Drive traffic to your website when people search keywords in Google Image Search.
Uploading a photograph called IMG_6408 is not going to work very well. Either is renaming it by date for internal archival purposes. An algorithm can’t see what is in a photograph so we have to rename photographs so that they are optimised for search engines.
Some guidelines to follow:
- Include a keyword about the content
- Example: Should-I-Rename-Photographs.jpg
- If you are a photographer I would also include your name
- Example: Should-I-Rename-Photographs-Brouder-Design.jpg
- Separate your words using hyphens
Google treats a hyphen as a word separator but not an underscore.
- Images in a blog or on a webpage rank higher than image in a gallery as there is surrounding text talking about the image
- Use the visual editor on your website to add alt text (keywords) to your images
- Check how your images are appearing on all devices – desktop and mobile.
The Google algorithm is always evolving to make it easier for high quality results to show up in search. So check back often to see how your images are ranking. If you have any questions get in touch or if you have any more tips on renaming photographs please leave a comment.