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Using Images For SEO
umans vs. Search Engines paradox is to shift some of the
text that search engines have no
Human visitors and search interest in over to graphics. For
engines robots that visit example friendly greetings like
websites and index information "Welcome to Our Site" or "Annie's
about them look for different Online Shop" work best as header
things in a page. People like to graphics.
see an attractive layout with
nice pictures and graphics, Creating a header graphic in a
animation, easy-to-locate graphic editing program like
navigation, and friendly Photoshop, Illustrator, or
greetings like "Welcome to Fireworks has the advantage of
Annie's Online Shop" at the top letting you know exactly what
of a page. Search engines, on the that part of your site will look
other hand, like sites that have like to visitors. If you create a
lots of textual content, good header or navigation bar with
site structure (sitemaps, text, you are limited to a common
consistent linking style), and a set of fonts. If you use a fancy
meaningful phrase such as font that is installed on your
“Chicago Area Florist” as the computer, your page will look
heading of a page. While search great to you, but when a visitor
engines can read the "alt image” who does not have that font on
tags of graphics, they can not their computer visits your site,
"look at" pictures the way a their browser's default font will
human visitor can, and far prefer be used and that nice aspect of
text. your site will disappear. By
making your header or navigation
Replacing Text with Images buttons images, you are free to
use any of the fonts on your
One way to work around this computer, and can be sure they
will display the same way to your code it will look like this:
visitors. London Hotels), and should
contain your target keyword.
Another advantage of using a However, you may want to add a
header graphics is that you can greeting above the heading
remove words irrelevant to your ("Welcome to Our Site!” for
target keywords from your textual example). As this is a very
content. When search engine general phrase, with no relevance
robots visit a site, they read to any target keyword, it is best
pages from left to right, top to to make this a graphic.
bottom. The first 20-25 words and
last 20-25 words of your text If your site already has a
content are especially important, greeting such as "Welcome to Our
and you want to make sure to Site" in text at the top of your
include your target keywords main page, it is relatively easy
within these sections. If at all to convert this to a graphic, as
possible, your primary target follows.
keyword phrase should be the very
first text in your page. That is, - Open your page in an internet
if you are able to make a browser.
natural-sounding sentence
beginning with it. If your page - Push the "Print Screen" button
begins with "Welcome to our on your keyboard.
site!", then you are pushing your
keyword further away from the - Open a photo editing program,
starting point of your text. such as Photoshop.
The first line of the main text - Create a new document and
on your page should be in heading select Edit>Paste or Ctrl+V on
format, with H1 tags (In html your keyboard. The screenshot
will be pasted on the blank text. The important thing is that
document. your target keyword appears as
text, as close to the beginning
- Crop the image down to just the of the page as possible, and
word or phrase you would like to within H1 tags.
replace, with only a little blank
space around the edges. Alt Image Tags
- Choose "Save as" or "Save for "Alt image" tags are short pieces
Web", saving the file in the of text that are associated with
"Images" folder of your site. a graphic. If the graphic can not
be displayed for some reason, or
- In your site editor, such as if someone has set up their
Dreamweaver, simply open your browser to block images, the text
page, delete that text, and drag is shown instead. (The "alt" is
and drop in the image you short for "alternative".) Also,
created. Save and upload your browsers designed for the sight
page. impaired read out the text
content of pages, and read the
Replacing Images with Text alt image tags as a way of
describing a page.
Of course, the opposite might
also be true of your current Here is what an image tag looks
site: Your keywords might be like in html code:
displayed as graphics rather than
text. In this case, you should The alt image tag is this part:
either repeat those keywords in
text in a way that looks natural, alt="YOUR KEYWORD image"
or get rid of the graphics all
together and replace them with You can type the alt image tags
directly into the html code. temptation to pack in a long list
However, most html editors, such of keywords, as this will
as Dreamweaver, give you an potentially get your site
easier way to add an alt tag, and penalized by search engines or
you should check in your blacklisted from their
software's “Help” section. directories.
Search engine robots do read and - The alt image tag should
index alt image tags. However, include the primary target
since this text is normally keyword of your site.
hidden from human visitors, it is
especially susceptible to keyword - The tag text should make sense
spamming (i.e. entering a massive if someone actually read it, and
string of keywords that "hide" actually describe what is shown
behind the picture). For this in the graphic.
reason, search engines are giving
less importance to alt image - Include "image," "photo," or
tags. They still are important, "graphic" at the end of your
though, and having the tags on short phrase. This prevents the
your pages can give you a slight search engines from flagging the
edge over competitor sites that tag as spam.
don't have the tags. When adding
alt image tags to your pages, Using these techniques to
keep the following points in organize the graphics on your
mind: site will give you a slight edge
over the competition in the
- Don't go overboard. 4 or 5 search engines.
words are plenty. Resist the
About the Author:
John Case is the author of http://www.easy-learn-to-earn.com, a free guide to making an income online, and maintains an SEO site at http://www.awordsworth1000pictures.com/SEO_training/index.html
Read more articles by: John Case
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