Does embedded text belong in your site images?
Websites have become more focused on videos and images in recent years. But it’s important to remember that text is still a critical part of the process. One trend that has begun is that people are more often putting text directly into their images and then uploading those images to their site. The text will be added in Photoshop or a similar program in advance, for instance, and then it will become part of the image itself when the final copy is rendered.
This can be useful in some limited situations, and it may provide a clean design. But there are also issues with using texting this way, and it’s important to know the problems that it can lead to. It’s still critical to have traditional text on your site. Don’t replace it all with images of that same text. Here are a few reasons why you want to avoid doing so.
Embedded text won’t count for SEO
Search engine optimization is the process by which you tell search engines what content and keywords are on your site. When they crawl the site, the search engine reads this text. When end users type relevant keywords into Google or another search engine, that’s how you get results and page rankings. This is some of the most valuable organic traffic you can have because it is essentially free. Users are specifically looking for the content on your site and they are predisposed to making a purchase.
However, if your text is embedded in the images, the crawlers cannot read it. It doesn’t count toward SEO. You’re losing a lot of valuable keywords and potentially losing the web traffic that goes with it. Actual text will always be relevant because that is how a search engine reads your site. You’re not just writing for your direct audience, you’re writing for search engines, as well.
The site may not be as accessible to some
Another issue is that some of your audience could literally be lost if too much text is embedded in images. For instance, maybe someone is visually impaired. They can still navigate the internet using programs that read text aloud. But these programs, just like search engines, only see the actual text. Things that are embedded in images are going to be skipped and inaccessible to this part of your audience.
It’s harder to make changes and updates
You also want to remember that SEO is a constant process. You should always be updating your website and analyzing your keyword strategy. Everything from consumer trends to the popularity of certain products can impact what types of searches people are running.
You certainly can update images that have text embedded in them, but it is a much more involved process. It’s a lot easier to update your site when you simply have to change the text on the screen, rather than working with a graphic designer to get a new image created and then uploading the image. The more barriers and hurdles you can remove, the more smoothly the process will go. It should be simple and easy to update your site content when you need to.
Building your website the right way
As you can see, keywords and SEO are incredibly important to your website. Common misconceptions and changes in trends can have a negative impact, such as the shift to putting text in images. To ensure that you’re building your website the right way, get in touch with our experienced and professional team here at Content Customs. We look forward to working with you.
