Forum Moderators: open
The Lesson: I must somehow add my name to my pages. But I don't want to be egotistical.
A Solution?: I developed the following so my name is invisible, and put this on my pages:
(external style...)
<style>
.hide {color:same_as_background; font-size:5%; line-height:2px}
</style>
<div class="hide">My name, My Long Name, My Nick Name</div>
The question: will search engines be wise to this? If so, how else can I solve my problem?
"This page © 2004 My long name."
Then it's visible, unobtrusive, and not egotistical since it serves a legitimate legal purpose. :)
<h1><h2>Of course, even better would simply be to get a few inbound links using the varieties of your name as link text. As the search phrase will be far from competitive (unless your name is Bill Gates), it would be simple to get the required result.
But I wouldn't recommend it. Hidden text is cowardly, and most people would agree it's spammy. You may never get caught, but if you do it's banishment for sure for using spammy techniques to hide text.
<div class="invisible">viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra viagra </div>
best regards,
httpwebwitch
Do you mean img alt text?
I'm not sure I follow...
will your reliable sources give you a heads up before google starts looking ;)? Why risk it?
Is this some meta tag I don't know of?
The correct name for the alt text is the alt attribute.
There is also a title attribute being discussed.
IE incorrectly displays the alt attribute on hover. Other browsers like Opera, Moz and Firefox display the title attribute if being used.
The alt attribute's purpose is for describing the content of an image. Not for stuffing keyword phrases. If you are using themed imagery, then your alt attributes will most likely contain keyword phrases. No more than 80 characters for the alt attribute. The shorter the better.
The title attribute is usually used to describe a link. If the link text itself is not descriptive enough, then utilization of the title attribute may come into play. This is strictly a usability issue. If the link text is descriptive enough, don't stuff the title attribute.
FWIW: I rank very well for my real name, which surprised me, it appears only once in the footer of my page, it's not in a link and it's not a heading element, just bog standard <p> text... but Some sites have used my real name in the link text when linking to my pages... so IMHO that is the answer.. and would work whether the text was hidden or not.
Suzy
...Use the alt text...thats the best way ,you can even put a page of content there....
Really? Is it not correct the SE's limit the number of words they scan in the alt txt tag? I recall reading somewhere G only reads the first 8 or 9 words, but not sure about that? Anyone know?
...IE incorrectly displays the alt attribute on hover. Other browsers like Opera, Moz and Firefox display the title attribute if being used...
Do not believe that is so as it is not an error by IE at all. The old research I have done on alt tags clearly say it's only purpose it so the user knows what the graphic is about in a few words, i.e. we put a photo of Pittsburgh PA on a site recently, without its correct alt tag you would likely not know the name of the city.
Alt text is also for use by the handicapped. Displaying the Title would be an incorrect and quite odd use and would serve no real purpose at all as the image may not be related to the title. IMO you have this backwards.
About getting your name indexed in the SE I think the best way is to mention it in the context you own the copyright. You can mention a business name or personal name (or both at same time) using that method, and is something I have done successfully myself. Putting your name next to the copyright in quotes makes this technique even more effective.
[edited by: trader at 6:55 pm (utc) on Nov. 21, 2004]
Perhaps some rarely used 2nd tier browsers like the ones you mention do it wrong. In all my yrs on the web I have never noticed an image display the title attribute, it's always the alt tag that is read.
P.S. It's possible some html coders may typein the web-site title in the alt tag as an easy way to use it rather than bother to use the correct img description, and that may be confusing you?
<a href="foo.html" title="fooish discussions">
<img src="chatter.gif" alt="two people talking"
title="Silhouette of a man and a woman sharing a pleasant conversation." />
</a>
[edit]I just tested with my site. With just an ALT atribute, IE6 displayed the content of ALT whilst Firefox displayed nothing on hover. With an ALT and a TITLE, both IE6 and Firefox displayed the TITLE - I was a little suprised about IE6 on the second test, but it just proved my point anyway. Sorry, I really posted that link earlier so I didn't have to post again to force this further off topic. Sorry guys.[/edit]
[edit again]Silhouette of a man and a woman sharing a pleasant conversation.[/edit]
Now think about that, if you are stuffing the alt attribute with irrelevant text, what would the user with images turned off have to say about that? ;)
There really is no best way to hide text so it will get indexed, not without risks. There are many creative ways that you could easily incorporate your name into the structure of a site without it being too overly obvious. ;)
Anyway, I'd rather delay a little personal gratification to work towards universal standards. Just my approach of course...
The problem is essentially this: indexes like google have decided that my keywords are not enough to list me. So I have to decide not to be indexed or to add the proper "content" that will be indexed. In this case the words in question are my name, which I don't want to slap all over the site, as anyone at the site knows perfectly well whose site it is.
I've decided on a conservative hack: I've added one line of my name in various forms and colored it the same color as the bg of the page with an ext. css file. The size is normal. The only disadvantage is an extra "line" of whitespace.
I'm enjoying this conversation... thanks.
What would be displayed in this situation?
<a href="foo.html" title="fooish discussions"><img src="chatter.gif" alt="two people talking" title="Silhouette of a man and a woman sharing a pleasant conversation." /></a>
In IE, the title attribute of the image.
In Opera, the title attribute of the image.
In Firefox, the title attribute of the image.
The second title attribute in this instance would override the first. The above would be incorrect implementation of the alt attribute and title attribute on the img. Since the image is linked, the title attribute should be assigned to the a href and the alt attribute to the image. No title attribute on the image.
[edited by: pageoneresults at 9:06 pm (utc) on Nov. 21, 2004]
P.S. I really could care less how Firefox or other 2nd tier browsers use the tags. Why not only worry about IE who probably has at least 90% of the market?
This all makes no sense, the title attrib goes in the top of the page, and is typically used one time only.
No, you are referring to the title element. We are discussing the title attribute. They are two different things.
the two are different as P1R already said.. ;)
the <title>This is your title</title> element does only appear once per page but the title attribute serves an altogether different purpose...
The Title attribute [w3.org]
visual browsers frequently display the title as a "tool tip" (a short message that appears when the pointing device pauses over an object). Audio user agents may speak the title information in a similar context.
The Alt attribute [w3.org]
let authors specify alternate text to serve as content when the element cannot be rendered normally.
IE maybe doesn't have it "wrong" per se it's just that it displays the alt attribute as the tooltip on hover on an image if there is no title attribute present.. others just display the title attribute which as far as I can deduce is correct..
Suzy
This is also mostly a moot point IMO as most all web-pages I have seen use the Alt exclusively regarding images, and not a Title there, though there are apparently some of us who use a Title with images I was not aware of, but am fairly positive it would be somewhat of a rare usage.
You could also refer to my post above about "standards" and research the "standards" issue. Very illuminating. The reason web standards haven't made much progress seems to be that most people want to code for today, and can't afford to code for the future.
Also (not to step on anyone's toes), IE is the #$%&-iest browser out there, even though it does have ~90+% of the market share. An apt analogy would be the US not complying with international law because the US has a big army. That is, "strength"!= "moral highground." I don't want to turn this into a political debate, or offend anyone, but if you haven't noticed many major issues in the field of computing (open source vs. proprietary software, browser wars...) are philosophical and political, not simply technical issues.
Try doing a google search for "IE factor" or "no IE".
Happy surfing.
Since the image is linked, the title attribute should be assigned to the a href and the alt attribute to the image. No title attribute on the image.
Thanks pageoneresults for that info! I had no idea that linking an image would change where the title attribute was placed.
"will your reliable sources give you a heads up before google starts looking ;)? Why risk it?
nope. I sure wish they would, but I'm quite a few degrees of separation away from the people who control the indexes.
A website called "SloppyJoes" can use alt text that says "Joe Salami's Sloppy Joe's Website" and get indexed for Joe Salami.
Just to be perfectly clear, my suggestion was in no way "stuffing" the alt attribute. The poster wanted his name on the site, but not visible.
My example put his name into the (masthead?) image, properly scripted as important alt info for that image on that site, useful for sreen readers, SEs, etc.
