June 19, 2007

Typo3 CMS SEO (Part 5): Image Tags

Part five of a ten part series: Typo3 SEO

As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, to a search engine robot, a picture is worthless. Well, that is, unless you give it worth by tagging it with words. Here's where ALT tags and image titles come in handy.

Using targeted keywords inside ALT text and TITLE text parameters in your IMG tags is a widely recognized SEO best practice for increasing page/link relevancy. Plus, it's a great way to improve usability for the visually impaired.

Fortunately, Typo3 CMS makes it extremely easy to customize your own ALT text and TITLES however you want them. Here's how...

I'll just use the Typo3 "Insert/Modify Image" tool (which comes packaged with the built-in Rich Text Editor which I'm using to write this article). Once I've inserted the image I want, I simply click on the "Insert/Modify Image" icon (or right click on the image and select "Image Properties"), which displays the "Current Image" tab:

Image Properties Window

Then, as I have done, simply fill out the Title and Alternate Text form fields, and click the Update button, and you're all set.

Adding ALT text and title parameters to template images

Here's how to add the same image as a content object to your Typo3 template setup:

10 = IMAGE
10.file = fileadmin/dawsoninteractive.com/images/articles/SNAG-0003.png
10.border = 1
10.altText = Image Properties Window
10.titleText = Image Properties Window