amyrivers.com

Recently, a client asked:

If you do image replacement on headers with css will those images be indexed by search engines?

In answer to that question, I want to discuss intent. In the Google Webmaster Guidelines, Google says:

“If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages. ” (read complete discussion here)

Now, the use of CSS to hide text is listed as one possibly punishable offense by Google.  But the key phrase here, I think, is “deceptive in intent.” For instance, if you intent is to use CSS image replacement to load your pages with keywords that users will not see, then yes, you should expect to be penalized. On the other hand, if you are simply repeating your image text so that spiders can see it too, then you probably will not have a problem in the search engines.

Ultimately, determining intent is difficult - especially for a computer. If your site is otherwise search engine friendly and spam-free,  you most likely will not have any trouble in the search engines.

In implementing your CSS image replacement, please consider the following rules (rules that should be applied to all of your search engine optimization efforts):

1. Make sure your text is meaningful.
2. Don’t keyword load - use keywords sparingly and only when relevant to website content.
3. Always remember, your website is about human users first.  Use of cloaking and other deceptive devices intended to improve your search engine ranking can be extremely damaging and, in the end, may keep you from accomplishing your primary goal - to reach your target audience.