Quick SEO question about alt attributes

kristenwestlake · 2015-01-27 03:30:37

Hi,

The new update for Gallery works great!

I just have a question about the alt attributes that are designed to improve SEO for images without captions. I often don't want to add too much detail below the images so they are often captionless.

In the wiki it states, "For better SEO, when an image has no caption, it's alt attribute will now be filled by its file name, rather than being left empty."
How does this work?
For example this image : http://www.kristenwestlake.net/gallerie … single.php
There is only a title and no caption. Where would I or how does google read the filename (which is rich in keywords for what the photo is) in leu of a caption?

Thank you!
Kristen

rod barbee · 2015-01-27 03:51:00

the plug-in inserts the file name into the image's alt tag. This is invisible to viewers (unless you've a missing image) but it used by browsers for SEO and screen readers for accessibility purposes (blind visitors)

kristenwestlake · 2015-01-27 04:33:30

excellent Rod, thank you.
So if a person had a caption, would that caption be in the image's alt tag instead of the title?
.. and do I need to configure anything into my LR plug in settings in order for the alt tag to take on the title or will it do it automatically as designed?

Thank you!

rod barbee · 2015-01-27 04:53:20

I don't know if the caption would be put there or not. One way to check is to add a caption and then look at the page source of the image page to see.

what I take from what Matt wrote is that you don't need to do anything, the alt tag being filled will happen automatically.

I imagine the title field Matt added to single html pages will be taken from the image's Title metadata field. Nothing automatic there, just make sure you have a title in the metadata if you want it to be attached to the image.

I didn't see anything about the alt tag taking on the title, only the filename

kristenwestlake · 2015-01-27 05:58:23

Thanks Rod

I checked to see if I could see my filename in the source code as an alt tag and wa la, its awesome!
Also, yes indeed, the images that have captions are alt tagged with the caption. So it seems now those of us that don't wish to use keyword intense captions can do it 'behind the scenes' in our filenames!

Very cool ..
and checked an image with a caption

Matthew · 2015-01-28 11:44:32

the title attribute is filled by the the image's title; the alt attribute by its caption. file names are used as fallback.

There are also more options now for hiding titles and captions in the slideshow view, so you can use them strictly for SEO if you don't want them visible to your visitors.

patrickdej · 2015-01-29 03:17:40

Hello,Mat

I'm planning a multi language website. If I want to have German and English alt tags,
can you imagine a way the alt tags could come from two different fields? For exmple in a english alt tags from caption and in the German from anotjer field. The hope is to use one file and publish it in two different places.

btw fantastic progression with your 4th generation.

regards,

Patrick

Matthew · 2015-01-29 12:12:34

Under the Image Info pane (or whatever that's called in LR/De), enable Caption, and select "Edit..." from the menu. You can source whatever metadata you'd like, concatenate metadata fields, etc.

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2015-01-27 03:30:37

Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#2 2015-01-27 03:51:00

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#3 2015-01-27 04:33:30

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#4 2015-01-27 04:53:20

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#5 2015-01-27 05:58:23

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#6 2015-01-28 11:44:32

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#7 2015-01-29 03:17:40

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

#8 2015-01-29 12:12:34

Re: Quick SEO question about alt attributes

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