Do H tags have more weight than image alt tags

[Hope]

I have a designer who thinks images are better looking than h tags. I would tend to agree. We are having a large debate about this.

He wants to use an image tag instead of an h tag. I have told him that the h tags have more weight in the rankings. He then suggested using text the same color of the background. This text would read the same as the image. He was told that is NOT permitted at all. Told him that was SPAM.

Is there an definative answer as to how much weight is on the h tag as compared to an image with alt text? <snip>

[edited by: Marcia at 5:30 pm (utc) on April 5, 2004]
[edit reason] No direct requests, please. [/edit]

[le_gber]

I think that as a rule of thumb any text (HTML Text) has more weight than alt tag.

If you add to that <hx>, <b><stong>, <i><em>, <a> or any other HTML tag that emphasis on the text itself, it is also said that it gives even more importance.

But don't over do it though as it could loose the 'boost' provided.

Leo

[AjiNIMC]

SEOwise texts are better, but always remember that images are more expressive and cathy. So keep a balance between the two phase

1) get the visitor
2) convert the visitor.

I have seen webpages with good and cathy images with a lot of incoming links, doing good(in fact) in both the phase.

Aji

[creative craig]

The text can be manipulated using CSS don't forget. So you can make the plain H tag text look just as good.

Craig

[Ledfish]

"He then suggested using text the same color of the background. This text would read the same as the image. He was told that is NOT permitted at all. Told him that was SPAM."

I think that is defined as hidden text and you are correct that Google says it is a NO-NO.

[pmkpmk]

I did ONE graphical headline (with the same text in the ALT-tag) per page, and EVERYTHING else is text-only emphasized via CSS.

Looks good and works fine for me: most pages PR5, good positions for the major keywords.

P.S. Keep in mind that graphics load longer.

[sem4u]

Just use CSS to change the H tag to whatever font style, size, etc. that you want.