Web Graphics and Internet Connection Speed

Back in the early days of the World Wide Web, a common rule of thumb was not to add more than 15Kb of graphics to a web page. That was a time when users connected to the web with a dial-up modem, at speeds of just 33Kbps or 55Kbps. Web pages were greatly limited in the amount of graphics they could contain, because of the slow access speeds.

Today most people connect to the web using a cable or DSL connection, at speeds thousands of times faster than dial-up. This increased speed lets us create more visual websites. But it creates another problem: Search engines like Google don't know how to interpret graphical data. Sites that rely heavily on graphic images to convey information will perform poorly in search engine results.

Search Engines Don't Understand Graphic Images

What does this mean for website owners?

Don't rely exclusively on graphics to convey information.

Supplement your photos with a text description. Include all relevant data in text form, such as color, size, product number, etc. Use keywords to describe your pictures. This helps Google to better understand the contents of your page.

Don't use graphic images for menu items.

Menus should be text-based. (Some newer text menus allow for individual graphical icons.)

Don't use home pages that are pure video or graphics.

Flash pages are practically invisible to Google.

Always Use ALT Text With Images

Use of the ALT attribute is recommended^{See W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0} when placing graphics on your webpage. ALT lets you supply an alternate text for your graphic. For more information on use of the ALT attribute, see this video from Matt Cutts of Google. (The WYSIWYG editor included with our Joomla websites lets you add ALT tags^{ALT is technically an attribute, not a tag.} easily to your pictures.)

One way to better understand how Google sees your webpage is to view that page using a text-only browser such as Lynx. There's a handy Lynx Viewer online. Just type in the URL (web address) of your website and press the View button. If you see a blank page, then your website contains only images without ALT text.

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