Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Image Optimization - File Name Important?
-
I am currently working on a site with 100+ recipes that all have image file names that are relevant, but not optimized for keyword purposes. I'm wondering - from an SEO perspective - would it be worth my time to go back through all of the images and rename them with keywords in mind?
On my own site I have always done this as a "best practice" but I'm curious - does it make a difference to search engines? Does anyone have any recent research/experiences that they would like to share?
Thanks!
-
I would be intested in knowing what you guys think is the best way to name images?
say "rustic-oak-3-draw-bedside.jpg"
How long should the names be max and are hyphens ok do you think?
-
No probs, glad to help!
Hope you Friday doesn't drag too long due to all this!!!
-
Thanks everyone. It seems the consensus is to rename the files (assuming they aren't already ranking high with their current file name), ensure each one has proper alt text and submit an image site map to google.
I've got a busy Friday ahead of me!
Also, Mike - thanks for the tip on the caption tag. I hadn't thought of that. Every little bit of "google juice" helps. I'm going to give it a try!
-
Yes, when it doubt add puppies. That always helps.
-
Daniel, I gave you a thumbs up, as I think that is a good point
It could help if you submit an image sitemap once the renaming has been done, or even impliment 301 redirects from the old image URL to the new ones, but unless you have an automated way of doing the redirects, it could be quite a long process to do them manually!!!
-
Another thing to consider is that if you do have an image ranking within the SERPS that you don't change the filename at all - I've seen that it takes google's bot(s) much longer to reindex an image that's filename has changed vs like some content change or meta title etc
-
YES! We've seen a significant drop in visits via google images when one of our clients eventually changed their file-upload-backend and files were named automatically like 445390348043534.jpg - we then added a separate module only to assure the naming is correct and useful, and are slowly recovering the lost google images visits.
-
Benjamin pretty much covered it I feel!
Remember, Googlebot is, well, a bot! To help Googlebot, and it's associated algorithms figure out what your images are about, you should ensure certain 'triggers' are well taken care of.
Filename is one such trigger, as is alt text (both mentioned by Benjamin already).
Additionally I would consider adding title tags to the images, and at times that you link to any of the images, use relevant anchor text too, as this can help.
Also consider using tags, for example, Paella Recipe as this can give an extra bit of help in regards to Google & other engines understanding what the image is all about.
Then if you are really wanting to go the extra mile;
Image sitemap submission to Google, to try to make sure big G finds all of your images! (see here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=178636 ) Note the tags that you can use, specifically the caption and title should be quite useful for image SEO etc
Hope that helps!
-
Thanks, Benjamin. That's a great way of looking at it. All of the images I looked at did have "golden retriever" in the beginning of the file name.
Plus bonus points because I got to look at puppies.
-
Hi Emily,
Yes, it does make a difference. Think about it from Google's perspective. If you're crawling a site and come across an image with no ALT tag, no title, and a name of C19823.JPG. What could that image be?
Now imagine you're Google and you come across an image titled golden-retriever.jpg. There's a pretty good chance that image is of a dog. Especially if the content on the page is also about dogs. The more clues that Google can use to figure out what a site is about the better.
Do a Google Image search for "golden retriever" and look at the file names. Notice any similarities?
-Benjamin
-
In short, yes. I've always found them to be a benefit - essential on an image search ranking. Also don't forget your alt tags.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Multiple H1s and Header Tags in Hero/Banner Images
I work on education websites, and our sites are being flagged by SEO and accessibility checkers for having multiple H1s. The home pages have the site name as an h3 in the hero image, and an aspirational headline (think: Be Like Mike) as an H1. The sub-pages have two H1s: one on the site name in the banner image, and the other on the page title. Note that the site name is very keyword-rich. If we were to remove the H1 and H3 tags from the hero/banner images, would it do any SEO harm? At the same time, we’d rewrite the H1 on the home page to be more keyword-focused. Any other options? I also read that it’s OK to have multiple H1s as long as it’s clear which H1 belongs to the heading area and which one belongs to the body area of the page. Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | UWPCE0 -
301 Redirects - Large .htaccess file question
We are moving about 5000 pages from root into different folders. We need to individually 301 each page because the are sitting at root level now: mysite.com/page.com We want to move them to: mysite.com/folder/page.html etc I dont think redirect match can works because of the different files names and folders they are being moved in to. Will 5000 entries in .htacess slow site loading? Any other suggestions how to handle?
On-Page Optimization | | leadforms0 -
How to change images of a page without loosing ranking?
Hi, I have two reasons to change some images of a page on a wordpress site: 1.Google speed service advise me to optmize the images size to better spead load times. 2.I want to change images titles (to improve seo optimization for the page keyword), so i need to replace them, since im using wordpress. Now the question is: Can i just change the images without worring about any related seo issues? Or should i follow some best practice to change images in order to not affect the ranking of the page? tx for your support!
On-Page Optimization | | Dreamrealemedia0 -
Clickable Images Question
This may seem like a minor issue but it is something that has been bothering me. When I write a blog post and place images within the text, is it better to have the image linking to nothing or link to the image url. I am guessing that unless I wish the image to rank for a certain keyword then it is not worth it linking to the image url. But would just like clarification if there is a more deep seated reason. Thanks Mark
On-Page Optimization | | markmiton0 -
Wordpress & trailing slash on domain name
Hi recently changed my site so it is based on Wordpress, got my preferred domain set in Google webmaster as www.domian.co.uk but since moving to wordpress my domain is now having a slash put on the end of it like www.domain.co.uk/ Most of the links going to my homepage do not have the slash on the end so am I right in thinking I should get rid of the slash from my site so I have one consistent url? If so any ideas how to banish the slash? Cannot seem to do it through the Wordpress general settings (despite preferred domain being set as www.domain.co.uk !) Thanks T
On-Page Optimization | | Jon-C0 -
Image titles and alt tags for multiple images
I'm hoping some of you may be able to help me understand the best way to optimize my image titles and alt tags for a specific situation. I'm working on an interior design website and they have hundreds of pictures. each of their projects has about 10 pictures. Is it best for me to us the key phrase in each title and tag? or is that to repetitive? here is what I mean: A project called "urban interior design" all images are of urban interior design, just different angles and features, so my initial idea is to just have each image title like this: Title: "urban interior design dinning area" Alt: "urban interior design dinning area view" Title: "urban interior design living room" Alt:"urban interior design living room couch view" Is this the best way or will it actually hurt my ranking with too much exact keyword use? Thanks for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | TBSEO0 -
CSS family names and whitespace
A CSS validation notes the following: Family names containing whitespace should be quoted. If quoting is omitted, any whitespace characters before and after the name are ignored and any sequence of whitespace characters inside the name is converted to a single space. Not sure what this means or how to fix. Help. thanks
On-Page Optimization | | casper4340 -
Sequence of heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) important?
Meaning heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) are a critical part of good on-page optimisation. Fair enough. It helps humans and bots make sense of a page's content. 3 questions regarding implementation of heading tags: Should heading tags appear in sequence in the HTML code. I.e. H1 first, then H2 lower down, etc.? Can the page contain more than one H1 tag? Can the page contain multiple H2, H3, H4 tags?
On-Page Optimization | | AndreVanKets1
