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        4. tags inside <a>tags - is this bad?</a>

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        tags inside <a>tags - is this bad?</a>

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        • mjk26
          mjk26 Subscriber last edited by

          Hi,

          I'm currently redesigning my website, and in many places, I've now decided to make links a little bit more obvious for the user, using tags within a <a>tag in order to make the entire block of text clickable.  I was just wondering if this could have a negative impact in the search engines.  My gut feeling is no, since I'm actually improving usability, but I guess it could have an impact on how Google looks at the anchor text?  An example of the HTML is as follows: </a>

          <a></a>

          <a></a>

          [Cristal Night Club Hotels

          <address>1045 5th Street
          Miami Beach, FL33139</address>

          6.4 miles from Miami Dade County Auditorium](http://localhost:8080/frontend/venue-hotels/cristal-night-club-hotels/301022 "Hotels near Cristal Night Club")

          Thanks for your thoughts and comments,

          Best wishes

          Mike

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • CMC-SD
            CMC-SD @john4math last edited by

            Totally agree. Add a class to those <a>s and style that.</a>

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • john4math
              john4math last edited by

              <spans>are all over the web, and used in lots of different situations.  It shouldn't adverse affect your rankings.</spans>

              That being said, going over your site and adding s into all your <a>s doesn't sound like fun... and after all you may want to change it again down the road.  You can't accomplish something similar with CSS?  I think styling your</a> <a>s with "display:block;" should accomplish the same thing as adding this to all your</a> <a>s?</a>

              CMC-SD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • donford
                donford last edited by

                Hi Mike,

                In general there is not many negatives to using html / css styling. The exceptions being when you are purposely hiding text, from users. Example: white text on a white background.

                Specifically in the case you asked about, I have never heard, seen, or otherwise caught a whiff of this being a bad thing, rather it is more of an accepted reality.

                Hope that helps,

                Don

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • Andy.Drinkwater
                  Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

                  I have never seen an instance where a span tag has had any negative effect on SEO as it is just a standard HTML element.

                  OK, perhaps some favour a style sheet, but raw code on the page is still more than acceptable.

                  Andy

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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