Displayed image subtitle affects SEO?

[lindapowers]

Hello

vm 3.0.14 joomla 3.4.8

Simple doubt, does the "displayed image subtitle" in vm product images have any importance in SEO terms?

With the Alt text I noticed the display shows in fancybox once you click in the image and the displayed subtitle shows even without clicking.

Just wondering if I should fill it or not.

Regards

[Ghost]

Alt tags help rank in image search. Not that image search traffic is very useful for an ecommerce site. Still, using alt tag is good practice. You can modify Fancybox to remove the subtitle.

[lindapowers]

Alt tags help rank in image search. Not that image search traffic is very useful for an ecommerce site. Still, using alt tag is good practice. You can modify Fancybox to remove the subtitle.

Thanks for info, however what I still don't know is the use of the "displayed image subtitle" If you go to the media files in VM and click in an image youll see what I mean.

The subtitle in the image doesn't bother me, Im just interested in knowing if is something that affects somehow and worth filling.

Regards

[jenkinhill]

Using default VM templates the subtitle displays below images as a "title", and also as the alt if no different alt text was entered when the image was uploaded & saved. If you have more than one image then a title for each can be entered before saving, and that title will appear below the relevant image thumb.

I have used it to provide additional image information for shoppers, eg "Rear view". I guess it could have some SEO relevance as it is words on the page.

[lindapowers]

Using default VM templates the subtitle displays below images as a "title", and also as the alt if no different alt text was entered when the image was uploaded & saved. If you have more than one image then a title for each can be entered before saving, and that title will appear below the relevant image thumb.

I have used it to provide additional image information for shoppers, eg "Rear view". I guess it could have some SEO relevance as it is words on the page.

Thanks, however I noticed something additional.

The title and the alt title is the same in VM, actually VM just takes the alt title as the image title:

<a href="http://www.comenaranjas.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/naranjas-de-mesa-kg.jpg" rel="vm-additional-images" title="Naranjas de mesa de la huerta por kilos">
<img id="main-image" alt="Naranjas de mesa de la huerta por kilos" src="/images/stories/virtuemart/product/naranjas-de-mesa-kg.jpg">

Was reading that is recommended to have this 2 different.

[jenkinhill]

Was reading that is recommended to have this 2 different.

That is debatable for SEO purposes. The alt tag ideally contains a description of the image. Its original purpose was to provide a description of an image for those who are unable to view images, such as the blind, those who don't download images (this used to be a problem in the early web days when speeds were very low - and measured in Baud - so surfers would often turn images off in the browser), and was also used by search engines which then could not read images.  Originally browsers would display the alt text on mouseover of an image, but now the standard is to display the title. The title tag was added to provide a simple title for the image to display on mouseover. So an image of a girl sat on a chair could have alt text something like "Girl sat on a chair" and the title of eg "Susan" - assuming it was Susan sat on the chair.

It is generally accepted that the alt text does have a role in SEO, while the title tag is much less important and may not have any status at all, which is why it is often left out or is the same as alt. My view is that the alt text carries more SEO weight than an image subtitle, and titles are unimportant, but useful for the page visitor.

[lindapowers]

Was reading that is recommended to have this 2 different.

That is debatable for SEO purposes. The alt tag ideally contains a description of the image. Its original purpose was to provide a description of an image for those who are unable to view images, such as the blind, those who don't download images (this used to be a problem in the early web days when speeds were very low - and measured in Baud - so surfers would often turn images off in the browser), and was also used by search engines which then could not read images.  Originally browsers would display the alt text on mouseover of an image, but now the standard is to display the title. The title tag was added to provide a simple title for the image to display on mouseover. So an image of a girl sat on a chair could have alt text something like "Girl sat on a chair" and the title of eg "Susan" - assuming it was Susan sat on the chair.

It is generally accepted that the alt text does have a role in SEO, while the title tag is much less important and may not have any status at all, which is why it is often left out or is the same as alt. My view is that the alt text carries more SEO weight than an image subtitle, and titles are unimportant, but useful for the page visitor.

Thanks for detailed info. Is more or less what I have read in SEO articles.

Since VM takes the alt tag as the title tag one doesn't know if we should use it as a simple short title or a more descriptive alt tag.

Regards

[jenkinhill]

Use a better alt tag, even though the effect on ranking will be tiny. The title attribute is even less relevant.