what is the difference between anchor text and hypertext?

[ryan4444]

what is the difference between anchor text and hypertext?

Cheers

Ryan

 

[David Peters]

Hypertext is text displayed on a computer with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse . On the other hand,anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.The words contained in the anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines.

 

[ryan4444]

Hypertext is text displayed on a computer with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse .

so is hypertext not clickable?
when you say immediately access by mouse does that mean hypertext is always on the same page?

sorry just trying to clarify

Thanks

Ryan

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Hypertext and anchor text are one and the same really.
Technically Hypertext is the markup hence http (as in hypertext tranfer protocol)

but in common terms, the text you click on to go to a page is anchor text, it can be plain text, or via an 'alt img attribute. It is the anchor text that carries the semantic link juice.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Click here is simple hypertext EG a link that is any link

What is Anchor Text is anchor text - it is descriptive in regards to the following content, So anchor text is better for search engines as opposed to randon mypertext links which may not be "anchor text" links but merely any old link with no "anchor" description.

 

[DotNetWebs]

Click here is simple hypertext EG a link that is any link

What is Anchor Text is anchor text - it is descriptive in regards to the following content, So anchor text is better for search engines as opposed to randon mypertext links which may not be "anchor text" links but merely any old link with no "anchor" description.

I would argue that both your examples are technically anchor text.

It's just that the second one if more 'semantic' or effective for SEO purposes.

Regards

Dotty

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

where is the anchor in "Click here" then?

The whole point of "anchor text" is that it has descriptive meaningful keywords and/or pharses in DotNetWebs.

That's what "anchor text" means!

Click here links contain no anchor text.

 

[DotNetWebs]

where is the anchor in "Click here" then?

The whole point of "anchor text" is that it has descriptive meaningful keywords and/or pharses in DotNetWebs.

That's what "anchor text" means!

The anchor text, link label or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.

i.e "Click here" IS anchor text - whether it's relevant or useful or not is another story!

Regards

Dotty

 

[cmcp]

what is the difference between anchor text and hypertext?

Cheers

Ryan

Basically hypertext is just normal text on a page, anchor text is text contained within an anchor tag (ie, a link). Also known as an anchor link. Listen to OWG.

where is the anchor in "Click here" then?

The whole point of "anchor text" is that it has descriptive meaningful keywords and/or pharses in DotNetWebs.

That's what "anchor text" means!

Click here links contain no anchor text.

You're trying to be smart with the wording. The anchor text in "Click here" is "Click here". It's the text within the anchor.

The element is the anchor, the content of the element is the text.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Badly written Wikipedia articles are not a good reference Sir.

the whole point of the word "anchor" in anchor text is that it gives some useful and relevant information in order to get indexed in a correct way.

A link like "click here" is not a true anchor text link it merely a html link EG hyperlink, that is of no meaningful use when it comes to being recognised by a search engines spider when it comes to the relevance of the "anchor" text content.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/17/1/Anchor-text-explained/

Even that above explains that better than the wiki article

 

[DotNetWebs]

Basically hypertext is just normal text on a page, anchor text is text contained within an anchor tag (ie, a link). Also known as an anchor link. Listen to OWG.



You're trying to be smart with the wording. The anchor text in "Click here" is "Click here". It's the text within the anchor.

The element is the anchor, the content of the element is the text.

Exactly the <a> means it's an Anchor Element and the text contained by that element is by definition Anchor Text.

Wiki was probably the wrong thing to link to - W3C would be more appropriate.

Regards

Dotty

 

[DotNetWebs]

http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/17/1/Anchor-text-explained/

Even that above explains that better than the wiki article

Even your own links says:

"Anchor text USUALLY gives your visitors useful information about the content of the page you're linking to."

i.e it doesn't have to have useful information to be defined as anchor text!

Regards

Dotty

 

[cmcp]

http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/17/1/Anchor-text-explained/

Even that above explains that better than the wiki article

How anchor text boosts your search engine rankings


Anchor text is the hyperlinked words on a web page - the words you click on when you click a link.

Here's an example, reciprocal links, in which "reciprocal links" is the anchor text.

Anchor text usually gives your visitors useful information about the content of the page you're linking to.

Here's why anchor text is so important...

It tells search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google.

If you use "click here" as the words people are going to click on, you're telling people the page is about the subject "click here". If you use "Part 2" as the anchor text, your telling the search engines the page is discussing "part 2".

You wouldn't want to rank highly for "click here" or "Part 2".

Anchor text is so important that it's possible for a page to appear in the top 10 in Google's search results for a phrase which isn't mentioned anywhere on the page.

Some blog publishers have fun using "Google bombing" to get pages ranked highly for humorous phrases. If the phrase is obscure, only a handful of links will win the phrase a No.1 ranking. If it's highly competitive, hundreds or thousands of links might be needed.

[UPDATE: In January, 2007, Google created a new algorithm which reduced the impact of many prank Google bombs, but anchor text is still very important.]

When asking other sites to link to your site, it's a good idea to provide them with the HTML code ready to cut and paste into their page. That way, you choose the anchor text.

However, if your site is all about purple widgets, you don't want only "purple widgets" to be used as the phrase in every link to your site. Over-optimizing like that would create an unnatural pattern.

You can use anchor text in:

• External links - links from other sites
• Internal links - links on your pages
• Navigation maps
• Links on your main page. A very important spot.

Remember that real live humans will read your links as well as search engines, so the words in your anchor text need to make sense!

That explains nothing, in fact it reinforces what you're being told by others. Read the w3 pages, text to search for "source anchor is the text".

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Basically hypertext is just normal text on a page, anchor text is text contained within an anchor tag (ie, a link). Also known as an anchor link. Listen to OWG.



You're trying to be smart with the wording. The anchor text in "Click here" is "Click here". It's the text within the anchor.

The element is the anchor, the content of the element is the text.

I am not trying to be smart, I do SEO and in that field "Click here" or "here" is not regarded as "anchor text" wherein anchor text is supposed to supply inforamtion useful to readers and search engines alike.

If not it is merely a hyperlink. "Link" is not an anchor text link in the SEO World it is merely a hyperlink as there is no anchor text words that are descriptive for readers and search engine spiders.

Normal non linked text is not hypertext or hyperlinks it is "text content"!

 

[cmcp]

"Click here", "here" and "link" are all anchor text when used as the source with the anchor element.

 

[DotNetWebs]

I am not trying to be smart, I do SEO and in that field "Click here" or "here" is not regarded as "anchor text"....

So SEOs override the W3C do they?

In any case Old Welsh Guy, one of the most respected SEOs on this forum said in this thread:

"hypertext and anchor text are one and the same really".

Regards

Dotty

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Not in the context of SEO which is what the OP was trying to figure out.

You could argue till the cows come home that you regard "click here" "here" or "link" as anchor text but that doesnt change the fact when it comes to SEO anchor text is widely regarded as descriptive links and not simple hyperlinks.

What someone said above about normal text being hypertext is completely wrong to.

hypertext is a link

text content that does not link is just text content and not hypertext

 

[DotNetWebs]

...hypertext is a link...

Now you are confusing hypertext and hyperlinks - they are two different things.

Regards

Dotty

 

[cmcp]

Not in the context of SEO which is what the OP was trying to figure out.

You could argue till the cows come home that you regard "click here" "here" or "link" as anchor text but that doesnt change the fact when it comes to SEO anchor text is widely regarded as descriptive links and not simple hyperlinks.

What someone said above about normal text being hypertext is completely wrong to.

hypertext is a link

text content that does not link is just text content and not hypertext

Back to the drawing board.

 

Yer but,yer but,yer but.

I ain't ever been able to buy no "click here" off a site yet.?

Anchor text is generaly accepted to be a description of where you are going .product.page.information.e.t.c.

I suppose one could describle "click here" as a useless bit of anchor text.

Earl

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Now you are confusing hypertext and hyperlinks - they are two different things.

Regards

Dotty

You are wrong DotNetWebs!

hypertext is the same as hyperlinks. The word hypertext was first used by Ted Nelson in the 1960s with the first ever hypertext system called Xanadu which admittedly used links to link documents for navigation.

Now although any "link" can be regarded as an "anchoer text" link, I believe I have answered the OP's question best in regards to his actual question.

This being that he wanted to know the difference betwen "anchor text" links and "hypertext".

As things have evolved even though any link could be regarded as an "anchor text" link in the strictest sense, or a hypertext link, these days it is widely regarded that "anchor text" links are descriptive text links that provide useful info to both surfers and search engine spiders.

It is in this context I answered the OP's question in regard to what it looked like what he was asking and how those in the SEO field refer to anchor text links in the main.

Tim Berners Lee used the "hypertext" model for html and the search engines like Google etc use the descriptive "anchor text" in these hyperlinks/hypertext to index things accordingly.

This is why Google had to tweak it's algo's in order to prevent Google bombing which was in effect the misuse of what most now refer to as "anchor text".

Note I know any link can also be regarded as an "anchor text" link, but this is not the context of what the OP was getting at nor is it how most SEO professionals are refering to when they make statements like "Use good anchor text links".

The clue is in the word "anchor" EG that the anchor is the descriptive part used by surfers and search engine spiders and not just the old original "anchor" that merely means just any old non descriptive "hypertext" link between the a /a/ anchor tags.

Now obviously the argument is that the a tag contradicts what I am saying. Strictly yes that could be argued, my point is that was not what the OP was asking and also not how "anchor text" is generally referred to in this context.

As for normal text content being "hypertext" Sir you are completely wrong "text" is text", linked text is hypertext.

The clue is in the word hyper. Hypertext is text "Linked or arranged nonsequentially" and not ordinary non linked text content.

 

[cmcp]

Please, do some reading http://www.w3.org/WhatIs.html

The OP asked the difference between anchor text and hypertext. Hypertext is standard text. Anchor text is a link in hypertext.

I put it to you that you are wrong.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Please, do some reading http://www.w3.org/WhatIs.html

The OP asked the difference between anchor text and hypertext. Hypertext is standard text. Anchor text is a link in hypertext.

I put it to you that you are wrong.

I competely disagree with you - hypertext is linked text Sir and ordinary non linked text is just plain old text or text content and not "hypertext".


http://www.answers.com/topic/hypertext

Britania Encyclopedia quote >

hypertext
Linking of related information by electronic connections in order to allow a user easy access between them. Conceptualized by Vannevar Bush (1945) and invented by Douglas Engelbart in the 1960s, hypertext is a feature of some computer programs that allows the user to select a word and receive additional information, such as a definition or related material. In Internet browsers, hypertext links (hotlinks) are usually denoted by highlighting a word or phrase with a different font or colour. Hypertext links create a branching or network structure that permits direct, unmediated jumps to related information. Hypertext has been used most successfully as an essential feature of the World Wide Web (see HTML; HTTP). Hyperlinks may also involve objects other than text (e.g., selecting a small picture may provide a link to a larger version of the same picture).

unquote

This arument is pointless btw as you obviously think any text on a page even if it is not hypertext/a hyperlink is hypertext, I will let you live with your illusion me thinks, as you seem to think you know better than even a dictionary or encyclopedia says, and I dont mean Wikipedia.

 

[cmcp]

See post #24.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Right that just backs up what I have been saying fella.

Are you drunk/pissed or something? I know it's late on a Friday night but you are contradicting yourself and your link just cements what I am saying, so I have to wonder if you have had a few too many pints or something?

Or are you just trying to have a laugh of some kind?

 

[cmcp]

I'm being deadly serious! I'm of the understanding that hypertext is the markup that runs the page, which contains hyperlinks that join up the documents.

However as regards anchor text, any text within the anchor element is anchor text, as I was pointing out. I completely disagree with what you say about certain links being "anchor text" and others not.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

I'm being deadly serious! I'm of the understanding that hypertext is the markup that runs the page, which contains hyperlinks that join up the documents.

However as regards anchor text, any text within the anchor element is anchor text, as I was pointing out. I completely disagree with what you say about certain links being "anchor text" and others not.

You are either not reading what I have been saying or you are not understanding what you are reading elsewhere in regards to what "hypertext" is dude.

I have already stated anchor text can be and was traditionally regarded as any linked text to.

That is not the context the OP was referring to nor how it is referred to in regards to SEO in the main when referring to it.

This is a pointless argument as you are under the misconception that "hypertext" refers to all text and not the hypertext or hyperlink text.

Hypertext is a link Sir"!

 

[cmcp]

Hypertext is text. Hyperlink is link.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

This is getting more than a little boring and I really think you are just taking the Mick cmcp

Hypertext is the links >

http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/thonglipfei/hyper_defn.html

hyper comes from a greek derivitive meaning "over" "above" - EG click here to find out more.

Hence why I said in it's orginal online meaning "anchor text" can indeed mean any link. Now a days "anchor text" is referred to meaning the descriptive "above" or "over" and beyond explanation of the descriptive text, EG the anchor text like "What is anchor text" today (these days) what people mean when they refer to "anchor text" as opposed to "click here" which although "anchor text in the strict sense" is just hypertext or a hyperlink

Are you sure you are not just trying to take the Michael ??

 

[cmcp]

"Now a days" anchor text means the source content within the anchor element.

Hypertext is the concept of textual documents linked together by hyperlinks.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

"Now a days" anchor text means the source content within the anchor element.

Hypertext is the concept of textual documents linked together by hyperlinks.

cmcp hypertext is links and this back and forth late night thing whilst noone else is about to interject is getting us nowhere and is more than boring when I have posted link after link to prove my point and even the link you posted backs up what I say, so let's leave this to another time and see what others have to say ....

 

[cmcp]

For every link you post there are just as many on Google Scholar to define hypertext as I have.

Read back over the Ted Nelson theories. He came up with the concept when reading through files sequentially. He knew that computers would be able to link these documents together in a non sequential manner. This grouping of the text is hypertext. The links that group these in a non sequential manner are the hyperlinks.

It's a concept. The hypertext is all the text on the page. Included in this are hyperlinks, which link off to more hypertext.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

For every link you post there are just as many on Google Scholar to define hypertext as I have.

Read back over the Ted Nelson theories. He came up with the concept when reading through files sequentially. He knew that computers would be able to link these documents together in a non sequential manner. This grouping of the text is hypertext. The links that group these in a non sequential manner are the hyperlinks.

It's a concept. The hypertext is all the text on the page. Included in this are hyperlinks, which link off to more hypertext.

Like I said this is getting really boring so late in the night

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...1qlKTU&sig=AHIEtbRZaJf9VcdiSBp3URwhb7be6TGcfw

Again saying it is the links!

 

[cmcp]

Like I said this is getting really boring so late in the night

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...1qlKTU&sig=AHIEtbRZaJf9VcdiSBp3URwhb7be6TGcfw

Again saying it is the links!

You should probably read that more closely.

Night!

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Yeah maybe your right it's easy to misinterprete that

"hypertext, for all it's packaging and theories is an amazingly simple concept. It is merely a direct connection from one position in a text to another"

might not be referring to the linking.

 

[cmcp]

You've managed to extract a quote given as a misconception of hypertext.

The article explains how that quote (and a couple others) can't define hypertext as it's an intellectual term coined by a particular thinker.

It then goes on to analyse the creator, and discuss what hypertext is. From Ted Neldon "Let me introduce the word ‘hypertext’ to mean a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper.”

“Hypertext’ means forms of writing which branch or perform on request; they are best presented on computer display screens... Discrete, or
chunk style, hypertexts consist of separate pieces of text connected by links.”

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

Your undestanding & mine differ as do many scholoars in the debate as to what hypertext is

The original hypertext project >

http://www.xanadu.com/

which links to >

http://transliterature.org/

There are acedemic debates that hold opposing views on what "hypertext" is but the meaning of "hyper" in it's greek origins as I mentioned above negate the "all text" is hypertext argument just from the veiwpoint of what "hyper" implies and why it was used in this context.

 

[cmcp]

I'll stick with Ted Nelsons version.

 

[Page1SEOWriter]

I'll stick with Ted Nelsons version.

xanadu is his version...

Look at it like this way (without getting into slang net terms).

If I said a link I could be referring to a link in a chain or a link of another manner.

For example I could say let's link up at the Red Lion in "Many Towns" on "Many Dates".

You would know what I meant.

If I said please write me a paragraph of text either written typed or typed via a computer generated device, you would know what I meant.

If I then said please add hypertext (or hyperlinks) to other things included "above" - "over" and beyond that in paragraph info, you would know what I meant yes?

So a link is a link and a hyperlink is a hyperlink.

In the same way text is text and hypertext is hypertext.

Bear in mind here that "hyper" means "over" or "above" in that it implies above and beyond but related - hence hypertext or hyperlinks.

I am not saying there are not in depth scholarly arguments and references that state differently btw cmcp, what I am saying is they may be missing the point on the meaning of hyper and it's origins and therefor missing the concept of hyper and hypertext or hyperlinks./