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We all know that the search engines cant see or read thegraphics on our pages. We also know that we need to provide texton a page, so the spiders will have something to crawl and index.After all, we have to prove to the search engines without ashadow of a doubt that our pages are about what we say or claimtheyre about if we want to achieve top rankings. Thats why Ibelieve so strongly in focusing each page on one single keywordphrase only. As soon as a spider hits a page, I want the spiderto know exactly what that page is about. But, many sites out there are graphic intense, often by virtue oftheir very nature. The sites may sell prints, wallpaper,pictures, graphics, or posters. Or, the sites may sell hats, forexample, so that each page is full of pictures of a particulartype of hat. Many Web site owners dont want to add text to those pages,because they want to highlight exactly what theyre selling.Theyve created the site with their audience in mind, which is asit should be. After all, when visitors stop by a wallpaper site,they want to see loads of pictures of the different wallpapersamples. They dont want to read about them!So, being careful to adhere to Googles Guidelines that prohibithiding text, what options do we have with our graphic-intensesite? Lets look at some possible solutions. 1. Can you put visible text above or below the graphics on thepage? If so, this is your best solution, because youre givingthe engines some content to crawl. Simply add a paragraph of content above the graphics, and then aparagraph or two of content below the graphics. Make sure thecontent focuses on your keyword phrase and that it describes thepage accurately. If you dont want to add a full paragraph of content above thegraphics, try adding a heading tag containing your keywordphrase. Then, add content beneath the graphics. The bottom line is: you want to start the page with text if atall possible, not graphics. 2. Be creative! Can you add descriptive text about each graphicunder or beside the graphic? Can you add little Tips or MoreInfo boxes on the page that contain valuable information foryour users and keyword-containing text for the engines? Can youinclude testimonials from happy customers that will add valuablekeyword-containing content to your page?3. Leave your existing graphic-intense pages the way they are,and create some new text-based interior pages that are full ofvaluable content related to your graphics. Pull in trafficthrough those pages, and provide text links to your pages full ofgraphics. Be sure to use your important keyword phrase in thelink text that links to the pages of graphics. Keep in mind that these new pages are interior pages, which meansthat they should provide a link to other pages on your site, andyour site should provide a link back to those pages. If youvedone your homework right, these new pages are providing value toyour users, therefore providing value to the search engines, sotheres no reason why you wouldnt want to link to these newinterior pages. Can you use redirects from the text-based pages to the pages ofgraphics? I highly recommend not doing so. The engines have neverbeen fond of redirects for one thing. But, even if your redirectsarent sneaky (as Google says in their Guidelines), if youdont use text links with the keyword phrase in the link text,youre missing out on one of the most valuable search engineoptimization strategies available to you: using your keywordphrase in link text pointing to your pages. 4. You can leave your existing graphic-intense pages as they are,and instead concentrate on off page factors such as buildinglink popularity to those pages and making sure that the pageslinking to the graphics pages use link text that contains yourimportant keyword phrase. In other words, you can work on yourlink reputation. After all, you can compete with the big boys using almost anystrategy that is detrimental to search engine rankings if yourlink popularity and link reputation is strong enough, and if thesites linking to you describe your site using your importantkeyword phrase. By strong enough, I mean that the links should be from popular,authoritative sites in your topic area. Sheer numbers arent whatwere after here. Were after links from popular andauthoritative sites in our topic area. Were also after linksthat use our important keyword phrase in the link text describingour pages. In Conclusion Though the best solution is to add text to your pages ofgraphics, sometimes you (or your client) wont want to go thatroute. They may want to keep the existing pages just as they are.In those situations, its important to have some Googlefriendly solutions that will give you the best chance atachieving top rankings for your pages, while making sure thatyoure following the guidelines as stated by Google.

About the Author

Robin Nobles teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search enginemarketing workshops thru http://www.searchengineworkshops.com inlocations across the globe as well as online courses athttp://www.onlinewebtraining.com/. Robins partner, JohnAlexander, recently published an e-book titled, WordtrackerMagic," at http://www.wordtracker-magic.com (which offers greattips for helping you learn how to focus on your target audience.)