Title Description Tag? [Archive] - SEO Best Practices Search Engine Forums

seoRank

21-03-2003, 15:17/03:17PM

Hi. I'm a new user here. How come I don't see a forum on Title description tag here, which, in my experience, is more important and effective than the Keyword, Description or the Alt tag itself...

Blue

21-03-2003, 15:52/03:52PM

Hi seoRank,

Technically, there is no such thing as a "Title description" tag.

I'll asume you mean the "Title" tag which is a document structure tag.

The forum you've posted in is the correct place for threads on this tag.

seoRank

22-03-2003, 09:28/09:28AM

Sorry about the confusion. I meant 'Title Attribute' tag which comes in the main body of the HTML code alongside Alt-Text tag. Its far more important (as far as SEO is concerned) as compared to keyword (meta) tag.

ihelpyou

22-03-2003, 10:08/10:08AM

Hey seorank, that is why I named this forum the way I did. No use in having one forum for one part of the tags.

I don't agree that the title attribute tag is more important than the description tag or image alt tag. No one really knows 'how' important the attribute tag is, but I know that it's actually less important than the others. It helps as all things help.

g1smd

23-03-2003, 15:17/03:17PM

Do you mean the <title> tag as in:

<head>
<title>My Site</title>
</head>

or do you mean the title attribute as in:

<a href="somefile.ext" title="some text about the link"></a>

Just curious. One is a tag, the other is an attribute.

g1smd

23-03-2003, 15:22/03:22PM

Oh, and by the way, there is no such thing as an alt TAG; again, it is an alt attribute.

Advisor

23-03-2003, 19:04/07:04PM

If you're talking about this:<a href="somefile.ext" title="some text about the link"></a> I like to use it "just in case." However, our own Sharon & Roy have showed that their tests prove that it doesn't actually help. If you do a search on these forums for that attribute, you can probably find that old conversation.

I still like to use it just in case.

Jill

Alan Perkins

24-03-2003, 04:38/04:38AM

Originally posted by Advisor
I like to use it "just in case."I like to use it because it's useful to humans. :D

Advisor

24-03-2003, 07:41/07:41AM

Well, I do that too, Alan! But as a long time netscape user (not any more) I never got to see those little captions at the bottom for so long that I forget about that aspect!

Jill

Alan Perkins

24-03-2003, 07:45/07:45AM

from W3C Links in HTML documents : Link titles (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/links.html#h-12.1.4)
The title attribute may be set for both A and LINK to add information about the nature of a link. This information may be spoken by a user agent, rendered as a tool tip, cause a change in cursor image, etc.

g1smd

24-03-2003, 15:54/03:54PM

The title attribute works well in Mozilla.

cre8pc

24-03-2003, 16:27/04:27PM

I've discovered the following about alt and title attributes:

1. Alt and/or title will display on mouseover in IE 5.5 and up.

2. Alt will not display on mouseover in NS 6.0 or 7.0

3. Therefore, to get a description to appear, I put in the title attribute. This means an image can have both alt and title attribute descriptions.

4. If both are in place, in IE, the default is to show the title attribute, NOT the alt attribute.

I use them, but have never found any proof they (alt or title) aid in SEO. They do, however, offer assistance to some special needs users, and are useful from a usability perspective.

I like using the title attribute for text links, especially navigation ones. It helps the user get an idea of what they can find if they click.

Kim

ihelpyou

24-03-2003, 20:00/08:00PM

Thanks for that Kim... good post!
I use them, but have never found any proof they (alt or title) aid in SEO.
I do agree that they both help a bunch for disability issues and both attributes also help a regular user when they mouseover the image or link to get an understanding of what the 'linked' to page is about. I don't agree with being no help to SEO. I do see proof of the 'alt' attribute helping. No proof that the 'title' attribute helps, but I always say that it certainly cannot hurt you unless you abuse it.

scottiecl

24-03-2003, 21:54/09:54PM

Originally posted by cre8pc
I like using the title attribute for text links, especially navigation ones. It helps the user get an idea of what they can find if they click. They are very helpful when you only have room for a word or two in the link, but may have several further categories of information in that section.

I've actually done a small focus group and people do tend to hover over navigation links and do see the title pop up. That is why it is a really bad idea to just use them as a place to stuff keywords. Little SEO benefit, and confusing to the user. But used correctly, they can really help your user find more information.

jlm

15-08-2003, 15:36/03:36PM

I use title tags to provide more information about links so users can better choose where they want to go. Some of these titles are longer than 1 sentence so the "tool tip" dissapears before the user can finish reading it. Is there a way to make the "tool tip" stay visible longer?

ihelpyou

15-08-2003, 17:35/05:35PM

Welcome to the forums jlm! :hi:

No there is not. That tag should only be a couple of words long. Any longer and it does you or your visitor no good. It should only describe the linked to page with a couple of words.

AskMeNoQuestions

16-08-2003, 15:50/03:50PM

Well, it's only anecdotal, but I have seen some evidence that the title attribute *appears* to make some difference to relevancy rankings.

On redoing a site, apart from adding header tags, the other thing I did was give every link a descriptive, appropriate title. Whilst obviously this doesn't have the same weight as a <h1> element, I've seen searches within the site on google prefer pages which contain links with a title attribute matching search terms, sometimes even preferring them over the linked pages (which have the search term in a h1 tag)

peter_h

17-08-2003, 17:54/05:54PM

I can see the purpose of utilizing the title attribute of an img. Infact the title attribute was introduced into HTML4 to stop sloppy programmers using the content the alt attribute, which is needed by assistive devices, as a tool tip. This is why if you use both the alt and title attributes of an img the title will be shown as the tool tip.

The ALT attribute is intended to be used as alternative text where the IMG is not being displayed, not as a tooltip. Area, applet and input also allow alt to be used when the element cannot be rendered properly.

Support for the title attribute was introduced in MSIE4, Netscape 6 now supports it.

g1smd

17-08-2003, 18:57/06:57PM

The title attribute usually belongs on an <a > anchor tag, rather than on the <img> tag that it might enclose.

The alt attribute is a required part of an <img> tag.

TiMoGo

17-08-2003, 19:06/07:06PM

About 6 months ago, I had one of my customers complain that I didn't have either tag.

I spent two days just adding them. I used both the tag and the attribute just to make sure I got the right one.

My site, which had no other changes during that time, jumped from 43 to 12 under my main keyword. I also showed great improvement in other keywords and it was the first time I ever ranking #1 in any search.

So, IMHO, I will use both in EVERY opportunity I get.

I do realize that other aspects may have contributed to this... My site was on the net for a year at that point... other sites may have linked to me at that time.... etc....

But it is a practice that I will do until it proves to be something that hurts me.

I will get off my box now... sry.

AskMeNoQuestions

17-08-2003, 20:08/08:08PM

Well, it's easy for me to say it, as I do dynami sites so I just update the templates... BUt

Always put a title tag on links!

It makes the mouseovers nicer, it lets people using opera/lynx, etc get a better list of links, it helps blind people, and solves world hunger

And it seems to help in SERPS too...

peter_h

18-08-2003, 03:12/03:12AM

g1smd wrote

-----------------------------
The title attribute usually belongs on an <a > anchor tag, rather than on the <img> tag that it might enclose.

The alt attribute is a required part of an <img> tag.

-----------------------------

http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/alt/alt-text.html talks about the correct usage of the alt and title attributes of img

Peter

DLSWeb

19-08-2003, 00:16/12:16AM

I spent two days just adding them. I used both the title tag and the attribute just to make sure I got the right one.

My site, which had no other changes during that time, jumped from 43 to 12 under my main keyword. I also showed great improvement in other keywords and it was the first time I ever ranking #1 in any search.
I have grown to see whatever Sharon and Roy says as proven fact, but I wonder if the search engines might use these tags as secondary relevence based on keywords that have been established on a page by primary factors? Meaning that they are discarded if the primary keyword relevance has not been established for the page.

If this is the case then the title tags would not have been indexed for the pages tested by Sharon and Roy therefore not found in subsequent searches.

Any thoughts that the SE's may have gotten this sophisticated?
Useful idea or another of those SEO fantasies??????????

DLSWeb

19-08-2003, 00:35/12:35AM