Is placing text within an image bad for SEO?

Is placing text within an image bad for SEO?

 

i don't think so.you can not use that text to improve seo or ranking , because that text can not be read by for example SERP or another bots.

 

Is it bad? No. Is it good? Definately not. Text in an image is unreadable by search engine spiders. This means that all that great keyword rich text does not help you rank better. However, you are strongly urged to make use of the imgage tag's alt attribute. This is not just an SEO thing, but an accessability thing. Blind people do use the web, and an image without an alt tag is ignored by screan readers. However if you place the text in the image into the alt attribute, a screen reader will read that to the blind user. It also has the benefit of showing people who are using text only browsers what type of image would be there if they chose to display images. Obviously, since the alt text is available to screen readers and text browsers, it is also available to spiders, so you won't shoot yourself in the foot too badly by pllacing text in an image.

Just in case you don't know, here's what it would look like:

<img src="http://forums.digitalpoint.com/image.php?u=196352&dateline=1223344717" alt="Palme's Avatar" />

Code (markup):

In valid xhtml, the src attribute and the alt attribute are required. Your page will not validate if you do not use the alt attribute.

 

To expound a bit. Img Alt tags are great. But keep this in mind, Do NOT stuff keywords in Img Alt tags. They are to be used to tell what the image is about. That is it. The good thing is it gives you the opportunity to use a keyword or keyword phrase for the description of the image. But google will penalize for stuffing keywords in img alt. Example. In an image of a Happy Smilie, you can just use 'Happy Smilie' as your keyword. Not, 'Happy, Glad, Smiling, Friendly, Cheerful Smilie'.

Hope that makes sense.

 

Yes, the spider can not read the images so it would be good to mention brief description about the image in alt text. It would be readable for the crawler.

 

ill show you guys the example i am talking about
http://www.semi-directory.com/enroll/bold.asp

 

For sure SEs cannot read what's written on image.
However sometimes it can help you rank better in Google Images for example (and even SEs), since the image would be truly unique. Example: online shop affiliate. All shops display same images from the single source. So if you add some text on the image, it can give you a benefit.

 

As people have said above, images are just that - images. Google (or any other SE) can't read the text in it.

Using an alt tag as well as a proper file name for your image is a good idea though. Just make sure you use your target keyword in the alt tag as well as the file name and you should be good to go. Some of my websites receive traffic from Google Images just because of proper filenames and alt tags (monetizing that traffic is another task ).

Regards,
Sagar

 

You mean alt img tags. Its good for seo and good for img search traffic.

 

i'll tell you guys about my game plan. I want to distribute a button that will be placed on about 100 websites. If not, it will give me 50 backlinks at the least. It's a contest which is why people will place the button (voluntarily). I want to use this as an opportunity to take advantage of anchor text and link back to my blog. Any ideas?

 

Imagine that you've a page on your website that Google hasn't indexed... Will It drive traffic to your website from Google? Of course NO!

That's the same with text in images because Googlebot can't read and index it so It will not bring any traffic.

I think It do really hurts you because It makes you loose the traffic that you could get if G indexed that text.

 

Who tell you that it's bad?????

 

No that would be horrible, you might do well in image search though. Most books I have read on SEO day it is one of the worst thing you can do. Why would you want to anyway. I mean if you want a sentence go a head but not a paragraph.

 

Nothing bad about it. You can find relevant info in signature.

Br
Seo_genius

 

Search engines cannot read images, especially text in an image. That is why there are alt tags that allow the search engines to get a description of what the image is. Putting keywords in the alt text is a great method for SEO

 

ok so I guess the BEST thing to do would be to just put some text below the image and tell my contestants the point of the button, and that they will receive a linkback from me as well right?

 

Unless their sites are in the same theme as yours them linking to you and you linking back will not help you or them much. Even if you don't link back to them, their link may not help you much. For example, if you have an SEO site and they have knoitting site, their lin won't count for much in G's algorithm.

Most webmasters are savvy to the "trick" of artifical contests that provide a link to the contest operator. I write software frequently, and many of the software directories send me a "badge" I can plac on my website that links back to them. Unless its a big name like CNet's Editor's Pick, I never do it. If you really want to suceed with a plan like this, 1) make it exclusive, 2) list your judging criteria, 3) write an actual review on why the site won the badge, 4) don't require the site to put a badge on their site, and 5) offer them a badge that they may put on their ste if they wish. If you hand out more than one of these a day, you're either not doing due diligence to the sites you are rewarding or in need of more to do with your time.

 

my plan involves no trick
basically ill say it straight up, its a wallpaper design contest. there are prizes. people who design good wallpapers get a badge to show their users that they earned a badge. the badge has an anchor text below it. there is no trick at all and I will explain why the text is there although they don't have to include it (unless I can find a way to force them to include it but I doubt that is a good strategy anyway)

not all the site will be in my particular niche but a select few will

 

Inserting keywords in alt tag is a great trick in search engine optimization so we can target specific keywords.

 

I don't think this works out much as I have tried the same with keywords ads on searches, for
my website adsonsearches.com. However, I will try it once again & let you know how much it works
out.