Image naming

[Champak]

Does image naming affect SEO at all, especially with an ecommerce site? Does it matter?

[AMurray]

Yes, file names are important to SEO. Keep image file names short, but descriptive of the image. It doesn't matter if its for e-commerce or just your site general content.

Use the ALT text attribute for a longer description.

Reference : https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_img.asp

[Champak]

So why is it when I go to other stores similar to mine, both major companies and mid level, I see gibberish as the names that have nothing to do with the items...like serial numbers. They don't seem to be concerned at all about naming for google. I ask because my naming tactic was going to be the itemName(#)_AndTheSku.jpg. I was initially concerned that google might not like the sku at the end of it, but seeing how everyone else was naming their images seemed to go against what I was reading so I came here to ask.

[pe7er]

So why is it when I go to other stores similar to mine, both major companies and mid level, I see gibberish as the names that have nothing to do with the items

They probably did not bother to SEO optimize the file names.

I usually name the images like what they represent.
And I often add the pixel size after the name so that I can distinguish it from other versions.
e.g. example-800.jpg

I have no idea whether Google likes the SKU number at the end.
I think that they would not mind.
Actually, try searching on Google Images using some of your SKUs as keyword.

[brian]

just be careful when you use the dimensions in the name as this will potentially trigger adblock software

[pe7er]

just be careful when you use the dimensions in the name as this will potentially trigger adblock software

Ok, good to know!

[pe7er]

@AMurray you are saying right that file names are important to SEO

That was indeed what he said.

Search engines scan and index pages but don't see what's on the images.
A page about coffee can for example contain 3 images:
43523452345.jpg
56829723623.jpg
25323523502.jpg
or
coffee.jpg
cappuccino.jpg
espresso.jpg

The page with three coffee related names is better Search Engine Optimized.

[quazar987]

Little bit. You should consider it from people's prospective. Is the file name giving context about the file to peoples?

[ramjishukla11]

Yes, Of course name matters a lot. On the backend after downloading any image we should it's name and on the front end on your website Name is treated as a keyword. Also, user intent is based on that name. User searches according to that name.

[dested]

image file names do affect SEO. Not enought to try to rename your already uploaded images on a website with thousands of products, if you cant script that though.

[jayad]

Yes, Just like image alt text it is considered important to name the image with proper or relevant text.