The text of the anchor element plays a key role in search-engine ranking, and optimisation of the anchor text is known to boost the search-engine ranking of a page. Many people talk about the importance of using a keyword rich anchor text for search-engine optimisation purposes, while hardly anyone talks about the importance of the title attribute in anchor elements. So, does an optimised text of the title attribute in an anchor element have the same weight as an optimised anchor text? And does an optimised text of the title attribute in an anchor element in combination with an optimised anchor text give an additional boost to the search-engine ranking of a page?
My testing so far shows no SEO effect from the title attribute in links whatsoever. I have tested by pointing links towards a specific page using a rare word in the the title attribute only. There is only 8 pages in a Google search for this word, so it is definitely not competitive. But so far, no effect from title attribute in links.
Great that you've put this to the test! I read similar results in one of the very few articles on the SEO effect of the title attribute: Contrary to the author of this article, I don't think it makes sense not to put any weight on the title attribute. From a reader's point of view, it would certainly enhance the reader's experience of a web page, if descriptive title attributes were used on links. And from a search-engine optimisation point of view, the title attribute certainly is prone to keyword spamming, but hey... so is the anchor text! On the other hand, it is easy to modify the search-engine algorithm to only put weight on those title attributes that are associated with the anchor elements and that do not exceed a certain length.
I personally seen great results by using anchor text. With that zero results. And since it is already tough, I don't know how more tough it is to get backlinks with specific title tags. Karl
This question is finally answered: I found this article about the SEO value of the title attribute on Google Groups and it mentions that the text in the title attribute of any of the elements to which it can be applied does not have any effect on the search-engine ranking (in Google at least) for a given keyword or keyword phrase what so ever.
That page is nearly 4.5 years old. The title attributed is essentially worthless for text links. The reason? Any important text/keywords would be in the anchor text. On the other hand, alt tags are different as they are used for images. Alt tags do carry some SEO value.
I tend to disagree with this thread, I however won't concede it until I find the reference from Matt Cutts I'm looking for; stay tuned
thank you for sharing your test result. It seems like that I have wasted a lot of time on link title description.
I'm aware that this reference is not the newest, but given the other reference I provided, apparently nothing has changed. I know that the text in the alt attribute has a significant search-engine optimisation effect. If you're still not convinced about that, watch Matt Cutts' video about alt attributes for images. But, never mind that. What is more important is that this thread is getting slowly more off the topic I intended it to be about. Initially, I had something like the following example in mind: See what Matt Cutts has to say about this interesting topic <a href=â€image-alt-attribute.htm†title=â€Video of Matt Cutts explaining the SEO effect of the alt attribute in the image elementâ€>here</a>. The SEO effect of the anchor text “here†is nill. Hence, I thought perhaps a good descriptive, accurate and non-spammy text of the title attribute in the anchor element will have the same weight as a ditto anchor text. The two examples I provided and the post by FHM show that this is not the case; there is under no circumstance any positive SEO effect of the title attribute. P.S.: SSANDECKI, I am still eagerly awaiting your reference.
It can help if keyword is used in text links it is part of keyword density on page. Not sure how much it helps but does not hurt in my opinion
I'm still looking through all these damn interviews with Matt Cutts, the issue is that if something isn't nessesscary indexed via search results that is visible to users doesn't mean it isn't used in ranking algorithms. I'll wait until I can post this specific reference before going more into it, but Matt Cutts has stated just because it's not visible doesn't mean it's not a factor.
http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts.shtml This is a good instance where Matt Cutt's (not with this threads subject) goes into how webmasters assume certain things that are unknown factors. The main issues is people assume because... A. You cannot find the text indexed in search results... That.... B. It carries little to no weight in search engine algorithms In theory many of the algorithm factors do not become visable in search results, if you review just a few of Google patents you'll see many so called "non-factoring" SEO techniques... http://patents.oncloud8.com/?pns=US...78681;US6658423;US6615209;US6529903;US6526440 I recommend to all my clients and do so in all my SEO reviews to use title tags properly and will continue to do so.
For image searches for sure - that's the essential way the SE's find relevant images, but for web page searches I doubt it has any effect. Perhaps it adds to keyword density, but I think that is overblown anyway. The important thing is to have your keyword in you title, url and in a headline, the rest doesn't matter so much. I've never been a big fan of paying much attention to keyword density - for Google anyway.