Does Google penalize heavy text but not heavy images?

[pseudoengineer]

There has been some discussion about tiny page size being ideal. But when talking about size, are we concerned only about text - and not images? Does Google penalize heavy text but not heavy images?

[Jesse_Smith]

:::Does Google penalize heavy text but not heavy images?

Not at all! My sites, once you leave the index, show very few images and a lot of text. For my major keyword, out of 5,440,000 links, my site is #6, after official sites.

[Brian]

pseudo: i don't think you're quite getting it right. There is no penalty for page size. In my opinion, page size per se appears to be of no known relevance to Google (within practical limits). When people talk about the joys of small pages, what they really mean is breaking their content down into many pages. This may bring benefits in terms of keyword density, but the real advantage is in the anchored interlinking and the repetition of header material.

[Oaf357]

pseudoengineer,

When people say size, I think overall web page size. For example the smaller the page the faster the load time. The faster the load time the more likely people will look over the page.

Optimized code, CSS, and limiting graphics and optimizing the graphics you do use are all keys to overall good, smart, and considerate web development.

There are so many benefits to keeping pages small. Some pages have to be big by nature but smaller ones have more advantages.

<edit>Oh, and Welcome to WebmasterWorld!</edit>

[WebGuerrilla]

Images have no impact because Google doesn't download them. When you hear people debating about the impact of page size, they are talking about the text portion of the page.

[Lundy]

I have often read that Google likes a small page size, but one of my sites has been number one for several years for a two word term that best describes the site and my index page is 39k. Site in #2 position is 2k , (out of 87,200 total).

My same site with a one word keyword search is #6 out of 1,130,000 total.

It is in a crafts catagory and graphics are just a necessary part of the look/function of it. The reason for larger file size.