There has been some discussion about it in the past, and arguments about both sides, but I'm going to put it up for a vote. Currently the maximum allowed anchor text is 50 characters and the description (for text based banners) is 255 characters. I'm thinking of lowering both of those to 40 characters for anchor text and 128 characters for text based banner descriptions. What does everyone think?
Forty characters is still plenty for most keyword combos and I prefer to see shorter descriptions on any ads (whether from the ad network or not). You will inevitably get the question: Does the forty characters include spaces? Mick
I would say (for reasons I will not go into here), it would be a good idea having the ability to make just some of the text being the anchor point while having plain text wrap. then I would have to say let's keep the 50. if not 40 will do just fine.
I think 50 is too much... 40 would be much better. it will help contain the links, especially if you're just showing text, better within the frame of each site.
40 is enough for me; after all 'supercalifragilisticexpealadocious' is only 34 characters long; and its the longest word I know.
Personally, I think 30 is good (that's what the AdWords limit is too I think), and I don't have anything over 25 myself (most of mine are under 15). But 40 seemed like a better compromise to me.
I would vote for 30 if that was an option... Adwords is 25, so I don't really see a need going much over that. If you're targetting a phrase in the SERPs that is more than 40 characters, I can't imagine it being overly competitive anyways...
I agree that shorter anchor text is a good idea. The long anchor text causes cosmetic problems when included with a group of other links. I just put up what I think is a very long anchor text and it is 26 characters including spaces. So I'd be perfectly happy with a limit of 30. The other option is just to truncate the anchor text if over some limit. This would allow webmasters to design for a known size.
Well, if the vote stays as it is, we'll try out 40 for awhile and see how it works. 50 to 30 is a bit drastic at once I think.
Id say 30 would be the best. It may be drastic, but how many phrases (even 3 words) are 30 characters
Yeah, 50-40 would be a good start, and then down the road, maybe go 40-30... Or what about having weight count towards your anchor text a bit? So if you want a keyphrase longer than 30, it'll cost ya more weight.
I'd have to say, go straight to 30 characters! A lot of those long text links just looks so spammy, and they also make it a hassle to create a nice layout for the ads...
Either would be fine with me. My longest is 25 with spaces and the max description is 114 with spaces.
I am happy with going down to 40 ... probably even 30 however what I would like to see done is an e-mail notification to all Coop Ad Network members, whenever there is a change. Some people do not frequent this forum and will get their ads chopped if they are over 40, and since most (some) of us hardly see our ads we wouldn't even know. The setup/config has also been changed recently and some people will only find out when their site is no longer validating and will have to rush around looking for solutions, and might even spend hours checking on their end before coming here. Personally I wouldn't mind an e-mail whenever there are changes to the Network or polls about something/someone.