Table of Contents
What’s the difference between a slider and a carousel?
Sliders and carousels are both considered content delivery formats that have at their core a slideshow of visual elements (images, videos, text, etc), although they are presented differently. Sliders present one item at a time with the ability to move across the items in lateral directions. Carousels on the other hand exhibit many items at a time in most cases moving or rotating them giving a sneak peek of several items at once without needing to switch between the items.
The fundamental similarity is that both exhibit a series of elements in a limited space in a circular or linear order.
How do I implement a carousel on my website?
Many website builders offer pre-designed blocks with built-in slider features. Choose a website builder aligned with your business needs and employ sliders for a dynamic online presence.
How can I create a header for the carousel?
After selecting the slider or carousel of your preference, the header should appear on the top of this widget. Click and adjust the title according to the content of your gallery. The header’s design aims to strike a balance between being prominent and visually appealing while also ensuring it complements the carousel content.
How can I add autoplay functionality to a carousel or a slider?
No-code website builders grant you the choice of the slider or carousel speed (e.g. 3 seconds or 4 seconds of image display). Also whether you make it automatic with an on/off autoplay button or if the visitor changes the gallery manually.
How can I make a carousel slider responsive?
No-code website builders, such as Hocoos, have responsiveness as a priority feature to reduce the reliance on manual coding or implementation processes, as these are prone to errors. It helps avoid errors similar to those caused by activating plugins incorrectly, more commonly with CMS websites like WordPress, that can have a detrimental impact on the website’s functionality.
How can I optimize a carousel slider for SEO?
Improving the SEO performance of a carousel slider goes beyond simple mechanics, which should pay attention both to user experience and their crawling (SEO). Here are a few methods:
• Provide Descriptive Alt tags for Images: Alt tags are meant for search engines and screen readers to enhance accessibility. Keep alt texts relevant with keywords when necessary to help the readers.
• Use Proper Keywords in the Content: Keywords should be placed in the slide content and in the slide header to boost the SEO of the slide but beware not to overdo the keywords in the article. Seek to provide unique informative content that meets that particular market.
• The Page Should Load Quickly: Non-optimized images and animated objects are some of the factors that may cause a slow loading of pages which is a disadvantage for SEO but it’s easy to solve. Use optimized images or smaller resolution images, minimal animations, and make use of lazy load.
• Structured Data Markup should be added: Use structured data such as marking up other carousel content with Schema.org carousel to enhance the understanding of the carousels by search engines and markable display on the search results page.
• Prioritize accessibility: To guarantee compliant use of the carousel by all users, including those with disabilities, it should be usable, navigable, and accessible. This involves precise navigation controls, keyboard navigation, and suitable ARIA designations.
Conclusion
Sliders and carousels are visually the most attractive way to display content, however, the usability, accessibility, and SEO have to be cleverly balanced to achieve success. If you learn the benefits of the sliders as well as the limitations, you can use them properly to improve the performance of your site.
