Member Avatar for Pho3niXnz

Hi,

I was wondering if was possible to put an alt label over text(So that when I hover over it it tells me something about the link). I have been able to do it with images but I have some links on my site that are in text that arent very clear on their links/destination.

Thanks :)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jb1ker

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: the tooltip approach mentioned by and confirmed by will show a hover hint, but it has important limits. The title attribute produces a simple advisory tooltip on many desktop browsers, but it is not the same as an image alt and should not be relied on for essential information (MDN: title attribute).

Why that matters: tooltips created by title are often invisible to mobile users (no hover), and many assistive technologies either ignore title or expose it inconsistently. Keyboard-only users may never trigger the tooltip. For accessible, reliable hints use ARIA-friendly patterns or visible text; the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices describe accessible tooltip behavior and alternatives (WAI-ARIA tooltip pattern).

Practical recommendations for and others:

  • Prefer clear, descriptive link text first — make the destination obvious without hovering.
  • Use supplemental descriptions only for non-essential extra detail.
  • For screen-reader-accessible supplemental text, use aria-describedby pointing to a visually hidden element. Example pattern:
<a href="/manual.pdf" aria-describedby="desc-manual">User manual</a>
<span id="desc-manual" class="sr-only">Download the user manual (PDF, 3.2 MB)</span>

.sr-only {
  position: absolute;
  left: -10000px;
  top: auto;
  width: 1px;
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

SEO/accessibility note: as said, alt attributes belong on images and are important for accessibility and image search; do not substitute title in place of alt (MDN: img alt). Use title only for small, non-critical hints and prefer visible or ARIA-based descriptions for anything essential.

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Member Avatar for Grasshopper_

What software are you using to build/edit your website?

Member Avatar for mineko_panda

The way to do it is like this:

<a href="index.html" title="The main page of a website">Home</a>


I hope this example helps. It gives you a little pop up box with the info like alt text would do for an image. :)

Member Avatar for wickedsunny

yup mineko solved it. its not an alt label in the test its called the title tag. just add title="text u want to display" thts it

Member Avatar for jb1ker

Hi

Make sure you write 'rich descriptions' in your alt labels' as Google values Alt attributes in SEO (more and more).

Grtz J

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