How important is it to have text header links?

Hey,
How important is it to have my header links as text links? Of course it is better (SEO wise) to have them as text links, but how bad is it to use pictures instead?

Thanks
Nima

 

In my opinion it's better to use text but if you need to use images, use the anchor text. This will give you just as much keyword power!

 

depends on the kind of site u are having , text links are easier to load and spider through than image links, and SEO wise its better you use text links as much as possible.

 

HI,

if you want to use images then use ALT attribute to describe about your images. No other way to inform search engine about your images. Using images are bad to index in search engines because they cannot read text in the images. Only way is using ALT attribute.
Avoing using more imgaes in websites. text contents are better crawled by the SEs.

Thanks,
Krishna Srinivasan

 

i know all of the above.

Im just asking how much the damage is in having image links rather than text links?

 

Nobody here can tell u that the exact damage.

 

1.) If your header links are based on your site's keywords, and crawlable by SEs. In other words, it will help you reach the top SERP and top SERPs can lure more traffic.

2.) Not bad at all, as long as you use ALT tags on it

 

Heeeey,

I would use title tags keyword tags and then hide some title tags in images. This will help with your on-page SEO. But be careful, everone typicall over does it with this stuff. Remember that building links for your site controls about 90% of how and where you rank.

Even I could rank a big red brick for a keyword like "poo bunnys".

Actual Words May Vary

 

Have an image with an alt-tag to the page and then back it up by having a text link underneath it in H2, use CSS to change the style of the H2 tag.

 

How bad is it to use pictures you ask? Without alt tags very bad for SEO in my humble opinion With alt tags = not quite so bad...

 

i'm not sure how bad it'll give you but IMO it wasn't that bad especially when you put Alt tags on it...

 

There is NO damage. That term would not even make sense. The reason for text is simply text keywords and because alt text is seen as spam. If you need images use them and put the text in the footer of a left nav. That can help resolve your issues.

 

Like Deviant Art's style of on-page optimization? Very good strategy.