Posted by Els on 09/19/06 08:40

JWL wrote:

> Hello,

Hi,

> I'd like my website to have graphical header text but I'm concerned
> about the impact this will have on search engine success, as none of the
> pages will have <h1> headers. Is it sensible to do something like this:
>
> <h1 class="hidden">blah blah</h1>
> <img src="blah.gif" alt="blah blah" />
>
> 'hidden' being:
>
> .hidden {
> position: absolute; /* taken from sitepoint.com */
> left: -9000px;
> top: 0;
> }

It is an option, but some day Google will be able to see that the H1
is hidden from actual visitors, and penalize the page for it. (or at
least that is what I expect for the future)

> What would you do if you absolutely had to have graphical headers?

I use the title in alt text to the image:
<h1><img src="blah.gif" alt="blah blah"></h1>

I'm not entirely sure if Google reads that alt text as an H1 then, but
any image-less visitors will. I combine that with Google's own rule
"make pages for your visitors, not for search engines", and hope for
the best :-)

(no idea about other search engines though)

--
Els http://locusmeus.com/

Now playing: Dave Edmunds - Queen Of Hearts

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