Am I wasting my time on image names?

Do image names matter or just the alt text?

[Kerrya]

One site I work on uses an AliExpress plugin to add products automatically to Woocommerce. It does a pretty nice job.

However, the file names of the images are some useless code that makes me feel like I need to change them. I've read articles saying how important it is and other articles that say it doesn't matter any more..

So I painstakingly download each and every one of the images including the gallery images and color option images and change their filenames to something like "myproductname.jpg" then "myproductname-1.jpg" and so on. There are typically over 20 images per product.

This takes a stupid amount of time. Am I just wasting it? My time I mean?

Any advice really appreciated.

Kerry

[NickMNS]

Yes and no.

No you are not wasting time by naming the files with the correct product names, it will help Google and others better understand the image. Yes you are wasting your time doing this manually, this can be easily automated.

[Kerrya]

I did download a WP plugin called Media File Renamer (Auto Rename), but for some reason it won't work on more than one or two images they encounters an error.

Is there one you like?

[not2easy]

Is your work machine Windows or Mac? It helps to know so people can make suggestions.

In general it could entail copying your image folders (one at a time) to run automated tools that are not plugins. Then you have an original-backup folder - just in case, a working folder to make the changes, and a finished folder to upload.

[Demaestro]

In regards to SEO you may not be gaining any benefits from properly naming images.

However I would argue that properly naming them has huge benefits on the mental stability of those who manage the content and yourself the developer. And that nesting the images properly will also save you and your server some pains.

For example if I have a public images folder, and I have 100s of staff pictures for profiles.

I am much better served if those images are stored this way

/images/staffpics/john-doe.png
/images/staffpics/jane-doe.png

VS

/images/IMG_23423_234.JPG
/images/IMG_23423_235.JPG

Obviously manage and searching for images is made way easier when you adhere to a naming convention BUT also at a server level if a directory (folder) has 100,000 images in it, then your webserver is going to take longer to read the content of the images directory than if you have 10 nested directories with 10000 images each. It really is just "best practices" but as far as an SEO hit, I think if your alt tags are done correctly you probably are fine.

I do think that Google knows the difference between the following. (I just don't know if it cares that much)

/images/IMG_234234.jpg
and
/images/my-company-name-logo.png

It could be argued that if your site's reason for being is to "sell" images or "share" images that having them named properly would give you a boost in Google images search, but that is pure speculation.

[emilyjohnsca]

Hi Kerry, it's true that image names matter a lot for the search engine and the user because the name of the image creates url. So it would be good with the URL we can predict about the image.

[charank]

Your ar not wasting your time on images. As per the google search engine algorithm, the results will display on a particular query.

As you can observe some of the members will search for images in that aspect you need to do image SEO - by naming the file name with keyword & inserting keywords in alt tags. This technique will help you in image SEO.

Example of image SEO - check the image search with keyword <snip> you will see how image SEO will you.

[edited by: engine at 12:43 pm (utc) on Nov 15, 2019]
[edit reason] please see WebmasterWorld TOS [/edit]

[Nemi]

No off-course you are not wasting your time in this. The image name can give Google clues about the subject matter of the image. Try to make your filename a good description of the subject matter of the image.

[tangor]

When it comes time to "Name That Picture!" i believe that

"puppydog-snuggles.jpg" is more friendly than

316840632168030serwe6540fs6874rsdf321s6e8r431f685e1sr321d6513se.jpg

YMMV

[Mark_A]

If any puppydog-snuggles.jpg images appear in our serious B2B Widget Manufacturing website there will be questions asked :-)