diff --git a/app/helpers/groups_helper.rb b/app/helpers/groups_helper.rb
index c091b2fc82..3b0e0022a2 100644
--- a/app/helpers/groups_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/groups_helper.rb
@@ -1,2 +1,19 @@
 module GroupsHelper
+
+  def link_to_ext(url)
+    link_to strip_url(url), ext_url(url), target: '_blank'
+  end
+
+  def ext_url(url)
+    if (url =~ /^https?:\/\//i)
+      return url
+    else
+      return 'http://' + url
+    end
+  end
+
+  def strip_url(url)
+    url.andand.sub(/^https?:\/\//i, '')
+  end
+
 end
diff --git a/app/views/groups/_contact.html.haml b/app/views/groups/_contact.html.haml
index 0ed24b0d9d..e1bda90404 100644
--- a/app/views/groups/_contact.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/groups/_contact.html.haml
@@ -13,8 +13,7 @@
             = @group.email
       - if @group.website.present?
         %p
-          %a{href: @group.website, target: "_blank" }
-            = @group.website
+          =link_to_ext @group.website
 
 %div{bindonce: true}  
   - if @group.facebook.present? 
diff --git a/spec/helpers/groups_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/groups_helper_spec.rb
index 08a4335bae..c9f44dd95a 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/groups_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/groups_helper_spec.rb
@@ -1,15 +1,24 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-# Specs in this file have access to a helper object that includes
-# the GroupsHelper. For example:
-#
-# describe GroupsHelper do
-#   describe "string concat" do
-#     it "concats two strings with spaces" do
-#       expect(helper.concat_strings("this","that")).to eq("this that")
-#     end
-#   end
-# end
 describe GroupsHelper do
-  pending "add some examples to (or delete) #{__FILE__}"
+   describe "ext_url" do
+     it "adds http:// if missing" do
+       expect(helper.ext_url("http://example.com/")).to eq("http://example.com/")
+       expect(helper.ext_url("https://example.com/")).to eq("https://example.com/")
+       expect(helper.ext_url("example.com")).to eq("http://example.com")
+     end
+   end
+   describe "strip_url" do
+     it "removes http(s)://" do
+       expect(helper.strip_url("http://example.com/")).to eq("example.com/")
+       expect(helper.strip_url("https://example.com/")).to eq("example.com/")
+       expect(helper.strip_url("example.com")).to eq("example.com")
+     end
+   end
+   describe "link_to_ext" do
+     it "gives a link to an html external url" do
+       expect(helper.link_to_ext("example.com")).to eq('<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank">example.com</a>')
+       expect(helper.link_to_ext("https://example.com/")).to eq('<a href="https://example.com/" target="_blank">example.com/</a>')
+     end
+   end
 end