Performing Internal Optimization Without Much Anchor Text?

[CodyWheeler]

Hi guys. We're in the process of building a new site, and are using a lot of icon based linking, image linking, etc. There is some basic text linking here and there, but not a whole lot.

My concern is, because I'm not using actual anchor text, but just images, that crawlers are going to have a more difficult time determining what pages are about.

Do I have a valid concern, or am I just worrying about nothing?

If this concern is valid, what is the best way to remedy this concern? Alt img tags?

[AWCthreads]

Hi Cody. I just got in on the tail end of this. I'd also put keywords in the file name. Check out a previous thread on this.

[CodyWheeler]

Awesome. Thanks for all the clear answers guys. Sounds like pretty simple stuff. Just never done a site this graphically intense before.

Appreciate it!!

[Keszi]

Exactly! Google has tons of factors to determine what content, images, etc are about. Still "after the book" the alt tag should be the one that is used as anchor text when using an image as a link.

[BryanCasson]

Exactly right, and remember, Google does not only use the alt tag to determine what the image is about, it also uses the surrounding text to get an idea. You can see it uses this method when searching in Google images, many times the target image does not even have an alt tag but Google seems to be relevant.

[marcinlejman]

Hi Cody,

if your content is good (it includes relevant keywords and phrases), and if you're using the most important tags properly (title, h1, h2 etc.), you should be fine.

One trick you can use to help with internal linking is to create a html sitemap of your site and link to it from the footer. The sitemap would include keyword reach links to the most important pages of your site (for example categories and subcategories).

Hope it helps.

[Keszi]

Hi Cody,

image alt tags serve as anchor text if you use images as links.

I hope that answered your question.

Gr.,

Istvan