I own a website with well-targeted domain name. The site has unique content and a good overall site architecture plus some quality relevant backlinks. Site (10 months old) has only ever performed as link no. 9 or 10 for my relevant keywords. The front page is IMO, classy and professional looking. I am only after discovering that the site has a fatal flaw...most of the text is just as an image on the front page ....which Google cannot read right? (the text is down the bottom). How much of a mistake have I made here? and I need recommendations for putting in new text?
Keyword text links that are rich anchor text links above images and good alt text on the images below the keyword rich anchor text links that are above... Don't go overboard though!
Google can understand image by reading on image ALT tag but it is too limited. Image ALT tag is not that effective as text, plus you cannot put a long phrase / sentence in ALT tag or your web would be looked as spam by Goolgebots.
Although text is good for search engine traffic, you should also include some images which are labeled with good alt text. This way, you will also have chance to appear image searches as well.
Texts are definitely preferred over adding lots of images to the websites, especially the homepages where mentioning the main terms could be really needed.
ok so include text and some images... Will i just write 3 to 4 paragraphs of text dropping in my "keyword search term" liberally...or is this a bit too obvious to Google? any other tips?
Is the site getting a lot of traffic or making a lot of conversions? If not I would swap out for text. You may sink in the SERPs for a while seeing it is your home page but if you have a lot of content on your internal pages that is indexed then there is a good chance you will rise again and hopefully outrank your prior position. Yes it is a gamble.
This can be made easy for search engines by using the alt tag. Alt tag actually is the replacement of text in images.
Because the site is only link no. # 9 or # 10 in Google....I am not getting that many hits or conversions.... Its my own personal belief that you have to rank in the top 3-4 in google for certain products or services...
Will i just write 3 to 4 paragraphs of text dropping in my "keyword search term" liberally...or is this a bit too obvious to Google? Anyone on this?
If all your content is in image form, this no good!! Start by transcribing it to text and try to focus on adding text from now on! This should help improve rankings. Interestingly though, I saw a video a week or two ago in which some guy was displaying supposed Google technology allowing them to read text in images. It looked pretty cool! But I doubt it is integrated into Google itself yet. Simon
Thanks for that Simon. Any ideas on how I can keep the site updated...without having to contact my webdesigner everyweek?
If your site is CMS based, you should be able to write and post your updates without you have to contact your webmaster every single time. That's one reason what CMS were developed for. If you are the site owner you anyway should have full access to your site and try yourself to learn a bit more how to do certain things on your own. What would happen if your webmaster all in a sudden says he doesn't want work for you anymore? Will you let your site just sit there without any updates until you maybe found someone else to do it for you? Talk to your webmaster and ask him to explain to you how you can update certain content on your own and him to set the permissions for you to be able to post new content.