Is Using title attribute in hyperlinks better for SEO?

Forum Moderators: phranque

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Is Using title attribute in hyperlinks better for SEO?

Mark_A

11:57 am on Aug 12, 2010 (gmt 0)

I have always had

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/page.htm">Name of The Link</a>

But I see some use the following:

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/page.htm" title="Name of The Link">Name of The Link</a>

Is either one or the other better for SEO?

phranque

12:50 pm on Aug 12, 2010 (gmt 0)

i don't think things have changed much since, for example this WebmasterWorld discussion:
TITLE attribute for Anchor (A HREF) tag:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/supporters/3449895.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Mark_A

2:08 pm on Aug 12, 2010 (gmt 0)

Unfortunately phranque I am not presently "subscribed" to go into the inner sanctum :-)

Could you summarise the conclusion of it for me?

phranque

3:13 pm on Aug 12, 2010 (gmt 0)

sorry - i didn't notice that was in a subscriber's forum.
here is the summary version:
Title Attribute for Links:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/7351.htm#msg255364 [webmasterworld.com]
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Mark_A

7:58 pm on Aug 12, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks for that ...

So, that suggests that using the title tag in an A HREF link does not affect SEO.

Should I use it anyhow? in case it at some point does have an effect... I wonder..

phranque

11:03 pm on Aug 12, 2010 (gmt 0)

you should use it for the usability benefits when it is appropriate to do so.
here are some more threads covering that aspect:
Using "title" in links [webmasterworld.com]
The Title Attribute - Does Your Website Stutter? [webmasterworld.com]

Mark_A

7:26 am on Aug 13, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks for that.

SteveWh

11:28 am on Aug 13, 2010 (gmt 0)

Rather than duplicating Name of The Link, I'd be more inclined to use the title attribute for short additional descriptive text that might help a user decide whether that link contains the type of info about the topic that they're looking for.

Mark_A

1:05 pm on Aug 13, 2010 (gmt 0)

Yes, that might be a useful thing to do. tbh I never knew you could use the title tag on so many things, I may well use it in future even though it seems at the moment not to have a discernable SEO advantage.