What is better to get; an image link or a text link? Generally, a text link, i.e., text that is marked and turned into an active hyperlink, is stronger than an image link1. Additionally, the ability to confirm what the content is about is significantly stronger with a text link.
In an image link, you use the alt-text to describe what the link points to or what it represents. You can also use the title tag as a kind of anchor text, but studies show that alt-text is a stronger indicator than the title tag. The scenario is the same when optimizing images for on-site SEO.
Google itself explains in their ‘Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide’2 that you should use text links for internal navigation. This is because it makes it easier for Google to decode what the different pages are about. Google reads code and does not look at the images to determine what is on them. While they are continuously working to improve their ability to decode images with OCR technology, that’s a different matter.
However, you should not avoid image links because image links belong in a natural link profile with a reasonable diversity. Often, there will be a much smaller amount of image links compared to text links, as that is the natural distribution. It is very rare to see link profiles where image links make up more than 10% of the total amount of links. Therefore, if you have an abundance of people linking to you through an image, you may want to ask them to change it to text links. Otherwise, you should leave them in their current form.
You can read much more about different types of links and their effect on your link profile and therefore your website’s visibility in organic search results, in the full edition of The Link Building Book.
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