I got a web design which does not contain a h1 and has several h2s which have text as image.
My questions are how to handle this in terms of SEO?
Is it possible to add a hidden h1 with a proper page title? Or is hiding per se a bad idea? Or should I use multiple h1s instead of the h2s?
Each h2 contains an image like this <h2><img src="link-to-text.svg" alt="This is the headline text"></h2> which represents the headline (unfortunately a webfont is not an option).
Ideally for both SEO and user experience, you should take the text out of those images, and overlay real text - a real <h1> - on top of the background.
If you can't do that, next best would be to include an <h1> which is positioned off-screen. This way search engines and screen readers still "see" the heading, but sighted visitors don't.
Images shouldn't be included in <h2> tags. Those are intended to contain text so all technologies can understand it. You may want to read through the WCAG accessibility guidelines to learn more about how assistive technologies view and present content so you're not unintentionally excluding anyone.
