Say I have the opportunity to put a banner image with a link to my website on an external website. Ideally, I want to use a keyword-rich and optimised anchor text using words, but in this case I am only allowed to use an image. Would it be considered a black-hat search-engine optimisation technique if I were to use a bit of hidden text in the anchor text along with the banner image in the following manner? <a href="http://www.mywebsite.com/" rel="external"><span style="visibility:hidden">keyword phrase 1, keyword phrase 2</span><img src="http://www.mywebsite.com/banner.gif" alt="keyword phrase 1, keyword phrase 2" /></a> Assume that keyword phrase 1, keyword phrase 2 and the banner image are 100% relevant to my website and the website they are placed on. Another question: Should keyword phrases be separated by commas? E.g. if keyword phrase 1 were "cheap london hotels" and keyword phrase 2 were "cheap hotels london" would these be considered separate keywords/keyword phrases instead or one? Cheers for your feedback!
That's definitively black hat, and putting the visibility hidden in the code of the page is quite old a technic. Just optimize your alt
I think that the googlebot actually ignores stuff that are hidden. I too recomend Marie's advice to optimize the alt
So I should put my keywords and keyword phrases in the alt attribute of the image element? Would you think that this has the exact same effect of an optimised anchor text or would this have more/less effect? I mean, doesn't the alt attribute only effect the image element and not the anchor element?
It does but Google Robot reads the Alt as if it was the content of your site. It is Highly recomended to put keywords in images's alts. It is a very basic SEO technique you get you keyword density higher like this. I think it is not as strong as the anchor text but in your case much better than hidden text
Yes, that is blackhat. But, I don't know that it will negatively affect you. It would be interesting to see if it works (but perhaps too risky).
I have heard many things about hidden text. some say google will punish you if they find too much hidden text around the web related to your site. some say they just ignore it. anyhow i would go with the alt and not the hidden text.
I read those stories too. Those are the reports from webmasters who used the "visibility:hidden" property, the same text colour and background colour or an opaque layer in order to hide lengthy keyword-stuffed stories, but don't you think it would be a bit pathetic to get penalised for hiding only a few keywords? Please, don't give me the example of the police giving me a ticket for driving 1 kmh faster than the speed limit. Then why would the Big Goblin punish you for hiding text using the "visibility:hidden" property when it ignores text that is hidden that way?
I agree that a few hidden key words wont get you behind bars but I would not mess around with google, because sadly they "own" us webmasters so we have to play nice according to their rules or no mor traffic from google.
That is absolute black hat and I highly don't recommend to use this method. About alt tag, If I remember correctly, Google does count alt tag on image as anchor text if that image is hyperlink. If not, it won't count and ignore them.
Google always take notice of the alt tag. so you should keep it optimized for the search phrases you want your page to be found in on google
1) Indeed Google does not like text that is hidden to visitors, but visible to search-engine spiders, according to this article on hidden text and links from the Google Webmaster Help Center. 2) As far as the hidden text along with an image in an anchor element is concerned, I found the following thread about the SEO value of the title attribute on Google Groups: Google does not put any value on the text of an alt attribute of a stand-alone image element; Google does put value on the text of an alt attribute of an image element that is contained inside an anchor element; Google does not put any value on the text of any title attribute.
If you question the fact that it's black hat, then it probably is. Hidden text in any form can't be good for you.
you'll realize at some point that you're much better off just writing killer content, optimizing your pages and playing by the rules than trying these BH techniques that work for a while then get busted or stop working.