Spiders & Image

[melstef]

I was wondering, if I have an image on my page that contains written information, does the spiders read the text on the image?
If not, how can I change this? What can I do?
Thanks.

 

[cian]

Put text instead of an image!

http://www.endamcg.com

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa/

http://www.endamcg.com/macaonghusa/

 

[ChrisHunt]

If you put the text in the ALT or TITLE attributes of the image some spiders will read it, so will people with a visual disability. The best thing, as cian says, is to use text for written information and save images for pictures - your site will load quicker that way too.

If you're using images in order to use a particular font, you can do this by using a free tool called WEFT to "embed" the font in your site for others to use. I believe it only works on IE - but that's 80% of your visitors covered. It degrades nicely on other browsers. Find out more at

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/weft3/default.htm

-- Chris Hunt
Extra Connections Ltd

http://www.extracon.com

 

[cian]

I think you can also embed a font for netscape but you need to create both a Portable Font Resources (.pfr) and an Embeddable Open Type (.eot)(IE only)
A messy process, buggy and IMO a waste of time and energy.

http://www.endamcg.com

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa/

http://www.endamcg.com/macaonghusa/

 

[melstef]

Does the spiders read what the comments on a page?

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

All text that appears when you view the page with images turned off will probably be read by most spiders. If it is a guestbook and you have a guest write "I wish you had more underage animal porn", then the next time Google indexes that page, "underage animal porn" will get caught in the net and you'll find yourself getting all sorts of lovely hits.

If the text isn't visible with images turned off, then chances are, the crawler won't see it either.

You could probably earn a PhD coming up with the perfect formula for writing a web page that engines will love.

Basically, use text. Use image if you must use image. Keep the content on your page fresh. Get people to link to it. Then the world will be your oyster.

Cheers,


Edward

Like Lovecraft? Know Photoshop? Got time for the Unspeakable?

http://www.petting-zoo.org/Movies_Dreamquest.html