Google Ignores Link Title Attributes, Acronym & ABBR Tags?
Recently I discussed a few observations about how Google treats certain elements of a page – a meta description test and keyword in the uri test. The test page itself has a few other points of interest:
Does Google Count The Acronym Tag?
As usual, I look at what I rank for, in this case the following search….
…and add a modifier and see if my page is returned. I use numbers rather than words sometimes – this time a number was in the acronym tag and not on the page.
Well you can see from the SERPS my page is gone.
It’s not lost on me that acronyms are meant to be for – er – words, not numbers. Maybe a relevent acronym tag is rewarded – though I have used proper acronyms in the past plenty of times – and removed – them – and replaced them, with no apparent benefit.
Any way from observing how the test page ranks – Google is ignoring it the acronym tag in this instance.
Other observations include a keyword (number) in the;
- Link Title Attribute – no benefit passed via the link either to another page, it seems
- ABBR (Abreviation Tags) – No
- Image File Name – No
- Wrapping words (or at least numbers) in SCRIPT – No, effectively ignored by Google
It’s clear many invisible elements of a page are completely ignored by Google (that would interest us seo).
Some invisible items are (still) aparently supported:
- NOFRAMES – Yes
- NOSCRIPT – Yes
- ALT Attribute – Yes
Recent shares:
- Does Google count keywords the meta description?
- Does Google count a keyword in the URL?
- Does Google ignore meta keyword tags?
Note – It’s worth pointing out Google seems to be indexing most the invisible elements apart from keywords in the SCRIPT & some META, as you can see for yourself using the info: operator.
Written by Shaun Anderson
I’ve been reading your recent blogs about testing google rankings for various elements with interest. How do you know that the number tests are relevant? eg doe Google treat random numbers the same as words?
Good question Anne – in all cases, I don’t. It’s all observations – in most cases numbers should be treated as keywords, and in some, are. That’s why you should test for your self or try and find real world examples. I’ve knew some of these results for years – just thought I’d pop them in my blog for us to discuss….
Shaun, just wanted to say thanks for sharing your findings on all this testing you’ve been doing! It’s truly useful and many others would rather keep it to themselves…
Keep it up (please?)!
Maybe they are smarter. Anyways I needed stuff to blog about….
I guess this is a typo: in the uri test – shoulr d be URL, right?
otherwise you’ll have to explain to me what an URI is …
Hi Shaun,
Always follow your emails with interest; Did you mean if an a tag has a title attribute you think that stops the link from passing value on? (can you just clarify that bit please).
No not at all. I am just putting forward perhaps the link title attribute isn’t part of Google’s ranking algorithms. Looks that way to me.
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Minor point, but I wouldn’t refer to the noscript element as invisible. It’s visible (or at least it ought to be, unless you’re using CSS to format it as invisible) to any user without JS enabled, including Googlebot.
Bob, of course, you are correct
Don’t you still use the Qwerty moniker these days?
I’d be curious how you test results.
I know that many times I have to test ranking activity using a proxy. Google search behavior is dependent on so much user activity, especially when ‘logged in’ to Google, and the results YOU get are most likely not representative of what the average user would get. (at least in terms of ranking)
Unless you clear cookies frequently, somehow figure out how to turn off Google’s user activity data mining, you’re getting somewhat skewed results.
Of course. Private Browsing, Proxy, different computers… though I don’t think personalisation/customisation would affect most of these type of tests I am sharing.
hi Shaun,
Steve
I think your recent tests could be summed up as this…
If it is INVISIBLE to the human user, it is INVISIBLE to google too! Common sense prevails!
PS. It is still good to “prove” these things instead of assuming them… never assume anything!
Hey, Shaun.
Yeah, I’ve tested the link title attribute a few times and I’m in agreement. It doesn’t “seem” to get indexed/counted.
Cheers!
Ken