Why Use Text Links Instead of Buttons?

There seems to be a debate between using text links for a website’s categories and using button image links. Text links tend to be the preferred option where search engine optimization is concerned, as the spiders and bots that crawl websites cannot “see” images, which is what button links are. But I thought this would be a good opportunity to share the reasons why one type of link may work better than the other.

1. With image links, any surfer who is browsing the web with a text only browser, or with images disabled, and there are many who do this, they will not be able to see your links if you use buttons. This is why Alt image attributes should be used with images, but since many people don’t realize they need to use alt tags, then this presents a problem for those surfing the Web without being able to view images.
2. Even if you use image links with alt image attributes, these carry less weight and relevance with the search engines than simple text links do.
3. Images require time to load, and the more images you have, the longer it can take–and image links are no exception to this. For those surfers still on dialup–a number that would likely surprise you–waiting for a page full of images to load can be frustrating enough to make them leave a website.
4. Many button images use fonts that are difficult to read.
5. Text links can be “read” by the spiders and bots crawling your site.
6. If you’re using keywords for text links, you’re doing more to optimize your site for the spiders and bots, and increasing your position in the indexes of the various search engines by doing so…because keyword-rich content is very important to the search engines.

While button image links are more aesthetically pleasing, they simply aren’t recommended if you’re concerned with your site’s SEO. And really, why do you need to have cute button links anyway? If you already have other graphics on your site, such as a logo and/or a webtopper and backgrounds, there is already plenty of eye candy available. And with the text links in place, you can contribute to your site’s SEO, and put your focus on providing quality products, and a website that is easy to navigate for all.