This post is not a feature request as such. It is thread to discuss the best options for SEO of Coppermine.
Once this specification is resolved, then I would like to work with some people to develop these modifications or a plug in. As I am not a programmer I would fund all or part of this development, depending on the support I receive from others with this project.
Objective: To significantly improve the performance in search engines, in particular Google, of content within Coppermine based picture galleries.
Items to improve:
FRONT PAGE
Image alt tags: at the moment the “alt” tag simply uses the file name. In most cases this will not be of great value unless the file name was specifically made to assist with SEO. This should be changed to the category’s name.
Description tag: I still find it beneficial to have a description tag as often Google will use this. At the moment there is no description tag and this should be included based on the standard gallery description.
Category and Album names: The default for these links is something like “thumbnails.php?album=2” which does not assist at all with the SEO. Ideal this should be changed to a URL including the terms used in the name of the category or album name. Even with the SEF URL plug in this is not improved; it is just simplified to a URL without a question mark.
ALBUM PAGE
Title: Currently is title of whole gallery plus title of album. This is acceptable, but may be better if it was just the album title.
Description tag: This should be the album’s description field.
H1 tag: this should be the name field for the album and replace the static H1 that appears as standard on the front page.
H3 tag: This should be the album’s description field.
Image alt tags: at the moment the “alt” tag provides the file name, date added and the dimensions. While this is useful information, it does not help with SEO. This should be changed to “title” field in the “pictures” table.
IMAGE PAGE
Title: Currently is title of whole gallery plus title of album plus the title of the image. This is acceptable, but may be better if it was just the image title.
Description tag: This should be changed to “title” field in the “pictures” table then “ – “ followed by the “caption” field.
H1 tag: this should be the image title and replace the static H1 that appears as standard on the front page.
H3 tag: This should be the “caption” field from the “pictures” table.
Image alt tags: at the moment the “alt” tag is “click to view full size image”. While this is useful information, it does not help with SEO. This should be changed to “title” field in the “pictures” table plus the “click to view full size image” text.