Current Thoughts on TITLE element of an <a href>

[webmama]

I have a client that is using the TITLE element of an <a href> tag. What is the current thinking on using them - is it spam - is it a 'grey' practices? It does not appear they did this for SEO purposes.

Example: <a href="URL" title="Become a Premium Member" class="upsell-button">Become a Premium Member</a>

Thanks for any insight.
webmama

[mcanerin]

Hi webmama!

I recently tested this, and then was in a discussion with several people over at HR about it, so I think I can help.

First, my tests showed that none of the major search engines appear to index the title of an HREF, so even if it was intended to spam, it would be roughly as effective as a comment tag. :)

Second, there is a nice (non search) usability factor that goes with this. In Firefox and IE on the PC, if you hover above the link, a yellow "Tooltip" appears, containing the content of the title.

This would allow, for example, you to make a text only menu with short links, but then have a longer description of the destination pop up when the user hovers over the link.

Like the comment tag, I expect stuffing it with keywords might show an intention to spam to a physical reviewer (along with whatever bad opinion that results in) but I've never seen a penalty associated with it automatically.

In short, it's a nice usability feature, but will not directly affect rankings up or down, as far as I've been able to test, and from my discussions with others.

Used properly, I would even go as far as to say it's a good practice.

I hope that helps,

Ian

[pageoneresults]

<a href="URL" title="Become a Premium Member" class="upsell-button">Become a Premium Member</a>

In the above example provided, that would be incorrect use of the Title Attribute. Typically you would only need to use it in instances where the actual anchor text does not describe the destination link effectively. And, if that is the case, then I usually recommend going back and looking at the anchor text to see why it doesn't describe the resource adequately. ;)

It's a great usability feature for those clients who just can't get past the Click Me stage. The least you can do is provide the user with disabilities an alternative to Click Me.

Also, the Title Attribute applies to quite a few other elements, not just links.

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#h-7.4.3

I'll concur that it appears the search engines do not take this attribute into consideration when indexing. Thankfully they don't. We already have enough abuse out there with html attributes. :)