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FAQ • Support

When a Same-Page Anchor Link Opens in a New Tab Instead of Jumping Down the Page

Field Note #170
🔬 Observed 🟡 Intermediate ⏱ 30 Minutes ✓ Observation from Experience
The symptom
A native “Action Button,” linked to a full URL with an anchor fragment appended (`https://yourdomain.com/page/#anchor-id`) pointing at a section on the *same* page, opened that page in a brand new browser tab instead of simply scrolling to the anchor in place.

Initial assumption
The first instinct was that a setting on the button itself — an “open in new tab” toggle — was enabled and just needed to be switched off.
 
No such toggle was found in the button’s available settings (Link, Page, Phone, Email options were present; no explicit new-tab control).

Investigation

The native button appears to treat any link entered as a full “Website URL” (as opposed to using its internal “Page” link type) as an external destination by default, regardless of whether that URL actually points back to the same page the button lives on. This forced new-tab behavior could not be located or disabled through the available button settings in this session.

What to check
When a same-page anchor link unexpectedly opens in a new tab in GoDaddy Website Builder:

1. Check whether the button’s “Link to” setting has a “Page” option, rather than “Website URL” — internal page links may behave differently than a manually typed full URL.
2. If only “Website URL” is available and forces a new tab, this may be a platform limitation rather than a misconfiguration.

Current finding

No native fix was found in this session. The workaround used was creating a separate, dedicated page for the content that needed to be revealed, and linking the button to that page directly (using the “Page” link type) instead of trying to reveal a hidden section on the same page via anchor.

Troubleshooting lesson

Not every navigation quirk has a settings-based fix. When a same-page anchor forces a new tab and no toggle resolves it, consider whether the underlying goal (revealing hidden content on click) can be restructured as a separate page instead of fighting the platform’s URL-handling behavior. This entry should be revisited if a native fix is discovered later.

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