Html text versus a graphic of a word

[nyc-seo]

Hello,

How much better for rankings is an html text heading (H1 text of a word at the top of a page) than a graphic of the word with an alt tag?

Thank you!

[nyc-seo]

Thank you!

[nyc-seo]

Thank you, Andy!

[sprynewmedia]

Short answer: fair amount and/or no point.

Alt tags have been abused so they'd be on the short list of places to watch for keyword stuffing.  H1s are also on that list but fine within normal use (1-2 a page, highly visible,  title length content).

With modern web fonts the only reason to use an image to replace words is a really fancy treatment of the font. Even then, use an image replacement technique so that Google has a easier time understanding the content.

http://www.zeldman.com/2012/03/01/replacing-the-9999px-hack-new-image-replacement/

Save the alt text for describing actual content images.

[AndyKuiper]

A really interesting question

h1's have been losing some strength over the past few years, and well optimized image alt tags can be quite powerful. It's worth testing.

I'd be inclined to go with the h1 (or h2) text and an alt image tag (somewhere near the first 200 words of content) to get the best bang for your buck.