12 replies to this topic

[tommr]

I am plowing ahead on my new site and was wondering about title tags in links from page to page on my site.

Most of what I have found seems a bit dated but the big question I have is should they NOT duplicate the anchor text?

[iamlost]

Please... not title tag but title attribute.
It is an optional attribute of the 'a' (anchor) and 'link' elements.

The point of the title attribute is to describe the nature, point, or destination of the link. In other words to tell (in a Twitter length or less description) what will be found at the link's destination.

Yes, they can duplicate anchor text but frankly that is rather a wasted opportunity. I consider anchor text a call to action - why the visitor should click the link and the title attribute an accessibility aid - be it tooltip or screen reader speech or what have you - explaining what will be found there.

However, personnal preferences and site requirements do differ.

[jonbey]

The only time I used them on a link was once on my main nav to help explain what each button was for. Do not see the point in them. Makes sense on images as it can provide some handy info, but on words?

[tommr]

So I can use "alt" and "title" on images?

[cre8pc]

Don't bother with words (text) links, as the words are visible and available for audio.

And then everything iamlost said

You can use alt and title attributes for images but they can't be the exact same thing. One to describe the image and one for call to action.

[joedolson]

Title attributes do *not* aid accessibility - if anything, they harm it. The most common case scenario for title attributes is that they are completely missed by assistive technology -- this is because, by default, they can only be triggered using a mouse in a visual browser. They are completely absent in any assistive technology (again, by default.)

If a user of assistive technology has title attribute reading enabled, this usually is more of a problem than a benefit: largely, because of gross misuse of the title attribute. The title attribute should only be used to provide additional non-essential information that is NOT a duplicate of existing information. This is an extremely rare circumstance; and usually the best solution is to change the text of the text link.

So, from an accessibility and usability standpoint, you should *usually* choose to omit the title attribute on everything - images and links.

The alt attribute, on the other hand, you should always include on images. (And is not relevant to links.)

You certainly can use the title attribute - but you should keep in mind that any copy in the title attribute should be completely non-critical, since users of assistive technology, phones, and tablets will never see them.

[jonbey]

The alt attribute, on the other hand, you should always include on images. (And is not relevant to links.)

Somebody once told me, possible here, that on design features of a website alt should not be used (with possible exception of a alt="company logo").

Is that right?

[joedolson]

The alt attribute should always be used - period. However, in some cases, it should be left blank.

For most design-only images, the ideal is that the image should be used as a background image, in which case alt attributes are irrelevant. However, if you are using an image in your site that is purely decorative, it should have a blank alt attribute.

The blank alt attribute communicates to screen readers that this is an image that should be ignored -- if there's no alt attribute, that is ambiguous, so screen readers will attempt to describe the image using it's file address. That can be really awful as a user experience. A blank alt attribute gives a much better experience.

Any image that is linked should always have an alt attribute equivalent to what would be appropriate link text for the image.

[tommr]

I always use alt tags on images so the search companies can pick out my images. And they do. For example do a web search for "dragonfly wedding favors" and my ornament shows up.

[TheAlex]

I've used the title attribute to say "opens in new window" on external links.

[tommr]

In the past I used the title attribute with the idea that it made the site more accessible for screen readers mainly because a blind friend of mine said so.
After doing some more research I find that in fact some of the search companies view title tags as spammy.
So I am taking them off as soon as I can download the entire site and do a find and replace.
Here is where the new CMS would save time!

[tam]

If the image is just decor ie. to look pretty then it should be alt="" if the image is text then the alt would be the text eg "about us", in most cases it should be the exact text on the image, don't use it to keyword stuff.

Product images are a bit more tricky. For example "dragonfly wedding favors" isn't a great alt tag. That's information already in the text of the page. What would be better would be a description of the favor - imagine you're talking to a customer on the phone and they ask what it looks like, you might say "blue dragon fly favor, about half an inch tall, made from fine netting with sown eyes". But, some of that might be in visible text on the page anyway so not necessary to repeat in image alts.

[fisicx]

I've used the title attribute to say "opens in new window" on external links.

Not much use is the device doesn't support tooltips...

In any case, the page content should tell me if a link is going to open in a new window. That way I can choose to open it in a new tab if I want.