Photo gallery navigation link options for SEO?

[ianevans]

Right now our photo galleries of events have an index page like so:

<h1>Event name</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Bob</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Bob</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Bob</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Bob</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Dave</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Dave</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">John</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">John</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">John</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Betty</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Betty</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Betty</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Betty</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">Joanne</a></li>
</ul>

As you can see we might have four photos of Bob, 2 of Dave, 3 of John etc. It makes for a long scroll when a gallery might have hundreds of photos of widget salespeople attending the event.

Most people come looking for a particular person, so I was thinking of doing something like this:

<h1>Event name</h1>
<h2>Bob</h2>
<p>Photo: <a href="photopageurl">1</a> | <a href="photopageurl">2</a> | <a href="photopageurl">3</a></p> 
<h2>Dave</h2>
<p>Photo: <a href="photopageurl">1</a> | <a href="photopageurl">2</a> | <a href="photopageurl">3</a> | <a href="photopageurl">4</a></p>
<h2>John</h2>
<p>Photo: <a href="photopageurl">1</a> | <a href="photopageurl">2</a> | <a href="photopageurl">3</a></p>
<h2>Betty</h2>
<p>Photo: <a href="photopageurl">1</a> | <a href="photopageurl">2</a> | <a href="photopageurl">3</a></p>
<h2>Joanne</h2>
<p>Photo: <a href="photopageurl">1</a> | <a href="photopageurl">2</a> | <a href="photopageurl">3</a></p>

But of course 1, 2 , 3 isn't the strongest anchor text. Any suggestions on how to display this info more elegantly while still providing good SEO to Google? Thanks.

[TheMadScientist]

<h1>Event Name</h1>

<select>
<option value="bob-1">Bob Photo 1</option>
<option value="bob-2">Bob Photo 2</option>
<option value="bob-3">Bob Photo 3</option>
<option value="bob-4">Bob Photo 4</option>
<option value="dave-1">Dave Photo 1</option>
<option value="dave-2">Dave Photo 2</option>
Etc.
</select>

Might be better, some of it and what's best really depends on the situation, IME.

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 4:22 am (utc) on Dec 23, 2014]

[ianevans]

Thanks for the suggestion. Might be a little bit unwieldy as hundreds of people attend these events.

[TheMadScientist]

Ah, then an auto-complete for name-search with selectable results under a heading might be better -- Like I added previously [we were posting at the same time, I think, so you might have missed it], the "right" answer to this type of situation in my experience, really depends on a number of situational factors.

[ianevans]

I haven't been here for a while so I'm assuming we're still using the "widget" terminology to hide site hints.

Throwing stuff against the wall here to see what sticks...

So it's the annual widget dinner. ianevans is there, as is TheMadScientist, Robert Charlton & aakk9999. A name search might work because as a huge follower you know TheMadScientist was at the widget dinner, but you might not have realized aakk9999 was there at all, so would miss those photos if you didn't search aakk9999's name.

It's a real head scratcher for me. There might be 12 great photos of TheMadScientist -- singles and groups.

I mean I guess I could have:

TheMadScientist
<select></select> 
ianevans
<select></select> 
etc.

Or I could just have one link per name:

<li><a href="photopageurl">TheMadScientist</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">ianevans</a></li>
<li><a href="photopageurl">aakk9999</a></li>

and on the photopageurl show thumbnails of "More TheMadScientist photos from Widgets 2014"

Thanks for letting me think out loud.

[TheMadScientist]

Why not have:

<select>
<option value=TMS-all-pics>View TheMadScientist Pics</option>
<option value=TMS-1>TheMadScientist - 1 </option>
<option value=TMS-2>TheMadScientist - 2 </option>
</select>

<select>
<option value=RC-all-pics>View Robert_Charlton Pics</option>
<option value=RC-1>Robert_Charlton - 1 </option>
<option value=RC-2>Robert_Charlton - 2 </option>
</select>

<select>
<option value=Quad9sWithAnAceKicker-all-pics>View AAKK999 Pics</option>
<option value=Quad9sWithAnAceKicker-1>AAKK9999 - 1 </option>
<option value=Quad9sWithAnAceKicker-2>AAKK9999 - 2 </option>
</select>

Etc.

You could also have prev and next links on each page for each "character" presented in pics, depending on which pic a visitor is viewing -- Guaranteed, as much as you are scratching your head, I do the same trying to answer questions on many occasions, because the answer is often very situational rather than specific, and can definitely lead to total head-scratchers, especially when it comes down to how to answer accurately for a given situation.