The title in link text

Blue Head · 10-20-2003, 07:46 AM

Do you think it is a useful thing?

For example. <a href="www.domain.com" title="a domain description">

is it like alt text? or anchor text? or... it's not useful for seo.

hatchet · 10-20-2003, 07:50 AM

it's more like alt text and yes it is useful for SEO purposes. The remainder if it would be consider anchor text...
<a href="www.domain.com" title="title text">Anchor Text</a>

PhilC · 10-20-2003, 07:58 AM

It's a case of use it because you can. I don't think anybody knows whether or not any engines take account of it but, since it's there, use it - you never know.

edbarton · 10-20-2003, 09:35 AM

Yeah it is useful for accessibility as well

For example if a link opens in a new window you can put title="Title text (Opens in a new window)" when the user hovers over the link text comes up

PhilC · 10-20-2003, 09:56 AM

Google say that they base the rankings on about 100 different factors and, when you think about it, it's very difficult to come up with 100 different factors to take into account. I haven't tried to do it but I talked with Brett Tabke (WMW) a while back and he reckoned that he had about 70 of them, but he was stuck to think of any more.

So, if Google is using that many factors, it is likely that the Title attribute is one of them, how ever small a part it plays in the overall results. Many small parts make one big part.

Blue Head · 10-20-2003, 10:43 AM

Thank you.

I was thinking about that 100 different factors yesterday and i thought that title of the link text would be one of them maybe with the same weight of alt text (or less). I knew its useful for accessibility but it took me by surprise the fact of that title of the link text is functional in other browsers, not only explorer, like alt text.

John Scott · 10-20-2003, 11:11 AM

I have tested this a bit. I did this:

[code:1:e01a1cd2fb]<A HREF="http://www.concrete-home.com" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="XO9PPPL">Concrete Homes</A>[/code:1:e01a1cd2fb]

Then I waited, waited, and waited. Did a search for XO9PPPL after it had been indexed for a while, and got no results.

Just FYI.

edbarton · 10-20-2003, 11:14 AM

I presume it has to appear elsewhere

John Scott · 10-20-2003, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardesign

I presume it has to appear elsewhere

Could be.