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Is covering H1 text w/ image a penalty?

by Jaspry
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Here's my plan...

I have a header image that will display in ALL PAGES, linking back to the home page. I want its anchor text to be my website's key word, let's say it's "Cheap Office Furniture".

Here's my code :

HTML Code:
<h1><a href="wwwdotcheapofficefurnituredotcom/">Cheap Office Furniture</a></h1>

And here's my styling:

HTML Code:
#header {
... ... ...
background: #fff;
}

#header h1 {
background: url('images/headerlogo.jpg') no-repeat;
width: 250px;
height: 75px;
color: #fff;
}
My goal IS NOT to cover any content or keywords from users... it's ONLY to take advantage of the Anchor Text in the H1 linking to main page (my most important page as far as SEO goes!!!)

Is google going to detect me covering the text and penalize me?
#covering #image #penalty #w or
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    I don't have any idea what kind of penalty you think you would get.
    Penalties for the most part are figments of people's imaginations.

    It would not even be worth fooling around with. You obviously think
    that somehow a link and text to the homepage will pump up some
    sort of ranking. How could it? Even if it did, it would be next to
    zero.

    Google cares more about an alt tag. Why not just use the image to
    link, complete with an alt tag? Or use the image as a background,
    but put a text link across it?

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      I don't have any idea what kind of penalty you think you would get.
      Penalties for the most part are figments of people's imaginations.


      Paul
      I worked very closely with an on page optimizer and she would totally disagree with you.

      Trying to find ways around googles guidelines is a good way to get penalized/sandboxed/de-indexed whatever you want to call it.
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      "One of the Most Successful Offline WSO's Ever!
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Following google's optimizing advice is optional.
        Use the alt tag or not. They don't care.
        Since when did google become a cop for what
        people do or do not do with their website?

        There's no penalty for not following google's advice
        in website optimization.

        Do whatever you want to. Some help, some don't
        help.

        You are not covering text in that example.
        Making the text hidden or off the page would be that.

        In the end, there is absolutely no reason to even do an h1
        header like that. Again, what jump or enhancement is this going
        to get you from google? Zip.

        Paul
        Signature

        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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        • Profile picture of the author Jaspry
          Maybe I am mistaken.

          I've read a few things in my few months here ...

          A) H1 tags at the top of the page have most weight for keywords...

          B) When linking to home page it is a good idea to link using your home page's keyword.. not simply "click here to go home"...

          So I decided that putting these things together might get me some brownie points for optimisation and increase SE credibility and be a bonus for PR...

          But it would make sense to use KW in alt tags if alt tags carried the same weight as using H1.. is this correct?
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