optional featured images; article title also contains link

layouts/partials/article.html

@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
+{{- $alt := .Params.featured.alt }}
+{{- $img := .Resources.GetMatch "featured" }}
 <article class="index float-on-hover shadow">
     <a href=" {{ .Permalink }}">
-    	{{- $image := (.Resources.GetMatch "featured").Resize "256x webp q90" }}
-        <img src={{ $image.RelPermalink }} alt="{{ .Params.featured.alt }}">
-    </a>
+        {{- with $img }}
+        {{- $resized := .Resize "256x webp q90" }}
+        <img src={{ $resized.RelPermalink }} alt="{{ $alt }}">
+        {{- end }}
     <h3 class="title">{{ .Title | markdownify }}</h3>
+    </a>
     {{- if not (.Params.hideDate) }}
     {{- with .Date }}
     <p>{{ .Format "2006/01/02" }}</p>

layouts/partials/image.html

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Renders an image with the given class, alt, and sizes.
   {{- $sizesParts := slice }}
   {{- $len := len $sizes }}
 
+{{- if .image }}
   {{/* Loop through widths to resize images and build attributes */}}
   {{- range $index, $width := $sizes }}
     {{- $resizeSpec := printf "%dx webp q90" $width }}
@@ -41,3 +42,4 @@ Renders an image with the given class, alt, and sizes.
         sizes="{{ delimit $sizesParts ", " }}"
         alt="{{ $alt }}"
 >
+{{- end }}