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Image -vs- Text Heading

by GarrieWilson
14 replies
Which seems to generally work better, a image or text heading?

I know that testing is the only way to know for sure and I will but I can only A-B test this specific site so I'm looking to start with what generally works better.

MTIA

Garrie
#heading #image #text
  • Profile picture of the author Johnny12345
    I think graphical headlines are vastly superior.

    By using graphics you have COMPLETE typographical control -- size, kerning, line spacing, color, gradients, drop-shadows, special effects... and the list goes on.

    Some operating systems do not anti-alias HTML text (that is, remove the "jaggies"). So graphical headlines are often far more readable than HTML text... and they also look more polished and professional.

    It's a TKO, in the first round, for graphical headlines.

    Regards,

    Johnny
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  • Profile picture of the author Sam Mlambo
    I've looked at Ken Calhoun and Michel Fortin new headlines and they're mostly graphical. I've used graphical headlines in WSOs before. You should still test but I'm leaning towards graphical just because of the attention-getting power. And that's what the headline is all about... grabbing attention!

    Hope that helps

    - Sam
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  • Profile picture of the author J. Barry Mandel
    Keep I'm mind that there are SEO benefits to having text headlines vs. graphics.
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    • Profile picture of the author GarrieWilson
      Originally Posted by Justin Mandel View Post

      Keep I'm mind that there are SEO benefits to having text headlines vs. graphics.
      Like what? You can use ALT text for the actual heading for SEs.
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      • Profile picture of the author Bruce Wedding
        Originally Posted by GarrieWilson View Post

        Like what? You can use ALT text for the actual heading for SEs.
        Garrie, weight is given to weight. <H1,H2,H3> tags are considered a hell of a lot more important by Google than an alt tag.
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  • Profile picture of the author fasteasysuccess
    Depends on the purpose-for seo purpose-text and non flash is way to go for google and other search engines because they can actually have issue crawling with graphic heading.

    For website slowing down load times can affect some but obviously a lot of us have the high speed, but longer load times can kill leads and sales.

    For copy purposes only, it's all about the testing. What may work for one site might not be good for yours.
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianMcLeod
    I use graphic headlines often and find that usually the time on site goes up, while my bounces go down.

    However, in this recent letter I dumped the graphic and went with styled text because it improved readability... a lot.

    Whatever works...



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    Brian McLeod
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    • Profile picture of the author povchef
      Personally and this is no way based on any testing (never actually thought of testing image over text before) I would always go with image header. If your worried about damaging your SEO then use alt text for your image.

      I always find that a image header, even one that doesn't load fast looks better than a text header that almost fades into the body text.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeHumphreys
        It depends on your graphic design skills. If you can create a great looking graphic headline image, go for it. If you can't, then stick with text.

        The size of the graphic file also matters because you don't want to slow down the page load speed any more than necessary. A great looking headline won't matter if the prospect closes the browser because they got tired of waiting for the page to load.

        Of course, you still need to test to see if your graphic image converts better than text.
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        • Profile picture of the author tyroneshum
          Originally Posted by MikeHumphreys View Post

          It depends on your graphic design skills. If you can create a great looking graphic headline image, go for it. If you can't, then stick with text.

          The size of the graphic file also matters because you don't want to slow down the page load speed any more than necessary. A great looking headline won't matter if the prospect closes the browser because they got tired of waiting for the page to load.

          Of course, you still need to test to see if your graphic image converts better than text.
          True. The graphics and the text should complement with each other as always. If they won't, then many will be thinking what is the sense of having that graphic or text? That's just ruining the message and it makes me conclude everything seems non sense so better be working and testing one aspect at a time.
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  • Profile picture of the author dtendrich
    Hey,

    Using a flash coding technique called "SIFR" you can have an image that is selectable as text. So you can have an h1 tag on your headline, but it shows up on the site as the cool font of your choice.

    Best of both worlds

    And the good news is if you check out elance.com there are guys on there who will add it to your site dirt cheap.

    David
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  • Profile picture of the author Vendor-Lock
    I am a firm believer in the " a picture's worth a thousand words " theory.

    graphical has always pulled better for me in marketing and the website design business.

    go graphical ! text has it's place too, but pictures and graphics do sell better.

    cheers
    Jeff Noyes
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  • Profile picture of the author prettyboy
    In my experience, graphic headlines seem to pull better. At least from testing I know that people tend to stay on the page longer, which is what you want. After that it's just a matter of having a great headline to make them want to read further. If you can get the reader to use the scroll bar, then you're on your way to making a sale.
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