Naming Your Photos For SEO Some Thoughts

Photos are the name of the game.  I am on some forums where the photos are a constant problem due to their size restrictions. Admins and moderators are always explaining to people how to post pictures. Many users give up.  Some of the members eventually get something posted post some pretty bad pictures because they are not resizing them properly. I think it is a good thing that we can upload full-size images to this forum. It lets us zoom in on details we are interested in and see what is there.

Another photo issue I find annoying is that most web sites will rename the files to something crazy. For example 55823699_2030616736987212_8952670014943526912_o.jpg

A search engine such as Google only knows that it's an image and must attempt to figure out what it is from the context. Developers don't read Googles SEO guidelines which clearly describe how you should name your files so the search engine can identify them. I  try to rename all of my photos according to Googles guidelines, whether online or on my local disk drive. It makes it much easier to find them.   This forum does not rename the files. When someone searches for "wooden toy cars" in google photos, they are quite likely to find one of the photos in this forum and come here. I like this a lot.

Here an example using one of my photos:

20181224-103357 Handmade Wooden Toy Dinosaur Pterodactyl 655979018.jpg

20181224-103357 Handmade Wooden Toy Dinosaur Pterodactyl 655979018.jpg

The first block of numbers is the date time stamp pulled directly from the photo EXIF data. Next is a text description you don't need sentences here you want keywords to help you and the search engines find the photo. The last numbers are something I started adding recently. It's the Etsy listing number. This number isn't much use to a search engine, but it is beneficial for me.  However, if you plug the listing number into Google, you will not only find this photo but other related images. Including some of my other listings and posts about toy dinosaurs.  Plug in just the text, and you will see more of my dinosaur photos.

If you are a user of Google photos, the search will search the file names so you don't have to upload them and then add a description so you can find them again later.

If you have an online presence like an Etsy shop, blog or you want to be able to find that particular photo two years from now. Take the time to put a descriptive name on your files. If you post on a forum that mangles you file names. Add the file name as a caption to the photo.

As of this writing, I have 36,410 photos in my local photo album and 89,188 in Google Photos. Not all mine. The significant number is because of photo sharing. I also have copies of all of my wife's photos and lots of pictures that friends and family have shared with me. 

This is a copy of a post I made in the toymakingplans.com forum.