The Often Overlooked TITLE Attribute
Posted: January 17th, 2008
In the course of researching and reviewing a variety websites online, I have come across some that follow good SEO practices, but seem to overlook the same basic SEO elements. I bring to your attention one of them.
The TITLE Attribute
Although most search engine optimizers will remember to use the ALT attribute for their images, they often forget to optimize other page elements via the TITLE attribute. This attribute is similar to ALT in that it’s used to describe the nature and purpose of an element.
Of particular interest is its use in the <a> html tags. Applying the TITLE attribute here is a great way to further describe the nature of a link beyond what the surrounding text is already. Would you ever forget using anchor text? Well throw in the title attribute too! Using this attribute will also display a tooltip box upon mouseover of the link.
Take for example,
<a href="http://www.SearchEnginePanel.com"> Search Engine Panel</a>
and
<a href="http://www.SearchEnginePanel.com" title="search engine optimization and marketing blog"> Search Engine Panel</a>
which will produce the links Search Engine Panel and Search Engine Panel, the latter of which has a nice little mouseover. Try placing your cursor over them now. 
The TITLE attribute can also be used with other html tags including the TABLE and FORM tags, which would be used to describe the nature of the tables and/or forms you have created.
Have a look at your websites now. Do all your links, tables, and forms all apply the TITLE attribute? I know that a couple of mine don’t.
Thanks for sharing this tip. I’ve been seeing the effect on other blogs, but I never thought to ask how it was done. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad to have helped you.
A lot of people just assume that the mouseover part will just be there when you create a link, when in fact you have to include it yourself.
Hi!
We’ve been using the title attribute with WordPress but we are not sure if it enhances the SEO of our site or the the site we link out to.
Hi JB,
Including this attribute probably won’t really boost your rankings in itself, but it is semantic mark-up after all. It helps to paint a better picture of your website, and will have a greater impact when combined with other SEO techniques.
The title attribute is particularly useful for websites with little content since it can help describe the purposes of tables and forms.
You know I’ve been involved in SEO for many years and I’ve never seen anyone mention this.
I’ve even written sales copy for some of the world’s leading SEO expert.
This is really cool and I’m betting it would make a real SEO difference to on page elements like embedded videos that don’t have alt tags.
Thank you so much for the tip.
Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh
Hi Andrew, it sure gets overlooked doesn’t it?