Call to actions buttons

[Jon-C]

Redoing my site at the moment and placing a few call's to action around it.

The calls to action are pretty basic, along the lines of 'click here to get a quote', when you click you get taken to an anchor towards the bottom of the same page that takes you to a contact form.

I've based the Calls to action on just a brightly coloured gif image that has text written on to it (not in code but added via photoshop)?

This the right way to go, or should I be putting the text actually on my page and using a background coloured element to do it?

The same image is used across several pages (got a couple of these images which I use across the site) and thinking it's easier to do it this way rather than code?

Adding alt text to images 'Click here to get quote on X' (X being product) and also using img title tag for when mouse i hovering over - Click here to get a quote!

Don't want to get hit by any dupe content issue for using the same image on multiple pages etc (I could always no index the folder where the call to action images are stored if this helps?)

This sound ok to you pros?

[DanDeceuster]

Kind of a loaded question but let me see if I understand. You have a call to action button and you want to use it in multiple places on your website but don't want a duplicate content penalty. You wonder if making the button in text might be more effective. Is that correct?

First of all, I think there is a lot of research out there that your image call to action will be more effective than any styled text could be. You have a lot of options with fonts, colors, shading, etc. in images, not so when styling text. I would definitely use a button in that regard. Also, you want it to stand out. That isn't always just bright colors, it's contrasting colors. SEOMoz for example has a light blue background. Right now there is a pink "call to action" of sorts (more of a look at me I'm important note) at the top for the expiring private messages. Stands out, doesn't it? Because a warm color (pink) contrasts with the cool color palette established by the blue background.

You don't have to worry about a duplicate content penalty on images that I'm aware of. What I would do is only use it once per page in the best place you can put it and make sure every time you use it on all your pages you maintain the same alt text. I've seen that it's possible Google isn't a fan of repeating an image with different alt text or calling lots of different images but using the same alt text.

[TakeshiYoung]

There is no duplicate content penalty for images. Image buttons are fine unless you're really trying to optimize for speed, in which case coded buttons could be the better solution.

[Jon-C]

Thanks, so keep alt text same

What I was going to do was say with alt text was -

On red cheese page 'Get a quote on our red cheese'
On Cheshire cheese page 'Get a quote on our cheshire cheese'

So just to confirm I'd be best just using

'Get a quote on our cheese'?

(Do people use alt text for call to action buttons anyway?)

[TakeshiYoung]

In order to be compliant with HTML standards, all images should include alt text. This helps with users who are visually impaired. Also, it is good SEO practice.