Title Attribute

[btreloar]

The TITLE attribute seems to be available in many opbjects on a page: images, headings, table cells, etc.

Are these useful in terms of keyword density as the SEs see the page?

Can use of these attributes be considered as SE spam?

Thanks,
Bill

[Webmaster T]

Most aren't used by engines however there are often accessabilty gains for seeing impaired users using software to read the pages to them.

[btreloar]

Thanks. My biggest concern was that they could flag the pages as trying to spam the SEs. No worries?

Bill

[qwerty]

No worries as far as the search engines are concerned. However, you need to think about what you want to use the title attribute for.

In the case of images, I think it's superfluous. I'm pretty sure that for an image with both an alt and a title, the title will supercede the alt. In other words, there's no point in having both, and since the alt will appear in the placeholder for users who don't see the image, it makes sense to me to use the alt rather than the title.

I personally only use the title attribute for text links, because I can't see any benefit to users in throwing it into other tags. But if anyone has any ideas about legitimate (that is, beneficial to users) uses for it elsewhere I'd appreciate the tip.

[Advisor]

If you "stuffed" them I would think you might have to worry. However, if you use them sensibly, you shouldn't have a problem. Just like everything in life and SEO!

Jill

[btreloar]

Thanks to both qwerty and Jill.

Jill, I suppose one person's stuffing is another's turkey filling.

The reason I'd want to use them would be to add iterations of the keywords on the page, but I certainly would want them to make sense and not be just a string of keywords. I'd use coherent sentences or phrases that relate to the page, using no keyword more than once in a given title attribute.

So I'm wondering if my common sense here agrees with yours -- or do you think that since my primary motiviation is getting more copies of my keywords in front of the search engines that leaves me in the position of "stuffing".

Thanks for your advice & opinions!
Bill

[Webmaster T]

Sorry, but to date I have seen 0 proof they are used by SE in ranking algos. Do it for the reasons they were designed for not for SE! I didn't realize they were redundant in images but then the only one I have used is the Link attribute and even then it was for providing instructions for filling in a value for a form. No SEO should be using these for optimization and I doubt any engine will ever use them it is only adding another semi-hidden value to spam with.

[qwerty]

Exactly. Keyword stuffing will do no good with the title attribute. Only use it for your audience. There's no need to find good ways to stick kw's in them, because it won't work. If you see a legitimate use for them, use them. Otherwise, it's just a few extra bytes to download.

[Eric Graham]

Qwerty hit the nail on the head.

The only reason to use this attribute in your code is if you are doing it for your users benefit for usability or accessibility reasons.

Anything other reason just adds to your file size and download time.

[btreloar]

Thanks everyone! That's very helpful. I'll stop wasting my time (and download time)!