As always, a new version of WordPress means some new changes for the user. Mostly these changes are happily accepted by the users but this time with the release of WordPress 4.2, there is one change that some users are complaining about. In this new version of WordPress, when adding or editing a link, the link title field is removed and that’s what is troubling some users. However the good part is that there’s a really simple way to add this missing link title field; let’s learn how to do this.
In WordPress 4.2, this link title field is removed, and only two fields are available, URL and Link Text. This Link Text field is automatically inserted if you select the text before clicking on “Insert/edit link” option.
Why was Link Title removed in the first place?
Before coming to the solution, let’s learn why was this link title field removed in the first place? This title field is intentionally removed because some users often confused this field with link text field.
Also with this change, the WordPress development team is discouraging the use of title attribute as it does not has any accessibility benefits. Many screen readers cannot read this title attribute, and also it is not visible on smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices.
However, does this title attribute have any SEO advantages? Now this topic is debatable, and we won’t delve deeper in it. So now without any further ado, let’s learn how to add it back.
Add Link Title attribute in WordPress
There are two ways to do this. You can do this by using a plugin, and also without using a plugin.
Plugin method:
Install and activate the Restore Link Title Field plugin. Once activated, you don’t need to configure anything and it works out of the box.
Simply click on the Insert/edit link button from the post editor and you will be able to see the “Title” field appear there.
Manual method:
If you are one of those who don’t want to use a plugin, then this method is for you. Basically, all you need to do is to switch to the “Text” view in the post editor and manually edit the HTML and add Title attribute to it. Here is how your HTML link should look like after adding Title attribute to it.
<a title=”yourtitlehere” href=”http://website.com”>link text here</a>
Just add this title=”yourtitlehere” part (of course, replace “yourtitlehere” with your own title).
Note that if you are using this method, then you will manually need to add this “title” attribute everytime, in every link.
So that’s how you can bring back the Link Title field in WordPress 4.2. Use any one of these two methods as per your convenience.