I'm a designer who has some coding skills, and I'm building a site for my friend who's a stonemason. The majority of the tombstones we create here in Poland have strong Catholic imagery, like statues and engravings. My wife, who works for a major news outlet, mentioned that they avoid using religious imagery in their online articles because Google penalizes such content. She claims that images with churches or religious symbols get buried in search results. Should I be concerned about including images of tombstones with crosses and other religious symbols on the website? Do I need to remove these elements to avoid affecting SEO? Some tombstones are designed to prominently feature figures like Jesus on the Cross, and it feels wrong to hide that from potential customers. Here's an example of what I'm talking about: https://kamieniarstwojasik.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nagrobek-podwojny-Kamieniarstwo-Jasik-2.jpg
2 Answers
Honestly, I think your wife's outlet is being a bit overcautious. I've seen plenty of websites selling tombstones with religious imagery, and they seem to do just fine in search results. There's no real reason to worry about Google being anti-religious unless the symbols are offensive or hateful. Your tombstones should be totally fine!
Google doesn’t have a strict policy against religious imagery in general; it might depend on the context. For example, if you search for "tombstones" on Google Images, many show crosses and angels. Your wife might be referring to a specific issue with news articles, but in regular search, religious content isn't automatically penalized. It definitely seems like a mix of their policy and maybe a misunderstanding of SEO rules.
That could be it! They probably have guidelines for content, but it sounds like you're safe with tombstone images on a commercial site.
So, is it more about being politically correct for them? Why take such a strict stance if it's not a Google issue?