Do search engines index text contained in SVG elements?

Question

Example:

<svg><text>Hello World</text></svg>?

Solution 1

Yes

You can now use Google search to find SVG documents. SVG is an open, XML-based format for vector graphics with support for interactive elements. We’re big fans of open standards, and our mission is to organize the world’s information, so indexing SVG is a natural step.

We index SVG content whether it is in a standalone file or embedded directly in HTML. The web is big, so it may take some time before we crawl and index most SVG files, but as of today you may start seeing them in your search results.

Solution 2

They do indeed index the text itself.

For proof, check out this site: http://svg.nicubunu.ro/

If you search for the relevant strings, the site shows in the search rankings. I do not know how long it takes to index a new .svg page or element.

Comments

[Mousey]

@JohnConde do all web browsers, including mobiles, support svg? And is their an easy way to convert to jpg or png so that pinterest sees them or so that a mobile user can save them to post elsewhere, eg on social media?

[Mousey]

interesting site, although the page itself is a SVG and the text indexed is different to the page's content, it would have been better if SVG recognized the text inside the image rather than just allowing hidden text

[MrWhite]

@Mousey What makes you think "the text indexed is different to the page's content"? Maybe this has changed, but if I search for an exact quoted phrase on that page (part of the SVG) then it is found in Google.

[Paras Jain]

What hasn't been tested yet is whether it makes a difference if, a) the whole site is SVG and there is no HTML code, b) the SVG file is embedded inside an HTML web page using the embed, iframe or img tag, or c) the SVG code is inserted directly into the HTML code.