Can Google Read text on Revolution Slider?

[HoosierBuff]

Hi,
I'm kind of curious to see what people think about text inside of revolution slider? I'm not 100% sure that Google can read the text that is in there, and wondering if I should repeat the text outside of the slider image.

I'm wondering that even if it is readable, should I have a stronger H1 outside of the slider just to reinforce that text.

 

[CarrieHill]

If you can share the URL i can investigate whether or not the content is visible to Google. I cant think of a client site off the top of my head that uses Revolution Slider - so I cant check one of ours.

 

[HoosierBuff]

Thank you - one is mydermahealth.com

 

[CarrieHill]

So I just looked at the code and the text actually shows up as TEXT on the code - not just as a layer in an image - so Google can see this. I wouldn't worry about repeating it on the page.

As far as the H1 - I think H1 elements inside images get lost to the user. Google sees it fine, but it doesn't reinforce the content/page topic to the user. In an ideal situation, I'd eliminate the <h1> in the slider if possible and put it at the top of your text area instead.

 

[Stefan Somborac]

Hi @HoosierBuff - As @CarrieHill did, you can check the source code to see how the text is rendered in the HTML.

I also like to do a quick check to see if it's indexed by running a Google search of the site for a snippet of the text:

search string site:example.com

For example:
do not bring anyone with you site:www.mydermahealth.com

 

[dotgal]

I'm wondering what's the consensus on utilizing image sliders in 2023. I'm hearing that using sliders is outdated and not as user-friendly. One of the benefits of the slider is being able to showcase different images and messages to users. Is there a SEO friendly slider? Or in replace of a slider, would you recommend where the spot would have been for a slider to display a different image/message when the page refreshes?

 

[Conor Treacy]

Any of the sliders that support text as a layer should get indexed by Google. We've used Layerslider, Revolution Slider, and Elementor Sliders for years without issue (also Owl Slider or something like that which was jquery related).

As far as banners being used in today's world, they're still used. The days of the "big hero image" are, for the most part, behind us - it just takes up too much real estate. But a page with 1 or 2 banners is still used on many sites - Amazon, Paramount, Hulu, Netflix etc. For the past decade we have told our clients to treat the banner as a billboard. Limited text, and something that draws attention for a few seconds (sale announcement, new product etc).

From an SEO perspective, we really don't want users to even get to the home page The content on the inside of the site (inside pages, products, posts etc) is where we want searchers to land. If someone is searching for "termite inspection", we want them to land on that page, get the info and convert, rather than the home page which is just "pest control" or business name searches usually.