How to Add Photo Titles and Captions on SmugMug?

Before diving into the specifics, let’s first go over why photo titles and captions can be useful:

• Provide context and details for your images
• Improve searchability and discoverability of your photos
• Enhance storytelling and viewer engagement
• Show off your creativity and personality

SmugMug makes it easy to add titles and captions to your images in galleries, albums, portfolios, and website pages.
Here’s what you need to know.

Accessing and Using the Title and Caption Fields

To start adding titles and captions:

1. Log in to your SmugMug account and access the area where your photo is hosted (gallery, page, etc).
2. Click the photo to access the editing sidebar.
3. Expand the “Info” section to access the title and captions fields.

You can add up to three separate text areas:

• Title: A short, descriptive title for your image.
• Caption: A longer description, story, or details about the photo.
• Alt Text: Visually hidden text for accessibility (optional).

Tips for an Effective Title

Your titles should be:

• Concise: Keep it short and sweet, ideally under 65 characters.
• Descriptive: Summarize what the photo depicts without being too vague or broad.
• Engaging: Use interesting wording to pique viewer curiosity.

✅ Good example: “Sunset colors over Beachy Head Lighthouse”

❌ Bad example: “A lighthouse photo”

Tips for an Impactful Caption

An effective photo caption may include:

• Additional details and context not captured by the title
• Backstory, inspiration, or how the image was created
• An interesting perspective or viewpoint about the subject matter
• Useful metadata like location, date, model names
• Interactive elements like questions, calls to action etc.

Try painting a picture with words! Transport the viewer into the scene with vivid sensory descriptions about what
can’t necessarily be seen.

✅ Good example caption: “We hiked over 2 miles on the Cliffside trails to catch this
vibrant sunset over Beachy Head lighthouse. The ocean breeze was calm and peaceful as the last light dipped below the
horizon.”

Keep your audience in mind with thoughtful and inclusive language, while showcasing your authentic authorial voice.

Word count minimums don’t necessarily dictate caption quality, but aim for at least a few sentences to provide
helpful enhancement over your succinct title.

Best Practices and Optimization Tips

Follow these best practices to create reader-friendly, search-optimized titles and captions for your SmugMug photos:

Write for humans first: Focus on creating a great experience for your viewers rather than
cramming in keywords. Clear, engaging communication trumps optimization tricks.

Highlight what makes your work unique: Showcase your own style, creative process and visual
perspective through descriptive captions that provide value.

Enhance, don’t overwhelm: Titles and captions should enhance the viewing experience, not
overwhelm. Allow some photos to stand alone.

Include relevant keywords: Work your main keywords into the titles and captions seamlessly to
boost search visibility. But don’t “keyword stuff.”

Check for typos/errors: Double check all text areas to fix mistakes prior to publishing your
photos live.

Review accessibility needs: Ensure caption information adequately conveys photo contents for
those using screen readers.

By keeping these best practices in mind as you hone your titling and caption writing skills, you’ll keep your
SmugMug viewers engaged and satisfied.

How to Add Photo Titles and Captions on SmugMug? (Summary)

Here are the key steps covered to effectively add descriptive photo titles and engaging captions on SmugMug:

1. Access your SmugMug photos in editing mode
2. Open the “Info” sidebar
3. Add/edit the Title, Caption and Alt Text fields
4. Craft concise, compelling Titles for each image
5. Expand upon Titles with longer, vivid Captions
6. Optimize text areas for search and accessibility
7. Publish your photos when complete

Follow the guidance provided to dramatically improve how your images communicate to those who view them in your
impressive SmugMug portfolio.

Quick Tip to ensure your videos never go missing

Videos are precious memories and all of us never want to ever lose them to
hard disk crashes or missing drives. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest
way to keep your videos safely backed up in one or more online accounts.
Simply Download PicBackMan (it’s free!), register
your account, connect to your online store and
tell PicBackMan where your videos are – PicBackMan does the rest,
automatically. It bulk uploads all videos and keeps looking for new ones and
uploads those too. You don’t have to ever touch it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does every photo need a caption?

While adding captions is recommended whenever possible, some images can stand alone without extra text depending on
your goals. Use your best judgement.

Should I include keywords in titles/captions?

Relevant keywords can help photos show up in search results, but don’t over-optimize at the expense of quality. Write
for humans first before keywords.

What’s the ideal caption length?

There’s no perfect caption length that fits all photos. Aim for at least a few sentences to provide extra context
beyond the title. More complex images may need longer captions with more detail.

Can I edit the captions after publishing?

Yes! You can always go back and update titles, captions, alt text etc on already published photos as needed in
SmugMug.

Conclusion

Adding thoughtful photo titles and descriptive captions creates a polished, professional presentation of your images
while keeping viewers engaged. By following SmugMug’s simple workflows for adding text to your photos and optimizing
it for both people and search, you can elevate your portfolio with captions that tell a compelling visual story.