Text link versus image link; are they equal

Is an image link as good as a text link?

[FranceFan]

Although most links are text links, some sites prefer to link back using the destination sites logo.

In terms of moving up the search rankings, are both links of equal value? If not, how different are they?

I've seen code like the following, using the ALT facility to attach keywords to the link back:
<a href="http://www.destination-domain.com"><img border="0" src="logo-address" alt="destinationa-domain-keywords"/></a>

I would really like to know if such links have the same value as a text link. Comments please?

Regards,
Doug

[gbsaxena]

Hi,

Text links are very important both in terms of getting quality backlinks and top SERPs. So please try to get text links for the website with the targeted keyword specific text and title tag in the HREF line to get better chances.

However, image links are also very important in terms of branding and advertising in you are running an ad campaign for the site in order to do internet marketing and business promotion.

So, it depends on the business objectives of the website promotional campaigning.

Hope now it is more clear.

Bye :)

[tedster]

Keyword text in an anchor tag is (rough guess) 3 or 4 times more valuable for backlink influence than the same keywords in an alt attribute. Alt attribute stuffing went on for year and caused search engines to devalue it as a relevance signal.