Above the Fold Content - Use of large images

[J_Sinclair]

Hi All,

Our designers have come to the SEO team to ask if have a large image across the top of the page taking up a large majority of the above the fold real estate will impact our SEO.

Our initial thoughts are no as long as we have an optimised H1 visibal to the user landing there which informs them what the page is about.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[HashtagHustler]

Touche EGOL... Touche...

[EGOL]

I am confident that the images make a great impression on visitors.  Just, would some assessment done by Google, for example, Panda see them as non-content above the fold.

You never know what google is doing.

[David-Kley]

Go for the user. If you look at seo-browser's reports for pages that have large images or fullscreen sliders, it still renders out to a search engine bot about the same. People like pretty. People share pretty. We use a full screen slider for our home page, and still rank consistantly on page one.

Even better if your large images are conversion-focused. Might actually see an increase if done right, rather than a ranking loss.

[HashtagHustler]

GentleMozers,

If I may. I think this is when the lines of SEO/Social Media/Marketing become slightly blurred. All of you have touched on a very key point that people simply enjoy it! There are numerous studies, like one by Kissmetrics which show that Facebook posts get 30% more interaction than pure text posts.

I would say it not a stretch to assume the same applies to a website. I personally think there are plenty of other tactics to try and implement before I choose to get rid of the main imagery. Not only that, but with the Parallax/jQuery style of website you technically can have your H1 sit on top of your image, so you get the best of both worlds!

I honestly think that my visitors enjoy these images... but they don't determine the rankings of my pages in search.

EGOL I would be curios to know more about this. I mean yes, happiness unfortunately doesn't directly correlate to SERP's but Google must take into account visits. I know it isn't black and white that one image isn't going to make or break a website completely, but there are many times that I have been to a website and been severely distraught by the pixelated imagery and my trust in the company is diminished immediately, even if it's only a little. I guess I'm "cyber-shallow". That in turn, leads to a chain of self-destruction and questioning why I ever went to the website, severe crying, lot's of rocking back of forth. I'm being sarcastic of course, but I think you get my point. Happiness does correlate to rankings, even indirectly.

Getting people to your website is only half the battle, if they don't stay and do something to benefit your business/service/complete a goal that's potentially a lost opportunity. You only get one chance to make a first impression, make sure it's a good one!

Just my thoughts!

[StickyWebz]

We built a site with large images and pushed the H1 below as an experiment. We saw no downsides, and because the site was far more user-friendly and good looking (we didn't change any on page SEO really) we noticed visitors were bouncing less, browsing more, and converting almost 40% more.

Go for the user first!

[EGOL]

Sometimes I have wonderful images that are relevant to the topic of an article and become part of the article's content.

I have been posting them below the

but above the content of the article.  These images are big and beautiful and I am certain that people like them.

But, I honestly have the same question that you have.  Is this pushing text content down "TOO FAR FOR GOOGLE"?   I honestly think that my visitors enjoy these images... but they don't determine the rankings of my pages in search.

[JarnoNijzing]

you should check out this weeks WBF:
http://moz.com/blog/panda-optimization-whiteboard-friday
It's also about the above the fold content.

Regards
Jarno