We all know that the search engines can't "see" or "read" the graphics
on our pages. We also know that we need to provide text on a page,
so the spiders will have something to crawl and index.
After all, we have to prove to the search engines without a shadow of a doubt
that our pages are about what we say or claim they're about if we want to
achieve
top rankings. That's why I believe so strongly in focusing each page on
one single
keyword phrase only. As soon as a spider hits a page, I want the spider
to know
exactly what that page is about.
But, many sites out there are graphic intense, often by virtue of their very
nature. The sites may sell prints, wallpaper, pictures, graphics, or posters.
Or, the sites may sell hats, for example, so that each page is full of
pictures
of a particular type of hat.
Many Web site owners don't want to add text to those pages, because they want
to highlight exactly what they're selling. They've created the site with
their
audience in mind, which is as it should be. After all, when visitors stop by
a wallpaper site, they want to see loads of pictures of the different
wallpaper
samples. They don't want to read about them!
So, being careful to adhere to Google's
Guidelines
that prohibit hiding text, what options do we have with our graphic-intense
site?
Let's look at some possible solutions.
1. Can you put visible text above or below the graphics on the page? If
so, this
is your best solution, because you're giving the engines some content to
crawl.
Simply add a paragraph of content above the graphics, and then a paragraph or
two of content below the graphics. Make sure the content focuses on your
keyword
phrase and that it describes the page accurately.
If you don't want to add a full paragraph of content above the graphics, try
adding a heading tag containing your keyword phrase. Then, add content
beneath
the graphics.
The bottom line is: you want to start the page with text if at all possible,
not graphics.
2. Be creative! Can you add descriptive text about each graphic under or
beside
the graphic? Can you add little "Tips" or "More Info" boxes on the page that
contain valuable information for your users and keyword-containing text for
the engines? Can you include testimonials from happy customers that will add
valuable keyword-containing content to your page?
3. Leave your existing graphic-intense pages the way they are, and create
some
new text-based interior pages that are full of valuable content related
to your
graphics. Pull in traffic through those pages, and provide text links to your
pages full of graphics. Be sure to use your important keyword phrase in
the link
text that links to the pages of graphics.
Keep in mind that these new pages are interior pages, which means that
they should
provide a link to other pages on your site, and your site should provide
a link
back to those pages. If you've done your homework right, these new pages are
providing value to your users, therefore providing value to the search
engines,
so there's no reason why you wouldn't want to link to these new interior
pages.
Can you use redirects from the text-based pages to the pages of graphics? I
highly recommend not doing so. The engines have never been fond of redirects
for one thing. But, even if your redirects aren't "sneaky" (as Google says
in their Guidelines), if you don't use text links with the keyword phrase in
the link text, you're missing out on one of the most valuable search engine
optimization strategies available to you: using your keyword phrase in link
text pointing to your pages.
4. You can leave your existing graphic-intense pages as they are, and instead
concentrate on "off page" factors such as building link popularity to
those pages
and making sure that the pages linking to the graphics pages use link
text that
contains your important keyword phrase. In other words, you can work on
your "link
reputation."
After all, you can compete with the big boys using almost any strategy
that is
detrimental to search engine rankings if your link popularity and link
reputation
is strong enough, and if the sites linking to you describe your site
using your
important keyword phrase.
By "strong" enough, I mean that the links should be from popular,
authoritative
sites in your topic area. Sheer numbers aren't what we're after here. We're
after links from popular and authoritative sites in our topic area. We're
also
after links that use our important keyw ord phrase in the link text
describing
our pages.
In Conclusion
Though the best solution is to add text to your pages of graphics, sometimes
you (or your client) won't want to go that route. They may want to keep
the existing
pages just as they are.
In those situations, it's important to have some "Google friendly" solutions
that will give you the best chance at achieving top rankings for your pages,
while making sure that you're following the guidelines as stated by
Google.
About the Author, Robin
Nobles:
Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops ( http://www.searchengineworkshops.com )
with John Alexander. They teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day
all-inclusive "hands
on" search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. She also
teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com,
and she's a member of Wordtracker's ( http://www.wordtracker.com/moreinfo.html )
official question support team.
Article courtesy of the author and websitegoodies.com