When assessing web page structure and website layout, there is a subtle, yet strategic way to use images in an SEO-friendly (beyond ALT tags) that improves your search engine rank while allowing you to integrate the necessary marketing message(s). Confused? Let’s look at an example –
Suppose you operate a travel website and you want to optimize a given web page for the term “Las Vegas hotel”. Suppose that you also want to include an enticing marketing message such as “Book now and save 20%!”. The aforementioned tagline lacks descriptive text, but possesses persuasive characteristics. That being said, you may want to place the tagline in an image and the key phrase (i.e. Las Vegas hotel) in a header tag. This places emphasis on the desired term, yet still provides a marketing opportunity without compromising keyword consistency in website.
In other words, images are great place to insert marketing messages that lack the necessary keywords and phrases. Leveraging this technique will ensure that descriptive text is indexed in search engine, while less marketing jargon is overlooked. The combination of keywords content and enticing messaging will satisfy both sides of the strategic equation.