Short text linking to main article

[Frank_Rizzo]

Is this a bad idea to link to articles from a summary page by using the whole text?

[h1]Widget Corp Profits Up[/h1]
[a href="widgets"]Widget corp today announce new trading figures which shows that widget purchase is on the increase. Vice President Homer Simpson revealed the figures...[/a]

as opposed to the traditional

[h1]Widget Corp Profits Up[/h1]
Widget corp today announce new trading figures which shows that widget purchase is on the increase. Vice President Homer Simpson revealed the figures...[a href="widgets"]Read More[/a]

I'm thinking that the first part may be better for highlighting keywords. In the second part, all the links say Read More, Read More etc.

Is it bad ettiquette to link a complete block of text? Is it considered spam?

[dmorison]

Is this a bad idea to link to articles from a summary page by using the whole text?

I don't think so, in fact I quite like the effect - a few of the news sites do this with headlines. It is excellent from a usability point of view - none of this "Read more..." business that only makes your visitor work harder.

Is it considered spam?

Doubt it; if anything it goes against what would be good SEO as far as anchor text is concerned by not being specific enough.

[jimbeetle]

As a user I like the first option better, it's easier to click on the block of text than finding the 'more' and I also think that it looks much cleaner.

I don't think it would be spammy as long as not all the text on a page wind up as links.

There's also this Is H1 tag still effective [webmasterworld.com] thread which talks about h1 styling and overuse on a page, so you might consider making those h1s into h3s, 4s or whatever else fits your page.

Jim

[Jenstar]

Another alternative way is:

[h1][a href="widgets"]Widget Corp Profits Up[/a][/h1]
Widget corp today announce new trading figures which shows that widget purchase is on the increase. Vice President Homer Simpson revealed the figures...[a href="widgets"]Read More[/a]

If I am scanning article snippets to decide what to read, or find something in particular, I find it annoying to try and read a chunk of hyperlinked text, especially depending on the font and link color on the page. Some work, while others are horrendous.

[Frank_Rizzo]

I just tried it out. I think it's a good idea as I don't have any formating for the hover etc. - just rely on the arrow changing to pointing finger to indicate a link.

One thing is starting to bug me though. If I have the main page in the background, and another popup window on the foreground, then to go back to main page I just click on the background. Now if the mouse just happens to be on the link text (most likely) then I don't get the main page but I click through to the article which I didn't really want!

Hmm, usability / looks = ~

[Jenstar]

Not sure what the pop-up is for - could you change it to be a pop-under instead? That would eliminate the accidental clicking on the links if a user doesn't close the pop-up first.

[Frank_Rizzo]

What I mean is, any kind of popup window like a TV box, media player, calculator etc.

To bring focus back the web page I click on the web page, but if I just happen to be on the link text then I get pushed through to the main article page and not the front page I wanted.