regular
external links on your page.
### My website uses advertisements or ads. Should I use this plugin?
We do **not recommend** using this plugin on websites that rely on advertisements
or ad networks for revenue. Here’s why:
Ad clicks are essential for generating revenue on your website. Since ads typically
link to external domains, the Leaving Notice Popup will treat those ad links like
any other external link and display a warning popup when a visitor clicks on them.
This can significantly disrupt the ad click flow and negatively impact your ad revenue.
However, you can give a try whether it works for you or not as some ads uses embed
and it will not trigger the popup as mentioned in the FAQ section.
While you could technically whitelist all the domains and URLs used by your ad networks,
this is not practical because:
* Ad networks serve links from a large and constantly
changing pool of advertiser domains. * You would need to manually whitelist every
single ad domain or URL path, which is nearly impossible to maintain. * Missing
even one domain would cause the popup to appear on that ad, potentially costing
you revenue.
**Our recommendation:** If your website’s primary monetisation strategy involves
display ads, native ads, or any click-based advertising, we strongly advise against
installing this plugin to avoid interfering with your ad revenue.
### Is the plugin GDPR compliant?
Yes, the plugin does not collect, store, or process any personal data.
### Can I add nofollow to all external links automatically?
Yes. In the plugin settings under the SEO & Security attributes section, enable
the `rel="nofollow"` option. The plugin will automatically add nofollow to every
external link on your site without you needing to edit any post or page manually.
### What is the difference between nofollow, noopener, and noreferrer?
These are all values for the `rel` attribute on links, but they serve different
purposes:
* **nofollow**: tells search engines not to pass SEO link equity (PageRank) to
the linked page. Useful for outbound links you don’t want to endorse.
* **noopener**: a security attribute that prevents the newly opened page from accessing
your site via `window.opener`. Recommended whenever you open external links in
a new tab.
* **noreferrer**: hides your page’s URL from the destination site’s referrer logs
and also implies noopener.
You can enable any combination of these in the plugin settings.
### Can I mark affiliate links as sponsored?
Yes. The plugin supports `rel="sponsored"`, which is Google’s recommended attribute
for paid or affiliate links. Enable it in the SEO & Security settings and it will
be applied automatically to all external links, or combine it with the domain whitelist
to control which links are excluded.
### Can I show an icon next to external links?
Yes. The plugin includes 5 built-in SVG icons that you can display beside external
links. You can choose left or right positioning and optionally skip the icon when
the link wraps an image.
### Can I open external links in a new tab?
Yes. There is a dedicated toggle in the settings that controls whether the Continue
button inside the leaving notice popup opens the external link in a new tab or the
same tab.
### Can I skip the popup for links with a certain CSS class?
Yes. You can enter one or more CSS class names in the plugin settings under the
exclusion options. Any link that carries one of those classes will be skipped entirely:
no popup will appear and no rel attributes will be added to it.
### Does the plugin affect links in widget areas?
Yes. The rel attribute processing (nofollow, noopener, noreferrer, sponsored, ugc,
external) also applies to links inside widget text areas via the `widget_text` filter.
### Will adding nofollow or noopener change my existing post content in the database?
No. The plugin processes links on the fly as WordPress renders the page. Your original
post and page content in the database is never modified. If you deactivate the plugin,
all links revert to exactly how they were before.
### Is the plugin compatible with page builders like Elementor or Divi?
Yes, the plugin works with links output by page builders as long as they render
standard HTML anchor tags (``) in the page’s DOM. Since processing
happens at the output level rather than in the editor, it is compatible with most
page builders and themes.
## Reviews
### [Nice and useful](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nice-and-useful-40/)
[Andre](https://profiles.wordpress.org/picturebreeze/) June 23, 2026 4 replies
It’s a great plugin, highly customizable and very useful. And on top it’s free.
Thanks for that.The only tiny missing feature is an option to set the color of the
link icon, or at least to match the color of your text links.
### [Very useful and owner is helpful](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/very-useful-and-owner-is-helpful/)
[wil88](https://profiles.wordpress.org/wil88/) May 25, 2026 1 reply
Leaving Notice Popup For External Links is very helpful to my site especially when
you have an external links that user/viewers needs to notify that 3rd part site
is not yours. Simple pop up but very usefull really awesome work Jose did this!
Kudos! very helpful support as well.
### [Very useful](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/very-useful-3737/)
[orpheus55](https://profiles.wordpress.org/orpheus55/) May 18, 2026 1 reply
This is a convenient, useful and very versatile app – you can modify almost every
single item according to your needs. Exactly what I was looking for.
### [Useful!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/useful-1045/)
[Sid](https://profiles.wordpress.org/isildur00/) June 9, 2025
This is a useful simple plugin that does exactly what it says without causing any
issues with other plugins I have.
[ Read all 4 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/)
## Contributors & Developers
“Leaving Notice Popup For External Links – nofollow, noopener & New Tab” is open
source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
* [ Jose Varghese ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/josevarghese/)
[Translate “Leaving Notice Popup For External Links – nofollow, noopener & New Tab” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links)
### Interested in development?
[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).
## Changelog
#### 1.4.3
30th June 2026
* New feature: Added an option in Icon Settings to choose a custom
color for the link icon, applied on the frontend when enabled.
#### 1.4.2
26th June 2026
* Modal icon now uses the Continue Button Color for both its icon
color and background (at 10% opacity), instead of a hardcoded color.
#### 1.4.1
29th May 2026
* Added wildcard (_) support in the Whitelisted URLs field — e.g.
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/_ whitelists share URLs without exposing the entire
Facebook domain.
#### 1.4.0
16th May 2026
* Added rel=”sponsored”, rel=”ugc”, and rel=”external” attribute
options for external links. * Added open in new tab toggle: choose whether the Continue
button opens links in a new tab or the same tab. * Added exclude by CSS class: links
with specified CSS classes are skipped entirely (no popup, no rel attributes). *
Added icon support: display one of 5 original SVG icons next to external links in
content, with left/right positioning and skip-on-image option. * Extended rel attribute
processing to widget text areas (widget_text filter). * Added Copy Technical Info
button in settings sidebar for easier support requests.
#### 1.3.2
7th May 2026
* Improved script loading performance by adding defer strategy to
the frontend script. * Fixed settings page fields not showing pre-filled values
when options are not yet saved to the database. * Fixed color picker fields now
use WordPress native color picker (wp-color-picker) to display the hex value alongside
the color swatch. Props to @orpheus55 for reporting the issue.
#### 1.3.1
6th May 2026
* Fixed PHPCS warnings: prefixed main plugin class
#### 1.3
24th February 2026
* Improved the Settings UI and minor tweaks
#### 1.2
5th January 2026
* Added `externallinknotice_allowed_pages` filter to restrict
popup to specific Page IDs, read FAQ for more details * Added `externallinknotice_is_enabled`
filter for advanced control (e.g. Archives, Home, Taxonomies)
#### 1.1
10th June 2025
* Added accessibility (Learned this from the WCEU live website review
session) * Added option to configure the external links with SEO and security attributes
like nofollow, noopener and noreferrer * Already existing “rel” attributes for the
external links will now be passed to the Continue button rel atttributes within
the popup modal window.
#### 1.0.1
9th June 2025
* Minor enhancements to the settings page
#### 1.0
2nd June 2025
* Initial release
## Meta
* Version **1.4.3**
* Last updated **4 weeks ago**
* Active installations **200+**
* WordPress version ** 5.2 or higher **
* Tested up to **7.0.2**
* PHP version ** 7.2 or higher **
* Tags
* [exit popup](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/exit-popup/)[exit-intent](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/exit-intent/)
[external links](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/external-links/)[nofollow](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/nofollow/)
[noopener](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/noopener/)
* [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/advanced/)
## Ratings
5 out of 5 stars.
* [ 4 5-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/?filter=5)
* [ 0 4-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/?filter=4)
* [ 0 3-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/?filter=3)
* [ 0 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/?filter=2)
* [ 0 1-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/?filter=1)
[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/#new-post)
[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/reviews/)
## Contributors
* [ Jose Varghese ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/josevarghese/)
## Support
Issues resolved in last two months:
2 out of 2
[View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/leaving-notice-popup-for-external-links/)
## Donate
Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?
[ Donate to this plugin ](https://buymeacoffee.com/josevarghese)