Hard Answers to Questions About Optimizing Image-Only Web Sites

Search Engine Optimization deals mostly with improving on-page content in order to "show" search engines that you are worthy of having your page ranked for a particular keyword. In my opinion, content is still the number one priority when seeking search rankings, no matter how important linking initiatives are becoming. One issue that comes up more and more often as people are discovering SEO is the optimization of image-intensive web pages. A recent site that we began working with has lots of great content, but unfortunately it is entirely inside images, which a search engine spider cannot "read." We recommended a complete redesign.

A member of High Rankings Forum posted the other day about a website that is not only in all-images, but also in frames. The member posts four potential solutions they have come up with, and asks for advice. These ideas include using alt attributes, Meta Description tags including all the content, adding content below the images (the method we are going to try for the above-referenced client), and simply adding more pages with "real" content.

The frames topic aside (also a big no-no for search friendliness), the image issue will be a tough one to tackle, based on the early concensus. The hard answers are hinted at by some, but as usual Jill Whalen gets straight to the point by saying

the only solution is a complete site redesign

Perhaps this person was looking for easy answers to this subject, but unfortunately there only exist hard answers such as Jill's. In my opinion, if you want to really succeed in getting a site ranked in search engines for competitive phrases, you have to present content separate from images.

Jump in and give your opinion at High Rankings Forums.