Lightbox to show our sixteen most popular products

[JustInsulation]

We wish to create a minimalist Lightbox (without flashy transitions) for our home page that displays a matrix of 4 x 4 images - sixteen in all.

Each image (approximately 240 wide x 360 high) needs to have its own descriptive text and a hyperlink to the appropriate page on our web site.

We are trying to identify a simple yet effective SEO friendly add-on that will allow us to quickly change the Lightbox on a daily basis.

Suggestions from the Moz community would be very welcome. Thanks

[MatthewBarby]

This really depends on your CMS, but I have had some experience with this in the past so might be able to help out. Firstly, I would recommend having a good think about going with the solution... lightboxes have become a lot harder to use from a user point of view since the uptake in mobile device usage. If you're using one, make sure that it's responsive.

Take a good look at this article before you do anything - http://www.businessol.com/blog_posts/seo-javascript-lightbox-js-content/. It explains the SEO implications of using lightboxes and also gives some examples of out-the-box solutions that can be used.

I have used the following plugin before that has worked well:

http://codecanyon.net/item/jquery-lightbox-evolution/115655?WT.ac=search_item&WT.seg_1=search_item&WT.z_author=aeroalquimia

Hope this helps!

Matt

[JustInsulation]

Thanks Matt, I shall investigate.

[JustInsulation]

Hi Matt,

I looked at the site as you suggested, but it doesn't seem to offer what I am attempting to create.

Trouble is, I am finding it difficult to define exactly what I am trying to achieve. On our welcome page we currently list our eighteen most popular products (using CCS / HTML) Visitors can then use the embedded links to navigate. http://www.just-insulation.com

Constantly updating the page is time consuming and requires a bit of care and understanding, so I was trying to find a solution that I could set up for a novice (not unlike myself) to update.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There! What CMS or platform are you using?

-Dan

[JustInsulation]

Hi Dan,

I am using using CCS / HTML, as can be seen at www.just-insulation.com and at http://ow.ly/oWy64.

The trouble is that I wish to replicate the simple existing presentation, yet keep it simple enough for a novice in our office to regularly update.

Our business is sell House Insulation ... not the sexiest thing in the world!  All of the add-ins that I have encountered offer clever graphic solutions. However, I do not want to distract our visitors with flashy images that will detract from the functional presentation of information that we are trying to achieve.

Colin

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Colin

Do you mean something like Slimbox? http://www.digitalia.be/software/slimbox2 - I wasn't sure if you intended to have all 16 photos visible at once in the box, or if you meant the user with go through them one by one?

-Dan

[JustInsulation]

Hi Dan,

This is quite interesting. I have n't had time to fully investigate, but it is vital that the pop-up window has a hyperlink to the appropriate page.

What I was really hoping for was an 'app' that displays the sixteen images, has rollover functionality, and allows a visible text description of the image.

Thanks for your efforts and advice.

Colin

[evolvingSEO]

Colin

Gotcha - I am not sure of anything off hand that does this, but have asked any other Associates if they know of something.

-Dan

[JustInsulation]

Thanks Dan

[Everett]

Hello Colin,

Since it sounds like you're not using any kind of CMS, and are coding an HTML/CSS site yourself, it will be a little more difficult to find an "app" to do this since most publicly available apps/plugins/widgets/modules are created for use in an existing CMS. There are some scripts out there built with JQuery that might work. Just Google "JQuery gallery" or "JQuery lightbox" to get started. If one doesn't have everything you want you should at least be able to get 90% of the way there, and can either tweak the code yourself or hire a developer to get the rest of the way there.

This one looks promising:
http://fancyapps.com/fancybox/

Also check out:
http://www.intelliance.fr/jquery/imagebox/
http://www.pirolab.it/pirobox/
http://www.no-margin-for-errors.com/projects/prettyPhoto-jquery-lightbox-clone/

It may also be possible for you to use one of the CMS-specific plugins with some tweaking. You could try out some of these on a free Wordpress site to test them. When you find the one you want you could try customizing the code yourself, or hiring a developer (having an existing plugin for him to see/use will save you money) to do it for you.

Good luck!