When you create a menu for your site, there may be times when you need to include a link to an external website. Examples I can think of off the top of my head are linking out to PayPal for donations, or to an offsite registration form. Maybe you have a sister company that you would like to direct users to, or you have created a store with a site builder such as Shopify. There could be any number of reasons to send you site visitors to a site but have that link in your menu.

It is a good standard practice to have these external links open in a new window. In this guide, I will explain how to achieve both of these things in the WordPress menu.

To add the menu item:

1. In the dashboard go to Appearance > Menus
2. Select the menu where you want the link to appear.
3. Under Add Menu Items, click Custom Links.
   
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4. Enter the URL of the external page and the words you want to appear in the menu.
5. Click Add to Menu. The new link will appear at the bottom of the menu structure to the right.
6. Expand the new menu item, and check the Open link in a new tab option.
   
   
7. Click Save Menu.
   

The new link now appears in your menu and, when clicked, it will open in a new window.