Posted by carolyn on 09/19/06 09:14

Els wrote:

> 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)

I have heard that they already do that. I don't know if it is fiction or
fact however. I do know that if they don't do it already, they will be
doing it soon.

>> 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)
>

--
Carolyn Marenger

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