Live With Ani: SEO 101 - 12-13 of 13 common SEO Roadblocks (Graphics and Pages which are hard to access)

Graphics

Search engines cannot read graphics or graphical text. If the text of your site is a graphic, it is entirely blank to the search engines. The image ALT tag could be used to tell the search engines what the image text says but, due to the widespread abuse of this tag by those trying to trick the search engines, it doesn't carry much weight in the algorithms.

A better bet would be to convert the graphic to text and use CSS to provide the look and feel you're looking for. This allows the search engines to index the text and also allows the visually impaired using screen readers to access your site information.

CSS is short for “Cascading Style Sheets.” It allows web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers can create style sheets that define how different elements appear, such as headers and links. These style sheets can then be applied to any web page.

Pages Which Are Hard to Access

The more clicks a page is distanced from the home page, the less value is placed on that page by the search engines. Logically this makes sense. If a page takes six clicks to reach, it must be less important to your visitors than one that takes two clicks to reach.

The number of clicks a page takes to be found is referred to as the page’s level:

Level 1 – The home page

Level 2 – All pages linked to from the home page

Level 3 – All pages linked to from the Level 2 pages that have not already been found etc.

Some search engines limit the levels of a site they will index. This is much less of an issue today than it was in the past. In general, if possible, limit all pages to be three clicks from the home page. Also put your important content on the higher levels of your site.