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SEO friendly graphics

The Search Engine Roundtable asks 'Are SEO Friendly Graphics Worth It?' I'm getting the answer on my blog for my own information as well as other developers who use similar techniques for SEO – search engine optimization.

SEO friendly buttons or graphics are basically graphical text with a header tag behind it that is not seen by users, usually an H1 header tag. A reader on the Search Engine Roundtable Forums asked if such an H1 header tag was allowed and beneficial?

…I see no reason why it would not be allowed. If you have a large content site with a sophisticated CMS sitting behind it and if you really want high end graphic headers, you would be crazy to have a graphic artist create a unique header for each page. This allows you to automate that with some code.

However, it's noted “[I]f you are still stuck in the world of tables then your users will see a second or two lag time as that image is loaded and the page is rendered.” CSS is recommended to rendered your Hx tags.

  • http://www.wickedinnovations.com professional web design

    thanks for that tip…time to move to css…hehehe

  • http://www.optiniche.com/ Teli Adlam

    “SEO friendly graphics” aren't necessarily intended for SEO purposes.
    When designing websites, screen readers can't read the text on the graphic, so a work around needed to be developed without sacrificing aesthetic form.
    SEO benefits are a side effect of good accessibility.

  • Ben

    However, if a graphic has proper Alt tags (example: tabs across a global navigation), will it be SE-crawled just as effectively as text?

  • http://www.sanfranciscoweb-design.com Here

    As a webdesigner myself , I’m very glad to find that someone thought to post this topic.
    All too many people just don’t grasp the concept of what all is needed in this field, and I think also we are all too often underrated
    or taken for granted. Never the less I’m very glad to see that you feel the same way I do , thanks so much for this post!