I can definitely see image in the open site explorer. I do the link: query in yahoo site explorer for google.com and download the1000 results they make available. all but 18 out of the 1,000 were labeled as either html, xml or pdf (format column). the other 18 were 'unknown' and are all from google domains (url column).

I have never personally seen image links count in wither google or yahoo webmaster tools. Have you?

Thanks, I really appreciate the  the conversation

So in your link building efforts, you have seen image hyperlinks show up in a backlink report? I never have seen that. The presence of them in a backlink report indicates to me there is an SEO benefit (specifically reported in google webmaster tools backlinks)

Thanks!

will an image use the 'alt text' in place of anchor text since there is none? Is an image link as valuable as text link? I figured I would see link building services offer badges and other image based products if these were that valuable.

thanks!

I see some chatter about badges, but no clear definition. A collegue of mine instituted badges on clients website, but these badges are only an image w/ hyperlink; no textual content.

He is confident that this has worked successfully before as a link building strategy, which blew my mind. I thought we needed some text, and obviously optimizes anchor text for biggest benefit.

Are these simple badges helpful, or do we need some html in there!?

He also routes them through bit.ly to track impressions and clicks.. does that have any effect as well?

Thanks!

will an image use the 'alt text' in place of anchor text since there is none? Is an image link as valuable as text link? I figured I would see link building services offer badges and other image based products if these were that valuable.

thanks!