SEO on website built on images

[seomr]

I have to do SEO on a site that is completely done on images. The programmer has an image map at the bottom and just after the <map></map> tags he included the same text that is on the images, using the background color (so the text cannot be seen). He says that this way, the search engines would not be able to identify the text as "hidden" and bann the site. My concern is that I do not see how the image map just before the text can prevent the search engines to "catch" that text as hidden.

What about using a no-frames tag for the text?

How can I seo the site?

Any thought?

[John Scott]

Link to website please.

[bubbasmurf]

I would stay away from hidden text, why not just change the text color so it can be seen? Without being able to see the site thats all I know to do right now.

[John Scott]

Took a look at the site, and I can't see the hidden text helping much. But it may.
showcasewebdesign.com has hidden text in the same way, and it ranks top 20 for Seattle Web Design because of it.

Google's automated filters won't pick up the hidden text, IMO. So, it's entirely up to you.

[al2six]

i wouldn't risk using invisible text. google is constantly modding their algo. invisible text may work today, but tomorrow your site could be banned from google forever.

play it safe and use real text on your site, not images. it will help loading time too.

[seo-dave]

There are ways to make a page filled with images rank well, I use it all the time when optimising image menus.

Main reason for posting is my initital research indicated image maps aren't counted by google. I don't use image maps and not had a client yet that uses them, so not needed a definative answer (so far).

What I've seen so far is the alt text of image maps doesn't count, so SEO wise they are dead space.

David

[toddieg]

a good thing to do is to rename all of the images to your keywords. for instance, instead of having an image titled image01.gif , title it keyword.gif ... if you rename all of your images to keywords, the search engine spider will have a much better idea of what the picture is about....

also, instead of having just a generic 'images' directory, you should consider renaming the directory to your #1 keyphrase. that way, all of your images come from a url full of keywords ( /bestkeyword/keyword.gif ) , instead of ( images/button01.gif ) ....

also, using alt text (the text that appears when your mouse hovers over it) to describe the picture is helpful too.

good luck

[compar]

How large is the graphic portion of the page. If it fills the entire screen at normal resolution consider putting visible text "below the fold" . Then a visitor would have to scroll down to see it and it wouldn't spoil the appearance of the page.

We did this with a site and it works quite well. It is a small casino, sportsbook portal or directory. Check it out here.

[John Scott]

That's one technique that I love. So simple, yet so effective. It works best if there is a false footer. People see the "All Content Copyright 2004" and assume it's the bottom of the page.

[al2six]

Originally Posted by compar

How large is the graphic portion of the page. If it fills the entire screen at normal resolution consider putting visible text "below the fold" . Then a visitor would have to scroll down to see it and it wouldn't spoil the appearance of the page.

We did this with a site and it works quite well. It is a small casino, sportsbook portal or directory. Check it out here.

make sure you do it the way compar showed in his link. notice that he has paragraphs of coherent text, not just keywords repeated over and over. this way, it really can't be considered spam.

[sabo]

I think our sites are based on images too. We decide to use ALT TEXT and combined this with well placed keywords on the content and good "cross linking" we are 4 months old I think ALT TEXT it's the best solutions by now.

You can see our sites here

We are #1 with:
mexico beach destinations
best hotel rates in mexico

We saw a major upgrade when we complete our SO using ALT TEXT in all the images, of course combined with all the SEO stuff.

[Johan007]

IMO I dont agree with any of you when it comes to hidden text

Hidden text is nasty however I dont see how Google can read hidden text. There is no font information on a valid HTML page now days. Google has to read .css and classes. Then to spend a lot of processing power comparing classes and making sure #000000 bg colour in a table cell is not the same as the text 000000 or 000001 00000c etc…

HTML 4.01 Transitional may have info on the <body> tag but the new XHTML does not allow this for daft reasons unknown cos very old browsers cant read .css!

[Emancipator]

Johan your comment really does show you are a webdeveloper I agree with you as well. There is no way that google can possibly put the efforts towards checking my inclusions and css files to actually determine what my text color is.

Although the very predominant thinking is dont do it, I see to many examples of high ranking sites that dont even try to use a sneaky method, just plop on white on white text, and thats it. This is why in the last few days my opinion of what google is or is not checking has changed drastically.

With that said if you are after a high density term you can rest assured that somebody will complain and IF google takes the time to do any followup then you will enjoy a sit out. It is a bad practice, and what little it will do to help you is really not worth the penalties.

On the topic of a graphical splash page what I would suggest is do a mix using nesting so that you use images interlaced with text. I can show you an example of this, just send me a message through the site.

[Johan007]

no I am a Web designer first and a webdeveloper 2nd. Maybe its cos I said "I dont agree with any of you" - thats developer geek speek and I am sorry for that.

[Emancipator]

in my books webdesigner is a webdeveloper. My point is only a webdesigner would think along these lines.