28
Jun 05

Don’t Hate on Graphical Links

by Andy Hagans Strategy with 4 Comments

Along with obsessing about anchor text (circa 2002), the SEO community in general has long held graphical links in contempt. They ought not to.

Evidence That Graphical Links Work

Search for a term like mesothelioma or diet pills, and a few sites come up near the top which have nothing but graphical links linking to them.

Alt text = Anchor text?

The trick is, all of the links are using the target keywords in the alt text. This leads me to beleve that alt text is nearly or equally as powerful as anchor text.

How they’re doing it: they’re giving away free graphical visitor counters to n00bie webmasters, who cluelessly implement them… the counters are actually graphical links to meso or diet pills sites with optimized alt text. Gotta give ‘em points for creativity!

And Don’t Forget Authority

Even if a graphical link does not have keyword rich alt text, if it is an authority site, or a site within your theme, it’s still probably a good link.

Bottom Line

Don’t hate on graphical links.

4 comments - add your's now

Gregg Kell (06/28/05 at 4:08 pm)

Thanks for the update on graphical links & ALT codes. One concern we’ve seen is in inexperienced webmasters being “spammy” with the alt codes. The logic seems to be “the more the merrier.” Possibly, this is incorrect. In our experience, judicious use of alt codes with keyword phrases can enhance search engine listings but overuse can hurt. Where’s the dividing line where one goes overboard? Any ideas from the linking experts at LinkBuilingBlog.com?

Andy Hagans (06/28/05 at 4:50 pm)

Yah, I’ve seen what you’re talking about.

My advice: Do what’s best for the user! This means a short, concise, accurate and descriptive alt text in most cases (some graphics may need more or less).

Let’s remember that the original purpose of alt text is to describe an image to users with text-only browsers. If the alt text works for them, it’s good alt text!