Anchor text vs Alternative text

I was just wondering about this the other day:

Say now you have the option of using a keyword phrase (say with 3 words) as anchor text OR you have the option of using an image with a long tail keyword phrase as it's alternative text.


Does the image hyperlink with the alt text (serving as anchor text) carry the same weight in terms of the anchor text relevancy (to the landing page) as does the standard anchor text?

 

No it doesn't. Normal anchor text links carry more weight then img alt tags.

 

Ok. I thought that might be the case.

 

As dcristo said, you're going to want to go for the anchor text. You can have the best of both worlds though by using an image substitution technique though. It involves using the anchor element, an empty SPAN, your link text and a dash of CSS.

It looks like this:

[b]HTML CODE[/b]
<a href="#" id="unique-id">Keyword rich anchor text<span></span></a>

{b]CSS CODE{/b]
#unique-id, #unique-id span {
	display: block;
	height: 100px;
	width: 200px;
}

#unique-id {
	position: relative;
}
	#unique-id span {
		background: url("/images/image.png") top left no-repeat;
		position: absolute;
		top: 0;
		left: 0;
	}

Code (markup):

(This is from memory, as I don't use image substitution very much, but it should work.)

 

Great explanation. You've got there. Thanks.

 

Thanks Dan,

I'll save that for future reference.

 

dcristo is right. It is best to use anchor text than alt attribute.

 

Another vote for the preference of anchor text over img ALT.

 

i use both

 

I'll use either or, depending on whether it's the semantic (read: correct) use of the elements in question.