Image Links vs. Text Links

Image links are one of many controversy topics in search engine optimization. Most Search Engine Marketers around will tell you that text links are the only way to go, and while they have a valid reason for saying this, it is not entirely true. Text and image links both serve a purpose and you can build a site using one or the other, and it can still rank well for a group of keywords.

Why are text links so great? Link text is supposed to have something do with the page that it is linking to. This is how web pages get ranked for certain keywords with hyper links. Search engine spiders can only read, they cannot see pictures. That is why they are able to read the text links and not image links.

So what happens to the image links? It just so happens that since the spiders can’t see the images, they read the alt attribute. As long as the alt attribute has a few words about what the page is that the image link is linking to then you should be alright.

Why don’t search engine marketing professionals want you to use image links? Even though the spiders can read the alt attribute to see what the image link is linking to, it is still not as good as a text link. Users browsing on the website can’t see the alt attribute on an image link, and search engine spiders tend to give more “weight” to items that the user can see. Using image links makes their job a little harder because you wouldn’t be taking the full advantage of the weight that you can get with your navigation links.

When to use image links?

* It would be appropriate to use image links if you want to keep your navigation simple.
* It would also be appropriate to take some images that are on your website and link them to an interior page, making sure to use the alt attribute.
* If you are creating a promotional banner for your website.

When deciding which to use…
When using image links - Remember not to go overboard when adding your alt text- only use the phrase that best describes the page. Anybody with accessibility issues will be using that alt text as there way of figuring out what that page is about, so don’t stuff it with a lot of text.

When using text links - Try not to overuse a specific keyword in your main navigation, Google is very sensitive and if it think that you are abusing the keyword then it could have a negative effect on your websites ranking.

Navigation links are a very important detail for a web designer to take note of when designing a website. For instance, if a web designer made a website with image links for the navigation, and later on the client wants to have text links instead, it could take many hours, even days depending on how large of a website, to make the necessary changes for text links to work. Save time and money by making sure to decide if you will be using image links or text links for your navigation before starting on that portion of the design.