BUToW: Mysterious Links
Category: Design...
Posted Monday, June 30, 2003 at 08:42 AM [GMT-6]

I don't have to tell you how important links are in the blogosphere, but I will, anyway. Links are very important. So it's worth spending a little time making sure that your links are optimized for your visitors' use and enjoyment.

Here's a little test. Which of the following links are you more likely to follow, being the busy little blog-reader I know you to be:

If you let your cursor linger momentarily over each link, you should have noticed that the second two had little popup descriptions of what you will find at the other end. I'm sure you know that these descriptions come from the title attribute of the anchor (link) HTML tag. The question is, are you using the title attribute on your links?

I suggest that you consider doing so, even though it is more work. (It's not all about you...you do know that, right?) It gives your visitor an extra clue about where you're about to send her. That clue might be the reason someone decides not to follow it, and you've just saved him a few seconds, thereby earning his eternal gratitude and possible a place in his will.

The title attribute is also useful for expressing an editorial opinion about the link, or in adding humor (see Anil's Daily Links for multiple examples of both).

As icing on the cake, the link title attribute is also included by some search engines in computing keyword relevancy scores. Anyone not interested in improving their SE rankings?

Is there a situation where the title attribute is not necessary? A purist would say "no," but I'm no purist, so I'll say "maybe." If you are quite diligent in providing a strong descriptive context for your link, you can probably get away with not using a title. In the example above, such a context might be this: "Here's a story about a janitor who mistakes an art exhibit for trash, and trashes it." But most of us want to provide a little more mystery to our posts. My advice is to keep the mystery to a moderate level, for your reader's sake.

This is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of simple tips for making your blog more usable and/or accessible to your readers. Please feel free to leave comments about this tip, or to suggest ideas for future tips. Past tips will be archived in the Blog Usability category (duh!).
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Comments

Wait, what do you mean it's not all about me?!? :o)

Posted by: bryan at June 30, 2003 09:03 AM

Bryan, you're right; I misspoke. I meant to write, "It's not all about you...other than Bryan, of course; you do know that, don't you?" I hope you'll forgive my outrageous transgression. Chalk it up to pre-TdF jitters.

;-)

Posted by: Eric at June 30, 2003 09:07 AM

Hey, what a great tip!

OK. What was going to make this Comment so damned funny was how when you hovered over the link it presented the description "Click Me! Click Me! Click Me!" which, when clicked would take you to my site.

I was foiled when MT stripped that part of the HTML. This is all your fault, Eric.

Posted by: Natalie at June 30, 2003 12:23 PM

How odd, and yet, strangely ironic. The exception proves the rule. And I remain The LinkMaster®.

But thanks for trying; you gave it a good effort!

Posted by: Eric at June 30, 2003 12:34 PM

Hey, no prob, Eric. But I think the "it's all about me" gene extends well beyond my fair blog.

And hey, what can I say about the tour other than: one more chance for the French to take it from a Texan! :o)

Posted by: bryan at June 30, 2003 05:00 PM
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