Why Image File Names Matter in SEO

Search engine optimization writing involves crafting text in such a way as to get the web page to rise to the first page of Google searches for a specific keyword phrase. For instance, when someone wants to find a good food to put a dog on a diet, does the user type "dog food diet," "weight loss dog food," "dog weight loss diet," or "dog food for weight loss"? SEO involves making sure that one - or all - of those phrases are taken into account by the owner of a website devoted to diet dog food, and that the web page is formulated in such a way as to get the user to the website.

Image File Names and SEO

In order to draw readers to a specific web page, SEO uses a number of factors to push the web page to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs): how often the keyword phrase is used in the article, subheadings and keyword relationships, variations on the same basic keyword phrase, how many other websites link back to the article, whether they use keyword-rich anchor text when linking back, and so forth.

So what do image file names have to do with SEO? If you're writing an article on dogs and have five images, isn't it enough to name the files dog1.jpg, dog2.jpg, dog3.jpg, dog4.jpg, dog5.jpg?

There's nothing wrong with that - but it doesn't maximize the SEO components and help your page. And here's why.

SEO for Revenue Share

Image file names are yet another opportunity to squeeze in keyword phrases, but aren't in the article, so they don't make the article seem spammy, with "keyword stuffing" and overuse of keyword phrasing making the text stilted or boring.

Instead, by saving image file names as keyword phrases, like dogfood.jpg, dogdiet.jpg, weightlossdog.jopg, and so on, you sneak in anther phrase that is behind the scenes - and that benefits your article in the SERPs.

Search Engine Optimization and Misspelled Keywords

The real coup de grace, though, is that image file names can hide some real humdingers when it comes to SEO: misspelled words as keyword phrases. What do you do when you learn that tens of thousands of people type in "Circus Olay" for Cirque du Soleil? Or "insurence" instead of "insurance"? These misspelled keywords, which can be a gold mine for traffic, can be easily hidden in image file names - a win/win for the SEO writer.

For instance, what if an article on foods to increase breast milk supply involves the keyword "brest"? Do you risk making readers think you can't spell? No - you name some of your images "breast.jpg" or "brestmilk.jpg" and get away with gaining traffic while not adding misspelled words to the text.

So go back over old articles, rename the image file names based on keywords, and see if you get results.