7/31/2023 0 Comments Seo google images![]() “completed-cheesecake.jpg” and “cheesecake-filling.jpg.” Instead, think about file names much like you would your alt text, e.g. Use synonyms and vary things up so all photos in the same post aren’t called “cheeesecake-photo-1.jpg,” “cheesecake-photo-2.jpg,” etc. If you have four photos, all described by the same keyphrase, you run the risk of keyword stuffing. Of course, there can be too much of a good thing. Put another way, if your long tail keyword happens to naturally describe the photo you’re uploading, then 100% use it. Similar to our advice regarding alt text SEO, you’ll want to use your focus keyword in your filename when it’s an organic fit. Should I use keywords in image filenames? If you stick to using only letters, numbers and hyphens, avoiding apostrophes or other special symbols, you’ll be in good shape. Instead, you’ll have to do the work of making sure you’re only using letters and numbers, and ensuring you’re using a hyphen (-) and not something like an underscore ( _ ) to separate words. Use hyphens to separate words and don’t use special charactersĪn important thing to note: Since you’ll be manually naming these photos, you won’t have the luxury of WordPress making sure your formatting is written out correctly. In other words, don’t just use what your photo software spits out by default. Google flat out says not to use filenames like “image1.jpg” or “1.jpg” in their examples of what not to do. It’s the same idea: Use a name that assumes if the user never gets to see the image, they’d still know what’s in it. Hint: You can use a similar description to what you’re writing for the alt text, or the alternative text for the writing for the visually impaired. Now, if you had to describe this image in a few words to a reader so they could see what you were talking about before showing them the image, what would you call it? Let’s look at a real world example of an image and how you should name it: ![]() Just make sure that when you go to rename your image, you’re not changing this to make it less accurate. png.Ĭhances are your photo editing software will automatically take care of the extension for you. If you’re using WebP or PNG, use their respective extensions. ![]() Again, it’s easy and makes perfect sense.įor example, if you’re using a jpeg image, use. Google also wants you to use an extension that accurately describes the file type. In the Google SEO Starter Guide, Google gives the same advice for writing filenames as for alt text and it’s easy to execute: It’s just a better overall user experience. The idea is simple: A user knows what a photo is without having to open the file. Just like Google cares about SEO-friendly URL structures so it’s easy for users to see at a glance what’s on a given page, it recommends user-friendly image filenames. If a user downloads your photo from the internet, its default filename when downloaded to their computer is that same filename. If you were to simply upload that to WordPress and insert it into a post, then that would be the filename on the internet as well. In this case, the filename is the same name that’s sitting on your local computer (IMG_3073.jpeg), including the extension (.jpeg). If you’re exporting photos from your camera or phone, chances are the filenames are going to be a random set of numbers and letters such as “IMG_3073.jpeg” This is especially true if you use the WordPress media library and most image hosting services. Typically, it’s the same name of the image file that lives on your computer before you upload it. The filename is what you probably expect. That’s why, when it comes to optimizing images for Google, the #1 search engine recommends using descriptive filenames for images.īelow, we break down filenames - what they are, why they’re important and how they can help your rankings. It may be true as far as your readers are concerned, but when it comes to Google, they’re only worth as much as a computer can read. Whomever who coined the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” probably never considered search engines. DO NOT worry about going back to re-upload and rename all your images! Keep in mind that this is just one aspect of your overall SEO strategy and something you should address going forward.Keep your filenames to under five to six words.The filename should be descriptive, include applicable keywords and use hyphens instead of spaces to separate words.User-friendly image filenames are more likely to be recommended by Google.Optimizing all of your content for SEO is important for your rankings, including image filenames.
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