alt-text in hyperlink tags

any use for better ranking?

[RonPK]

One of my clients just got a report from a SEO-company advising him to use the alt-attribute in hyperlinks. They claim this should improve ranking in (unnamed) SE's.

<a href="blue_widgets.html" alt="affordable, lovely widgets">blue widgets</a>

Any thoughts on this advice? (I know that alt is not a valid attribute for the a-element, but that is not really an issue in this case).

[le_gber]

You should use the title attribute for links and read the following thread ;)

[webmasterworld.com...]

Leo

[RonPK]

Thx, Leo. Nice thread, however there's nothing about using the alt-attribute in hyperlinks.

Over the years I've seen a lot of web page source code, but I cannot recall ever seeing <a href="bla.html" alt="keywords">. I'm the one who has to implement the advise in the SEO report, and I don't want to ruin my webmaster reputation by using a possibly useless alt-tag ;)

[le_gber]

The title attribute is a proper attribute of the <a> tag.
It does the same visual trick (ie a yellow box coming up with the title of your link in it - working in IE, NN7 and opera 7) as the alt do and I think it's even good for the site usability.

<a href="mypage.htm" title="title of my link">Link</a>

In the thread I send you a link to it's talked about as:

title attribute: 1 point

Don't know if it still works but I always use it anyway.

Leo

[richardb]

It depends upon the SE

For a resent...

[webmasterworld.com...]

Search Hippo - site tells WM how to optimise, in brief.

Rich