diff --git a/bin/install b/bin/install
index f41a062b..c71bdc59 100755
--- a/bin/install
+++ b/bin/install
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ baseurl = "https://domain.example" # Controls base URL sitewide
 languageCode = "en-US" # Controls site language
 title = "$SITE_NAME" # Homepage title and page title suffix
 paginate = 11 # Number of posts to show before paginating
-copyright = "Copyright &copy; Copyright Owner. Licensed under <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener license\" href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/\">CC-BY-ND-4.0</a>." # Optional, remove to suppress copyright notices
+copyright = "Copyright &copy; Copyright Owner. Licensed under <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external license\" href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/\">CC-BY-ND-4.0</a>." # Optional, remove to suppress copyright notices
 
 # Controls default theme and theme components
 theme = [
diff --git a/docs/config/_default/config.toml b/docs/config/_default/config.toml
index d5a1c076..ea81d551 100644
--- a/docs/config/_default/config.toml
+++ b/docs/config/_default/config.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 baseurl = "https://localhost:1414/" # Controls base URL sitewide
 title = "After Dark" # Homepage title and page title suffix
 paginate = 40 # Number of items to show before paginating
-copyright = "Copyright &copy; VHS. Licensed under <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener license\" href=\"https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html\">AGPL-3.0-or-later</a>."
+copyright = "Copyright &copy; VHS. Licensed under <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external license\" href=\"https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html\">AGPL-3.0-or-later</a>."
 
 # Controls default theme and theme components
 theme = [
diff --git a/docs/content/_index.md b/docs/content/_index.md
index 5d1de01b..a43ebcd7 100644
--- a/docs/content/_index.md
+++ b/docs/content/_index.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ images = [
 [[spotlight]]
   name = "speed"
   title = "Incredibly Fast"
-  description = "With <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external nofollow noopener\" href=\"https://forestry.io/blog/hugo-vs-jekyll-benchmark/\">0.615s average</a> builds and <strong><i>decisecond</i> page loads</strong> you could conceivably develop and serve your content from an <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external nofollow noopener\" href=\"https://amzn.to/2Wx7xJk\">ODROID</a> in space."
+  description = "With <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external nofollow\" href=\"https://forestry.io/blog/hugo-vs-jekyll-benchmark/\">0.615s average</a> builds and <strong><i>decisecond</i> page loads</strong> you could conceivably develop and serve your content from an <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external nofollow\" href=\"https://amzn.to/2Wx7xJk\">ODROID</a> in space."
   icon = "lightning"
   [[spotlight.link]]
     href = "feature/fetch-injection/"
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ images = [
     href = "https://tools.pingdom.com/#5a399f9666400000"
     text = "Benchmark"
     target = "_blank"
-    rel = "external nofollow noopener"
+    rel = "external nofollow"
 [[spotlight]]
   name = "privacy"
   title = "Privacy Aware"
diff --git a/docs/content/shortcode/external.md b/docs/content/shortcode/external.md
index 35a97f63..71664b42 100644
--- a/docs/content/shortcode/external.md
+++ b/docs/content/shortcode/external.md
@@ -51,10 +51,10 @@ With a trusted URL:
 With external link styling removed:
 
 ```html
-{{</* external rel="noopener" href="https://blog.domain.example" /*/>}}
+{{</* external rel="author" href="https://blog.domain.example" /*/>}}
 ```
 
-{{< external rel="noopener" href="https://blog.domain.example" />}}
+{{< external rel="author" href="https://blog.domain.example" />}}
 
 With internal link opening in a new window:
 
diff --git a/docs/layouts/index.html b/docs/layouts/index.html
index dd0bd99a..2a640197 100644
--- a/docs/layouts/index.html
+++ b/docs/layouts/index.html
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ <h2 class="muted">A retro dark theme for Hugo</h2>
         </svg>
         <small role="tooltip" id="source-label">Source</small>
       </a>
-      <a target="_blank" class="cell -2of12" itemtype="significantLink" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="irc://chat.freenode.net:6667/after-dark">
+      <a target="_blank" class="cell -2of12" itemtype="significantLink" rel="noreferrer nofollow" href="irc://chat.freenode.net:6667/after-dark">
         <svg id="chat" aria-labelledby="chat-label" class="i-message" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 32 32" width="32" height="32" fill="none" stroke="currentcolor" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2">
           <path d="M2 4 L30 4 30 22 16 22 8 29 8 22 2 22 Z" />
         </svg>
diff --git a/layouts/partials/components/external.html b/layouts/partials/components/external.html
index 9a3836f4..04c86b3b 100644
--- a/layouts/partials/components/external.html
+++ b/layouts/partials/components/external.html
@@ -18,5 +18,5 @@
 */ -}}
 
 {{- /**/ -}}
-<a {{ with .itemtype }} itemprop itemtype="https://schema.org/{{ . }}"{{ end }} target="{{ .target | default "_blank" }}"{{ with .type }} type="{{ . }}"{{ end }}{{ with .title }} title="{{ . }}"{{ end }}{{ with .rel }} rel="{{ . }}"{{ else }} rel="{{ if ne .supress_external true }}external{{ end }} noopener"{{ end }}{{ if eq .trusted "true" }} href="{{ .href | safeURL }}"{{ else }} href="{{ .href }}"{{ end }}{{ with .referrerpolicy }} referrerpolicy="{{ . }}"{{ end }}{{ with .class }} class="{{ . }}"{{ end }}>{{ .body | default (replaceRE "^https?://(.*)" "$1" .href) }}</a>
+<a {{ with .itemtype }} itemprop itemtype="https://schema.org/{{ . }}"{{ end }} target="{{ .target | default "_blank" }}"{{ with .type }} type="{{ . }}"{{ end }}{{ with .title }} title="{{ . }}"{{ end }}{{ with .rel }} rel="{{ . }}"{{ else }} {{ if ne .supress_external true }}rel="external"{{ end }}{{ if eq .trusted "true" }} href="{{ .href | safeURL }}"{{ else }} href="{{ .href }}"{{ end }}{{ with .referrerpolicy }} referrerpolicy="{{ . }}"{{ end }}{{ with .class }} class="{{ . }}"{{ end }}>{{ .body | default (replaceRE "^https?://(.*)" "$1" .href) }}</a>
 {{- /**/ -}}
diff --git a/layouts/partials/components/figure.html b/layouts/partials/components/figure.html
index 2e682c6f..47261f82 100644
--- a/layouts/partials/components/figure.html
+++ b/layouts/partials/components/figure.html
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 
 <figure{{ with .class }} class="{{ . }}"{{ end }}>
   {{ if .link }}
-    <a href="{{ .link }}"{{ if .linktarget }} target="{{ .linktarget }}"{{ end }}{{ if eq .linktarget "_blank" }} rel="external noopener noreferrer"{{ end }} itemprop="url">
+    <a href="{{ .link }}"{{ if .linktarget }} target="{{ .linktarget }}"{{ end }}{{ if eq .linktarget "_blank" }} rel="external noreferrer"{{ end }} itemprop="url">
       {{- if .lqipsrc -}}
         <img class="lazyload blur-up" src="{{ .lqipsrc }}" data-src="{{ .src }}" {{ if or .alt .caption }}alt="{{ with .alt }}{{ . }}{{ else }}{{ .caption }}{{ end }}"{{ end }} itemprop="image">
       {{- else -}}
diff --git a/layouts/partials/copyright-notice.html b/layouts/partials/copyright-notice.html
index 670fd10a..33d2b44f 100644
--- a/layouts/partials/copyright-notice.html
+++ b/layouts/partials/copyright-notice.html
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
     {{ range . }}
       Copyright &copy; {{ .date }} {{ .owner }}.
       {{ with (index $.Site.Data.licenses .license) }}
-        Licensed under {{ partial "components/external.html" (dict "href" .link "body" .shorthand "rel" "external noopener license") }}.
+        Licensed under {{ partial "components/external.html" (dict "href" .link "body" .shorthand "rel" "external license") }}.
       {{ else }}
         Copyright &copy; {{ .date }} {{ .owner }}.
       {{ end }}