Google Bot and Heading Heirarchy

[anos]

so i have a website which i have a primary heading <H1> and multiple subheadings <H2>. i was just reading that the googlebot will ignore headings if they are in the same color as the background. mine ARE, but this is only because my actual headings are .png images so i could obtain certain font not available to browsers. so i was complementing them with the headings masked by the background.

is it true that googlebot will ignore them?

if so, does anyone have any suggestions how i can embed the headings, for searching, but not have them show or compete with the .png images?

thanks!

[microdude431]

Yes, Google bot is very very picky about those H1 tags. It might ignore them. Try fooling around a bit and see what you get.

[alemcherry]

Not just ignore them, you are most likely to get a penalty. Dont be stupid!

[anos]

okay. so what what i did was the following.

i placed the image within the header. then in the <IMG> attributes i used ALT and TITLE to include words, but have no other words in <H1> or <H2>

this way i am not violating anything. i just hope the googlebot treats these "words" as part of the heading. it would seem that it should.

[ravenclaw22]

Yeah, but you may also place a title for your H1 tags. Google can't penalized you for that. Just dont keyword stuff it.

[anos]

oh ... good point!!

i see now that <H1> tags allow for a title. i guess so do <H2> tags.

good to know!

thanks for pointing that out.