H1 tag replaced by an Image...

Ok so we all know that <H1>Title Containing Relevant Keywords</H1> is very important for SERP.

Is there a way to keep the H1 tag when showing that image, without doing cloaking or javascript?

Would something like this work:

<H1><img src="mypic.png" alt="My Title With Keyword" /></h1>

 

You can use some form of image replacement: http://www.mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/

 

You could use CSS and place a background image behind the h1 tag.

h1 {
	font-family: verdana;
	font-size: 10px;
	height:30px;
	background-image: url(headerbg.jpg);
        background-repeat: no-repeat;
	}

HTML:

EDIT: I just realised this is useless as there is no keyword to emphasize in the tag...

 

How about making your image a H2 tag.... and change your former H2 tag into an H1 tag....

Good question here....

It´s not really spam or anything to have the H2 tag before the H1.....

 

My Bed and Breakfast site does this. See sig.

<div id="top"><h1></h1></div>

Using css set top.h1 to invisible and set top.background-image to something apropriate.

 

From all above replys i think css is good option, i have try this 1 never did before.

 

tandac option is ok, as long as the text within the h1 is the same text as in the image. Rule of thumb is that OCR should see the same as source view

 

I would use this (note addition of TITLE property):

<H1 TITLE="My Title With Keyword"><img src="mypic.png" alt="My Title With Keyword" /></h1>

HTML:

In fact, you might want to add TITLE to all your headers. Users will see them as tooltips when they hover over the header.

Cryo.

 

I think that title tag is with low priority. I'm using CSS technique with image in background like GLD posted

 

Great discussion, great answers!

Isn't it a problem that the H1 is set to invisible?
I though that something like that might penalize you.

 

If i understood Matt Cutts correctly, it's no problem if the text in the image and the text in the H1 are the same.

 

People who ask better questions get better answers indeed.

You have asked an excellant question.

Any thing set invisible or just made for SE's may lead to penalties. No one can rule this out. As per general rule, what helps visitors get when you set H1 on ALT's?

In General H1 is used to describe the Headline of the site, should not be used to give more weight to your keywords. IMHO