SEO and H1..tags - Img Alt tags

Hi, I have been doing some reading about H1.. Header tags and also img alt tags. I was wondering if this needs to be or can be coded.

It seems that many SEO folks are stating there is an importance and others say it is not. I am to the point where I am saying "why not do it" just in case.

I am not a coder but was wondering if these two elements can be accomplished with Zencart.

Thanks
Bob Ginn

Both are well catered for (automatically) in ZC.

H1 tags ought to be used "sparingly" on a page.

The image alt tags are generally formatted from the product description text.

Naturally, other images that you may reference using hard-coding (such as in an EZPage or defined page) will require that you also hard-code the alt tag.

schoolboy:

Both are well catered for (automatically) in ZC.

H1 tags ought to be used "sparingly" on a page.

The image alt tags are generally formatted from the product description text.

Naturally, other images that you may reference using hard-coding (such as in an EZPage or defined page) will require that you also hard-code the alt tag.

It is my product page which I am interested in the H1 and img alt tags. I do not need ez page mods for this just product pages. I do not understand when you say "well catered for (automatically)". Are you saying that the product pages already have these tags.
For each product page I have 1 or more images which I plan to rename for clarity and also add the img alt tags. Do I have to do this in code or does the dbadmin product pages account for this?

Thanks
Bob

bginn:

Are you saying that the product pages already have these tags.

Yes... that's what happens. You really don't need to bother too much about the TECHNICALITIES involved here... the code will parse the appropriate values into these tags automatically.

What is more important is the actual CONTENT that you provide for your product names, your product descriptions and other manually entered content.

As these bits of text are the ones that ZC uses to "parse" into the tags, it makes sense to follow standard SEO practives by making this content relevant in every respect.

You should also consider other meta tag data and you would do well to study the techniques ZC uses to build your meta tags.

bginn:

It is my product page which I am interested in the H1 and img alt tags. I do not need ez page mods for this just product pages. I do not understand when you say "well catered for (automatically)". Are you saying that the product pages already have these tags.
For each product page I have 1 or more images which I plan to rename for clarity and also add the img alt tags. Do I have to do this in code or does the dbadmin product pages account for this?

Thanks
Bob

I forgot to mention that after having my pages analyzed, it was reported that I have 1 H1 tag which is the title tag on the home page. What is interesting is that the product menu (top menu) had an H3 tag and so on drilling into the menu. What was a little confusing is that there were zero "H2" tags. I am assuming that the menu heirarchy seems to be the guiding light to these types of tags, but what happened to the H2 tag?

regards
Bob

I think you are fussing too much over this... You can safely ignore what most "SEO Experts" tell you... 99% of them are after your money, one way or another.

Effective SEO is not so much a matter of "technical cleanliness" as it is about creating and maintaining a good site, that has relevant, useful and well-structured information.

Melanie Prough (a respected SEO consultant on this thread) has some good advice.

http://pro-webs.net/blog/2009/09/10/zen-cart-seo-12-steps/

schoolboy:

I think you are fussing too much over this... You can safely ignore what most "SEO Experts" tell you... 99% of them are after your money, one way or another.

Effective SEO is not so much a matter of "technical cleanliness" as it is about creating and maintaining a good site, that has relevant, useful and well-structured information.

Melanie Prough (a respected SEO consultant on this thread) has some good advice.

http://pro-webs.net/blog/2009/09/10/zen-cart-seo-12-steps/

Schoolboy,
Thanks for your input. I am not really fussing (It may sound that way), but yes I do agree about spending too much time on this, and do agree about the content and structure.

I am always keyword analyzing and updating content etc, but I figure if the weight of doing something is contributory to a more valuable site in the eyes of a search engine I will probably do it, if of course, the weight is in balance with time to do so, and the pros outweigh the cons. We all want credible traffic.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

Bob