New website help

[VC77]

Hey guys,

I have not long started up my own company so I'm very new ;) but I'm looking for some advice on my website which was created by a friend of mines (free of charge). I love the look of the site but I have noticed that it is all made up of images.

I have been told this could be bad for being found on Google and other search engines. I have also added my URL to Google but I cannot find the site even if I type the URL in the search bar. I did only register it lastnight so I dont know if it just takes time.

I'm needing some help getting the website showing as text and not lots of images (which also makes the website slow) is there anyone I can go to for this task or anybody on here that can help?

I just don't want to take it to a web design company and have them charge me for a new website... sorry if this seems newbish but I'm just not clued up on the whole website side of things.

Thanks :redface:

[OldWelshGuy]

There is pretty much nothing you can do if the site is all images as google can't read images, nor can it parse any links etc.

As a free memebr you can't post a link to your site as site reviews aren't allowed, but explain 'all images' do you mean literally just images with no editable text?

If yes, then it doesn't exist and will not rank for anything beyond completely non competitive as in the name of your dog with lkjhlkjglkjg added on the end.

[Greg_Hargreaves]

Hey Good luck with your new venture.

When you submit your site to Google it wont pick it up over night especially if its brand new and a brand new doamin name. To say how long it will take for Google to find it is hard. I have a client who got their site picked up by Google within two weeks and another that took nearly 4 weeks.

I would expect people on here will be able to advise on things you can change on your site, However if its a complete overhaul you need unfortunately this will cost you.

PM me your url and i will have a look see if there is anything we can pick up on that will be a quick and easy fix for you.

Has your friend put in any sort of SEO for you?

[VC77]

OldWelshGuy - Thanks for your reply, yes the entire site is all images. there is alot of text but non of it is editable (you cannot highlight the text) it is like the
page has been designed and the just saved as one big image or everything (inc the text) has been saved as an image and then put together.

Greg Hargreaves - Thanks I will PM you the url. I'm not sure about any SEO, he did ask for lots of keywords?

[MrTempleDene]

I'll agree with what others have said about SEO etc.

Stop for a minute and think though, your site is made up of images, with the text being part of those images. There is no magic button to turn an image into a webpage, someone would have to put in some work to re-edit the images without text, then put all the code in to display the text properly.

You will have to bite the bullet and get someone to do this, or teach yourself how to do it.

I can quote for the job, you might be pleasantly surprise at the cost.

You have found out the hard way I'm afraid that often free websites are only worth what you pay for them.

[fisicx]

If you don't appear in google then that's because google doesn't know you exist. You need to get an inbound link from somewhere else thar google can follow to your site.

If you then want google to index the site you need page titles, a text based navigation system and some content. If you want to rank for your keywords at the very minimum you need to ensure all the above uses those keywords.

[abpublish]

my website which was created by a friend of mines

This is the source of most of my business. I agree with Temple Dene, you might be pleasantly surprised as to how little it costs to convert this into a text website and fully optimised. Also, the text version could look identical to your current design.

It would be a shame not to do it as I agree with you, the design looks great. I looked at the code that lies behind the site and the amount of time your friend has spent laying out all those images means that a text version of your site would be much simpler to design.

[popnoodles]

Your friend did a great job on design but unfortunately as you've discovered photoshop slices don't work as a web site.

You will have to pay someone to convert it properly from photoshop to HTML, CSS and real content.

[bdw]

VC77 I agree. This is a classic example of horses for courses. Your mate obviously has an eye for design but not much of a clue about CSS, website standards and SEO. There is another name for creating websites from images. It's called cheating.;)

I jest of course. You are quite entitled to build websites like this as long as featuring in the search results is not part of your plan. The rest of us have to maximise our chances of getting found and generating some business. There is a reasonable amount of text on your website and it would have probably optimised quite well if it had been used properly. If your business is worth it you really need to get the site redone.

Google's webmaster guidelines (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#1) actually state, "Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the "ALT" attribute to include a few words of descriptive text."

I have a document I produced that I use to explain the SEO process to my clients in lay person's language. If you want to PM with your email address I'll send you a copy.

.

[stender]

Get a new site i'm afraid. You need plenty of good unique text content if you want to rank anywhere, unless you have deep pockets and want to spend on adwords campaigns.

[eseo2010]

Good advice here - get your site converted first, then make sure its registered with google webmaster tools

g o o g l e.com/webmasters/tools

(sorry cant post links yet)

and that you submit a sitemap. That should speed up indexing.

good luck

[Mr Niche]

Text is needed for web pages for googlebot and spiders to find them.

Also you need to submit to the search engines.

Regards

Mr Niche

[Gord]

I love the look of the site but I have noticed that it is all made up of images.
If you are talking about the vivid site, it is now indexed and it is not all images, the vast majority of the text is text.
Easy way to check if you don't know HTML code, when you view your site in a browser, mouse over the text and if your cursor changes to an 'I' shape then that it text not an image and so will be indexed.

[Leadz]

It would have been easier to advice you if only one can see the website for a better analysis but if the site is all image and no text, it will be hard for the search engines to read and understand what your site is about.

Although if the images are optimized... I mean proper image tags & stuff like that, it won't be too bad but you still need some text.

Now with respect to your site not being visible, is it on the search result or when you enter the address into the address bar directly.

For the formal, you need to give your website some time regardless of wheather it was done well for it to be picked up by search engines.

I hope this helps in some way.