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        4. How important is the file extension in the URL for images?

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        How important is the file extension in the URL for images?

        Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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        • dsbud
          dsbud last edited by

          I know that descriptive image file names are important for SEO. But how important is it to include .png, .jpg, .gif (or whatever file extension) in the url path? i.e. https://example.com/images/golden-retriever vs. https://example.com/images/golden-retriever.jpg

          Furthermore, since you can set the filename in the Content-Disposition response header, is there any need to include the descriptive filename in the URL path?

          Since I'm pulling most of our images from a database, it'd be much simpler to not care about simulating a filename, and just reference an image id in my templates.

          Example:

          1. Browser requests GET /images/123456
          2. Server responds with image setting both Content-Disposition, and Link (canonical) headers

          Content-Disposition: inline; filename="golden-retriever"
          Link: <https: 123456="" example.com="" images="">; rel="canonical"</https:>

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • willcritchlow
            willcritchlow @dsbud last edited by

            In theory, there should be no difference - the canonical header should mean that Google treats the inclusion of /images/123456 as exactly the same as including /images/golden-retriever.

            It is slightly messier so I think that if it was easy, I'd go down the route of only ever using the /golden-retriever version - but if that's difficult, this is theoretically the same so should be fine.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • dsbud
              dsbud @willcritchlow last edited by

              @Will Thank you so much for this response. Very helpful.

              "If you can't always refer to the image by its keyword-rich filename"...

              If I'm already including the canonical link header on the image, and am able to serve from both /images/123456 and /images/golden-retriever (canonical), is there any benefit to referencing the canonical over the other in my image tags?

              willcritchlow 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • willcritchlow
                willcritchlow last edited by

                Hi James. I've responded with what I believe is a correct answer to MarathonRunner's question. There are a few inaccuracies in your responses to this thread - as pointed out by others below - please can you target your future responses to areas where you are confident that you are correct and helpful? Many thanks.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • willcritchlow
                  willcritchlow last edited by

                  @MarathonRunner - you are correct in your inline responses - it's totally valid to serve an image (or other filetype) without an extension, with its type identified by the Content-Type. Sorry that you've had a less-than-helpful experience here so far.

                  To answer your original questions:

                  1. From an SEO perspective, there is no need that I know of for your images to have a file extension - the content type should be fine
                  2. However - I have no reason to think that a filename in the Content-Disposition header will be recognised as a ranking signal - what you are describing is a rare use-case and I haven't seen any evidence that it would be recognised by the search engines as being the "real" filename

                  If you can't always refer to the image by its keyword-rich filename, then could you:

                  • Serve it as you propose (though without the Content-Disposition filename)
                  • Serve a rel="canonical" link to a keyword-rich filename (https://example.com/images/golden-retriever in your example)
                  • Also serve the image on that URL

                  This only helps if you are able to serve the image on the /images/golden-retriever path, but need to have it available at /images/123456 for inclusion in your own HTML templates.

                  I hope that helps.

                  dsbud 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                  • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                    Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by

                    If you really did your research you would have noticed the header image is not using an extension.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                    • dsbud
                      dsbud last edited by

                      Again, you're mistaken. The Content-Type response header tells the browser what type of file the resource is (mime type). This is _completely different _from the file extension in URL paths.

                      In fact, on the web all the file extensions are faked through the URL path. For example, this page's URL path is:

                      https://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/community/q/how-important-is-the-file-extension-in-the-url-for-images

                      It's not

                      https://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/community/q/how-important-is-the-file-extension-in-the-url-for-images.html

                      How does the browser know the the page is an html doc? Because of the Content-Type response header. The faked "extension" in the URL path, is unnecessary.

                      You can view http response headers for any URL using this tool.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                      • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                        Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by

                        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brutal-poll-shows-most-people-214647063.html Good luck!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                          Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by

                          Do you need a new keyboard?

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                            Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by

                            @James Wolff: I'm really hoping you're being sarcastic here. As it's totally fine to serve it without the extension. There are many more ways for a crawler to understand what type a file is. Including what @MarathonRunner is talking about here.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                            • dsbud
                              dsbud last edited by

                              This isn't accurate. File extension (in the url path) is not the same as the **Content-Type **response header. Browsers respect the response header Content-Type over whatever extension I use in the path.

                              Example: try serving a file /golden-retriever.png with a content type of image/jpeg. Your browser will understand the file as a .jpg. If you attempt to save, your browser will correct to golden-retriever.jpg.

                              You can route URLs however you want.

                              Additionally, I'm not aware of any way browsers "leverage cache by content type". Browsers handle cache by the etag/expires header.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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