WebberZone Link Warnings

by Ajay

Description

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 WordPress’s native WP_HTML_Tag_Processor class to parse and modify external and target="_blank" links in your content efficiently. It adds appropriate ARIA attributes, visual indicators, and optional JavaScript-based warnings based on your configuration. The plugin processes content during the the_content and the_excerpt filters, making it compatible with most themes and page builders. Your stored content remains untouched — the plugin only alters rendered output and does not interfere with REST API responses or admin editing screens.

Why warn users about external links?

target="_blank" can disorient screen reader users
Sudden context changes impact usability
Accessibility audits often recommend user warnings
Agencies and site owners often need documented user warnings during accessibility reviews

Key features

Multiple Warning Methods: Choose from inline indicators, modal dialogs, or redirect screens — or combine them
Flexible Scope: Target external links only, or external links plus all target="_blank" links
Customizable Indicators: Configure visual icons, text, or screen reader-only warnings
Modal Dialog: Show a confirmation dialog before users navigate to external sites with keyboard navigation and focus management
Redirect Screen: Display an intermediate page with a configurable countdown before external navigation
Domain Exclusions: Allow trusted domains to treat them as internal links
Post Type Control: Enable warnings on specific post types only
Built to support accessibility best practices for external link behaviour in WordPress: Adds screen reader text, ARIA attributes, and keyboard-friendly modal confirmations
Setup Wizard: Get started quickly with a guided setup wizard on first activation
Template Override: Override the redirect screen template in your theme for full design control
RTL Support: Full right-to-left language support for all frontend and admin styles
Multisite Compatible: Network activate and configure per-site settings
Privacy Focused: Does not collect personal data or send link data to third-party services
Performance Optimized: Uses WordPress’s native WP_HTML_Tag_Processor class to process links at display time
Developer-Friendly: Filters and actions allow developers to customize behavior, exclude domains, and output

This plugin assists with user awareness of external navigation. It does not automatically make your website fully accessible or legally compliant.

How it works

After activation, the setup wizard guides you through the initial configuration. You can also configure the plugin at Settings > WebberZone Link Warnings.

Warning Methods:

Inline indicators only (visual and/or screen reader text)
Modal dialog (JavaScript-based confirmation)
Redirect screen (intermediate page with countdown)
Combined approach (inline + modal)
Combined approach (inline + redirect)

Link Scope:

External links only
External links and all target="_blank" links

Visual Indicators:

Icon only ()
Text only (customizable)
Icon + text
None (screen reader only)

Advanced Settings:

Custom modal messages and button text
Custom redirect page content and countdown duration
Domain exclusion list
Post type selection

GDPR

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.

Contribute

WebberZone Link Warnings is also available on Github.
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 welcomed on GitHub. Please note that GitHub is not a support forum, and issues that aren’t suitably qualified as bugs will be closed.

Translations

WebberZone Link Warnings is available for translation directly on WordPress.org. Check out the official Translator Handbook to contribute.

Other Plugins by WebberZone

WebberZone Link Warnings is one of the many plugins developed by WebberZone. Check out our other plugins:

Contextual Related Posts – Display related posts on your WordPress blog and feed
Top 10 – Track daily and total visits to your blog posts and display the popular and trending posts
WebberZone Snippetz – The ultimate snippet manager for WordPress to create and manage custom HTML, CSS or JS code snippets
Knowledge Base – Create a knowledge base or FAQ section on your WordPress site
Better Search – Enhance the default WordPress search with contextual results sorted by relevance
Auto-Close – Automatically close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks and manage revisions
Popular Authors – Display popular authors in your WordPress widget
Followed Posts – Show a list of related posts based on what your users have read

Installation

WordPress install (the easy way)

Navigate to Plugins > Add New
Search for “WebberZone Link Warnings”
Click “Install Now” and then “Activate”

Manual install

Upload the webberzone-link-warnings folder to /wp-content/plugins/
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Go to Settings > WebberZone Link Warnings to configure

Screenshots

External link with icon indicator
Modal dialog warning before navigation

Faq

Does this plugin affect SEO?

No. WebberZone Link Warnings only modifies how links are displayed to users. It does not alter the href attribute, link structure, or indexing behaviour. Search engines see your links exactly as you created them.

Is it accessible?

Yes. The plugin adds screen reader text, ARIA attributes, and (for modal mode) keyboard navigation and focus management.

Does it work with multilingual sites?

Yes. WebberZone Link Warnings is translation-ready. It uses standard WordPress translation functions and works with popular multilingual plugins such as WPML and Polylang.

Does this work with page builders?

Yes. The plugin processes content through standard WordPress filters (the_content and the_excerpt), making it compatible with most themes, page builders, and the block editor.

Can I customize the redirect screen template?

Yes. Copy the template file to your-theme/webberzone-link-warnings/redirect-screen.php to override the default redirect screen with your own design.

How can I prevent icons from appearing on specific links?

Add the class wzlw-no-icon to any link where you don’t want an icon to appear. For example:

<a href="https://example.com" class="wzlw-no-icon">Link without icon</a>

This will exclude the link from having visual indicators while still maintaining other accessibility features like screen reader text and ARIA attributes.

To exclude all links inside a wrapper element (e.g. a navigation block or card), add the class wzlw-no-icon-wrapper to the containing element:

<div class="wzlw-no-icon-wrapper"><a href="https://example.com">Link without icon</a></div>

All links inside that wrapper will be excluded from visual indicators.

Can I customize the icon that appears?

Yes. Go to Settings > WebberZone Link Warnings > Display tab and find the “Icon Style” dropdown. You can choose from several preset icons:

Arrow (North-East) – default
Arrow (Right)
⬈ Arrow (Up-Right)
⧉ External Link Symbol
🔗 Link Emoji
🌐 Globe Emoji
- Asterisk
Custom (enter your own)

Using Custom Icons: Select “Custom” and enter any Unicode symbol or emoji in the “Custom Icon” field. Examples: , ⇗, 🔗, 🌐, *, +

Does this modify my database content?

No. The plugin only alters rendered output. Your stored content remains unchanged.

What happens if I deactivate the plugin?

Your links return to their original state. The plugin doesn’t modify your content in the database — it only changes how links are displayed.

Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?

You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team help validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. Report a security vulnerability.

Reviews

Wow. This is an amazing accessbility and UX enhancement

By Ronald Huereca (ronalfy) on March 13, 2026

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.

Changelog

1.1.0 (14 March 2026)

Release Post

New: Add wzlw-no-icon-wrapper class support — add it to any wrapper element to exclude all links inside it from visual indicators.
Improved: Enhanced modal accessibility — background content is now hidden from screen readers when the modal is open, the external URL display includes a screen reader label, modal buttons have fallback accessible names when JavaScript is unavailable, and the Continue button announces “opens in a new window” for target="_blank" links.

1.0.0 (7 March 2026)

Release Post

Initial release.