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Make it easier for Search Engines & Blind people to understand your site by using ALT text and Anchor Text in Links

Anchor Text

Anchor Text

A lot of the time people do not know what a link is about till they click on it, but a lot of people are too lazy to click on a link. It is even harder for search engines and blind people to know what the link is about since they do not use eyes to read a website. They use text, and their computer speakers to read the ALT text and Anchor text for a link with a screen reader program.

For Example, if I made a link like http://johnsonyip.com, people would not really know what my website is about without visiting it. It can be about a guy or girl named Johnson who is Chinese, or it could be about a caucasion guy named Yip with Johnson as his last name.

But, if I made a link like Johnson Yip’s Windows PC Tutorials with “Johnson Yip’s Windows PC Tutorials” Anchor text and “Learn How to use Software and Hardware in Windows” as ALT text which shows up in a text bubble when someone hovers their mouse’s arrow over the link. The person will know the site is about Windows PC hardware and software tutorials for Windows PC. Try to use Anchor text and ALT text sparingly since long Anchor text and ALT text don’t look good, and some search engine companies might consider it keyword spamming if you stuff your ALT text full of keywords, and remove your site from their directory, or lower your search rank.

If you use a WYSIWYG website builder like MS Front page, Adobe Dreamweaver, Nvu, or a Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, phpBB which all have built in wizards for making text links and image links with Anchor text and ALT Text. All you have to do is high light the text you want to anchor in your paragraph, and click the create link button, and type in your link and alt text. But, if you still use a text editor like notepad to make websites, continue reading this post to see sample HTML code for ALT and Anchor text for your text and image links you code into your website HTML file.

You also might be interested in my Importance of adding Pictures to your websites and blog posts to improve SEO and User satisfaction article.

Sample HTML ALT and Anchor Text code for Text

<a title=”Learn How to use Software and Hardware in Windows” href=”http://johnsonyip.com”>Johnson Yip’s Windows PC Tutorials</a>

It is also a good idea to give alt Text to your images, so blind people, and search engines know what the picture is about.

Sample Picture HTML code with ALT text code

<img src=”http://johnsonyip.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/normal_picture_frame_jakob_chao_.png” alt=”Picture are great for websites” >

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