Anybody heard of an <a title>?

[prebot]

Hi All,

Anyone heard of such a animal <a title>?

I've seen some posts here and there about it and how it can increase rankings but never heard of it and can't find any info about it....

[lots0cash]

I am going to take a stab in the dark here. What I think you are talking about is the “title” attribute in the Anchor tag. The HTML would look something like this;

<A title="this text will appear when pointer is hovering over the link" HREF="http://yourlink.com">Link</A>

I think its still open for debate if the title attribute helps in ranking. But it is a good tool for the user, lets them know where the link leads, its also good if you don’t want your page cluttered up with a lot of link descriptions.

[prebot]

thanks!

I'll try it and see if my rankings move up, down or remain the same. :)

[ihelpyou]

This is the common way it is written and is the same thing:

<A HREF="http://yourlink.com" title="this text will appear when pointer is hovering over the link">Link</A>

[jai]

Do we need to have different page titles for different pages ? and the same question goes for other meta tags.... i have a set of pages and all of which have the same central theme and so i maintain the same page title, meta tags for all.. Can you please enlighten me on this ?

[Kal]

Hello Jai :hi:

Should you use different page titles and META tags for each page? YES - definitely. Each page is a new opportunity to achieve a high ranking on the various search engines. By 'theming' your content so each page concentrates on a different theme or topic, you can optimize each page for different keywords relating to that topic.

That way, you have more chances to earn a high ranking because each page is relevant to a new set of search terms. Think of it as having multiple tickets in a lottery - 20 tickets with different numbers gives you a better chance than 20 tickets with the same number right? :cheers:

[ihelpyou]

Very good analogy Kal! Oh so true.

[Patrick]

I was wondering... wouldn't that dilute your chances of ending high in the search engine for a specific set of key words at the same time ?

My logic is this: each sub-page refers to the home page for example (let's say the siter is very hierarchic). The referral to your home page is more important if the referring page is similarly "themed" as the home page, e.g. by having the same tags and the same key words in the text.

As a result the the weight of the link back to your homepage, would be higher, thus increasing your homepage's ranking, thus ending higher in the search engine's search.

So isn't it a trade off ? More tickets in the lotery yes; but the lotery has become bigger too, so possibly less total chance of being found in the top ?


I might not undertsnad it well enough I have just started reading about optimisation this week a little bit..

Patrick

[Advisor]

No, Patrick!!!

You want each page of your site to focus on different keyword phrases, in my opinion. You can certainly overlap them a bit, but they should all be different.

Forget themes, each page can and does stand on it's own, in my experience. Don't waste time focusing on the same keyword phrases on every page. You'd be missing out on great keyword opportunities. Every site has hundreds of keyword phrases they could be focusing on. Why limit them to a few for the sake of "themes"?

Jill

[peter_d]

Both sides are correct, just depends what you want to achieve.

What I think you're getting at is the benefit of internal, strong term vector link pop for a certain phrase. This works well on *very* highly targeted sites.

Mostly, however, you are better off going after multiple keyword phrases as you do get more "chances in the lottery". If your site isn't for a highly specific purpose, it's better to have many pages bringing in some traffic under closely related terms.

You might want to have a play with this.... http://labs.google.com/sets

and this...

http://labs.google.com/glossary

[WebSavvy]

Peter,

Those are cool Google toys ... I didn't even know about them!

:cheers:

[sanity]

To me it makes logical sense to optimise each page for different keywords. If you're selling products or services chances are you are selling more than one, yes? SO if each page is talking about a different product or service wouldn't you optimise each page for those keywords.

For example you're a web designer who offers web design, internet marketing, hosting and internet access. Each service would be on a separate page and optimised for different keyword phrases.

[Patrick]

Exactly my point.. you'd build up all the pagerank on one page.. and hit hard.

Thanks for the advice from you both.. made me re-think the structure of my (to be built) website again !

Patrick

[Patrick]

darn... I overlooked two reactions....
I agree once again it makes you rethink the website and which pages (products/services) to push and let the pagerank land on those.. or not and let each page win traffic.

Food for thought..

thanks !

[Advisor]

But Patrick, one last thing on this. Really, seriously, don't even think about or look at your PageRank.

Just create the different pages with the keywords that belong on them and forget about PageRank. If you make a good site, you'll be able to then get links to it...but again, don't worry about your PageRank number. It really doesn't make or break your actual search engine rankings. They are two wholly different things.

J

[Patrick]

Hi,

well another question then: why is that ? what does determine your rankings ? All the different tags, the anchor text and a well written home page which includes the keywords in a natural manner ?

Or is there more ?

Thanks

Patrick

[Advisor]

There's somewhere around 100 different things that factor into the search engine algorithms (if you believe what they say).

The main factors that I concentrate on are, finding the most appropriate keywords through keyword research, writing professional copy based on those keywords, creating Titles and Metas that utilize those keywords, and having the hyperlinks pointing to each page also using those keywords.

Do that and you'll have a fairly well optimized page. From there, you can always worry about any other little extras such as the href title. But that kinda thing is just gravy, imo.

Jill

[ihelpyou]

Patrick, too many out there are focusing on PageRank and talking about how it's somehow the be all end all to ranks. NOT True at all. As Jill says, FORGET about it. Just please forget it. Turn off the darn PR bar. I Rarely have the stupid PR thing on. No need to.

I can outrank a site with a PR of 6 with my PR of 4 site anyday of the week. Forget about PageRank.

It's sooooooo overblown out there because forums such as this talk about it all the time like it's some kind of gawd. People are using it as some kind of feature for selling text ads now. Sooo ridiculous and soooo unnecessary. Forget about it. Optimize your site. That's all you need to do.

Think about it like this. Google has total control over whatever that PR bar says... right? Who's to say that green bar is even correct? How do we know if/when Google ever makes it a random number thing and does not tell anyone? I think this is what is going to happen. Because people are now seeking to profit from Google's PageRank system, Google could simply keep on displaying the little green bar but with BOGUS information in it. They would not have to tell a soul about. That PR of 7 you may see, could in reality be a PR of 4 and NO ONE would know the difference.

Forget about it.

[sanity]

Originally posted by Patrick I agree once again it makes you rethink the website and which pages (products/services) to push and let the pagerank land on those.. or not and let each page win traffic. Think of it this way, the more phrases you target the greater the traffic you can bring in. ;)

[foghorn]

What Doug said was interesting.

And I have thought for quite awhile that the PR toolbar is a piece of marketing genius. What other thing could Google have done that would have even come close to creating this sort of obession with their product. Many people obsess over that PR more than anything else on a site. How much it actually counts, I don't know, but it is one of the things that has made Google the center of attention in the search engnie field. Of course, excellent results from searches help, too.

[ihelpyou]

Yes Foghorn, and I think you will find the PR aspect will keep on dwindling. It is very good public relations for Google and has done them real well. Funny thing is, The only time I look at that bar is when a potential client asks me to help them. I always check the PR first to make sure they already don't have a penalty or something before I agree to help. After that, I never check the bar and truly have no reason to check the bar.

A PR 4 site can outrank most PR 6 sites anyday if done right. This leads me to wonder if PR is even worth much at all.