Is this bad for SEO??? Placing an image ABOVE the post title in WordPress

[Bulldozer]

Is placing an image above the Page/Post title on a Wordpress-based web site bad for SEO?

Doing it is hard enough and requires some PHP coding and stuff like that, because WordPress does not allow you to place images above the title - they should go under the title, in the content. But does Big G also have a problem with it?
Any penalties, drop in rankings, etc?
The image will have an "Alt" tag with the keyword in it.

[Bulldozer]

Anyone who uses this on their websites?
Any info in terms of how it affects rankings?

[BloggingPro]

Why would you want to do this? What do you think your going to gain by having the image above the title?

Google probably wouldn't bat an eye, but I've never done it, so I can't tell you that with 100% conviction nothing will happen.

Other than making your site extremely convoluted I just don't see what benefit you'd get from it.

[Bulldozer]

Originally Posted by BloggingPro

Why would you want to do this? What do you think your going to gain by having the image above the title?

Google probably wouldn't bat an eye, but I've never done it, so I can't tell you that with 100% conviction nothing will happen.

Other than making your site extremely convoluted I just don't see what benefit you'd get from it.

Whatever...

[aaronhoug]

I'm not an SEO expert, but I think if the alttext in the image was relevant to the title, I wouldn't think it would matter too much. But I agree with BloggingPro, I don't see an overly good reason to put an image above the post title. Hope I helped!

[jesseholmes]

Hey Bulldozer,

Because there are so many other ranking factors out there, if I went to some of my #1 ranked sites and put an image above my wordpress page title I really don't think I'm going to see my rankings change.

If you have a specific purpose for putting an image there, go for it. But really unless you think it's going to help with your conversions don't go through the pain to do so.

Something that small shouldn't warrant a 'penalty' from the big G, as long as you're doing everything else right. ie) proper site structure, on page seo, high quality content, off page seo, etc...

Hope that helps!

-Jesse

P.S. I'm putting together a free video showing people my #1 secret for having multiple listings on the first page of Google. PM me if you want the link when its ready.

[paulgl]

Google has no problem with images. In fact, it's very small
an insignificant line of code. Maybe the alt text will help.

But images have little to do with SEO of the site they are on,
one way or another. You may get a little traffic via some
image search.

Images do effect user experience. That can add or subtract
from a good one. That in and of itself has nothing to do with
SEO, but can effect linkbait and google tells you to up the
visitor experience.

So if the images enhance the visitor's experience, make the blog
look better, cleaner, more authoritative, are not obtrusive, etc.,
go for it.

Jut remember that the best SEO stuff comes from text. And the
some of the biggest sites on the planet have a disdain for anything
except a lot of plain text.

My adsense sites, for example, have very, very few images.

Paul

[lalitbansal004]

Yes This is Not Bad Idea. But it is Better if Your Image are place in the middle.

[Bulldozer]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Jut remember that the best SEO stuff comes from text. And the
some of the biggest sites on the planet have a disdain for anything
except a lot of plain text.

My adsense sites, for example, have very, very few images.

Paul

I understand this and I know that many people don't use images at all, but in my humble opinion of an avid internet surfer, trying to go as image-less as possible is not a good idea.
I never even try to read a page that's just text and that's it. I leave it immediately.

You need at least one featured image, otherwise your pages will look dead, obsolete and not catchy.
People will leave your boring paper document-looking text page immediately and will not spend a second on it.

No body wants to land on a plain text page after a search for "PC monitors".
You have to have at least one image of a monitor or a PC, laptop, etc, to "hook" the visitors and keep them reading all the boring-AdSense-blocks-containing text you have on that page.

[John Moore]

A neat little trick is to link the on-page image to another larger image that loads in a new window using your target keyword in the anchor/url, this can give you a little bump in the serps and also traffic from google images as weird as that sounds.

[Bulldozer]

Originally Posted by John Moore

A neat little trick is to link the on-page image to another larger image that loads in a new window using your target keyword in the anchor/url, this can give you a little bump in the serps and also traffic from google images as weird as that sounds.

I have read about this here on the Warrior forum.
Doesn't WordPress do this automatically anyway?

I mean, if you upload a large image and then chose a smaller size version of that large image to be inserted in your Post/Page, WordPress will automatically link to the larger one. You don't have to do it manually.
Not sure about the anchor text, though.
If the anchor text is the small image's "Alt" tag, then this trick is already pre-set in WordPress.

[JawadAshraf]

Nothing would be happen by placing the image either above the title or under the title as for as you use alt image tags and have the image name as your targeted keyword. Only that will be considered a ranking factor for that post. That's it.