In today's digital age where visual elements play a critical role in capturing a user’s attention, the design and functionality of a website are indispensable to its success. As businesses and individuals strive to create visually appealing and engaging web pages, a common practice has emerged: embedding text within images. While this approach might seem visually attractive, it carries significant drawbacks that can negatively impact the efficacy of your site.
Here’s why it’s best to avoid using text in images on your website.
Accessibility Concerns
Web accessibility is essential to ensure that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and interact with your website effectively. Text embedded in images poses several accessibility challenges:
- Screen Readers: Users who rely on screen readers cannot read text within images. Screen readers parse HTML content and provide auditory feedback, but they cannot extract text from images. This leaves visually impaired users unable to access critical information.
- Resizing Issues: Users who need to resize text for better readability cannot do so if the text is embedded in an image. This can make your website difficult to read for those with visual impairments or other reading difficulties.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is crucial for driving organic traffic to your website. When text is embedded in images, it hinders your site's SEO efforts in several ways:
- Indexing: Search engines like Google index text content to understand the relevance and context of your web pages. Text in images cannot be indexed, meaning that any valuable keywords or phrases included in these images will not contribute to your SEO.
- Content Relevance: Search engines prioritize content that is relevant and accessible. When you use text within images, you diminish the visible text content, potentially lowering your page's relevance in search results.
Responsiveness & User Experience
Modern websites need to be responsive to provide an optimal experience across various devices and screen sizes. Text within images can compromise this responsiveness:
- Scalability: Images do not scale as well as text. When viewed on different devices, text within images can become too small to read or too large to fit the screen properly.
- Loading Times: Images generally have larger file sizes than text, leading to longer loading times. This can frustrate users and increase bounce rates, especially on mobile devices where bandwidth may be limited.
Maintenance & Updates
Websites often require updates to keep content current and relevant. Text embedded in images complicates this process.
- Editing Difficulties: Updating text within an image requires editing the image file itself, which is more time-consuming and requires design skills. In contrast, updating text directly on a web page is straightforward and quick.
- Version Control: Keeping track of different versions of images with embedded text can be cumbersome. Textual updates necessitate the creation and management of new image files, increasing the complexity of version control.
Best Practices
While the best practice is to simply avoid using text in images on your website, there are circumstances that may justify having one. If you do have to include a graphic with text, consider the following:
- Alt Text for Images: If images are essential to your design, use descriptive alt text to provide context and improve accessibility. Alt text allows screen readers to convey the image's content to visually impaired users and enhances SEO.
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG): When using text in design elements, consider SVGs, which allow for scalable, high-quality graphics that include searchable text elements.
While embedding text within images might seem like an attractive design choice, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits. Prioritizing accessibility, SEO, and user experience will ensure your website reaches a broader audience and maintains its relevance in search engine results. By following best practices, you can create a visually appealing and functional website that serves all users effectively.
Our Ingenious team are experts at balancing visual aesthetics and functionality of messaging—and we love helping our clients maximize their digital presence on all platforms. Reach out and have us help you.