Changing names on images for better SEO

Hey guys!

I’ve run into a little problem here, and hope you can help me out with this.

I’ve been adviced to change name on all photos on my clients website to get a better SEO ranking. So I did. Then I uploaded the photos and replaced them. But when run the instaction on the site, the old photo file names are showing… with underscore and everything (Googe don’t like underscore on file names).
So, my question is… why don’t the file names on the photos change? What am I doing wrong? Or will the photo file names change over time?

Do you guys have any ideas on this, or on how I can fix it?

Sven-Erik

Hi

I would try to clean the cached memory :blush:

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Thank you for helping me out, shokoaviv! I really appreciate it!
Unfortunately it’s didn’t help. So, once again, I deleted all images from Assets, and uploaded them again (with the right file name), made sure they where placed in the right place on the website, and published it… but still… when investigating the site, it shows all the old images file names. :frowning:

@Sven_Erik_Slattedale

Is your intent to change the image filename uri path OR change alt text?

File name URI path is auto compiled on CDNa after uploading to Webflow. This has no (or the lowest) ranking impact on Google SERPS.

Image Alt Text, File Size, and image TTFB are exponentially more important than filename schema as far as Google SERPS are concerned.

For example

sven-avatar.png 15kb
alt text= Image of Sven
TTFB = 500ms


cdn_27542_sven-avatar.png 11kb
alt text= Image of Sven
TTFB=250ms

the ladder would have better ranking potential.

Can you post before/after screenshots so we can better understand what exactally you’re trying to accomplish

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@miekwave
Thank you so much for getting back to me with this.
As you probobly understand, this is something I don’t know nothing about… but, you are right. I did change the file name, but I guess I should have tried to change the URL path name to get a better ranking on Google SERPS.
But is there a way to do this?

And also… when Webflow automtaically add url path, why is it adding underscore, when google ‘hates’ underscore? Why don’t Webflow use filenames as url?

@Sven_Erik_Slattedale
“google ‘hates’ underscore”

I think you are confusing the context of how underscore works on serps.

Page names in URI path should not have underscore.
filename paths underscore is irrelevant

For example:

PAGE URL PATHS
This is GOOD
https://www.website.com/path1/my-awesome-page?
https://www.website.com/path1/my-awesome-page.html?

This is BAD
https://www.website.com/path1/my_awesome_page?
https://www.website.com/path1/my_awesome_page.html?

FILE URI PATHS used by /path1/my-awesomepage
This is not good nor bad, what matters here is KB/TTFB/ALT TAG
https://www.cdn.com/my-awesome-picture.png 20kb
https://www.cdn.com/my_awesome_picture.png 20kb
https://www.cdn.com/2735_418723_564-my_awesome-picture.png 20kb

^^ doesn’t matter what file name is for serps

think of cdn as a ftp replacement, the path not part of page rank, what matters is initial load speed (time to first byte TTFB) and size of package KB size loading fast TTLB (time to last byte)

If you have good Alt Tag, TTFB, TTLB/SizeKB then you’ll be good

Can you post some screenshots so we can better understand what you mean in context?

@miekwave, I’m confused now.
I used https://freeseoreport.com/
and I got this message: An underscore was found in an image filename. Should be fixed.
And it came up as a red warning. It also says that all images should have an Alt Tag with key words.

It’s getting way over my head now, so I guess I’ll just skip it all… unless you’ve got an easy way to explain to me how to fix this?

TLDR; optimize for Google Search Console, not other 3rd party services. Upload image files with image-description.png (ex. companyname-logo.png, companyname-logo-white.png, companyname-owner-portrait.png, product-name.png, productname-variant.png…) format to webflow.

Readme: SEO Starter Guide: The Basics | Google Search Central  |  Documentation  |  Google for Developers

Upload image-sitemap.xml: Image Sitemaps | Google Search Central  |  Documentation  |  Google for Developers

Take SEO reports with grain of salt. It it for reference, but not as absolute truth.


SEO Reportcards will make mountants out of an ant hill. Sometimes they exaggerate results to sell you services to ‘fix’ non-issues they deem ‘problems’.

when it comes to their reports. For example, adding instagram and Facebook embed above fold on Gallery page changed my page score from A (95) to a D (69) on GT metrix, b.

If you’re going to use one SEO report, you’re better off comparing its results to other Page Graders. You should compare

I use Google Search Console recommendations as primary.

https://search.google.com/search-console/?resource_id=https://www.mydomain.com/

WOORANK is my favorite seo report card

Hubspot Grader is my 2nd favorite

GTMETRIX is my favorite for waterfall/super detailed report

If SEO is your concern, follow Google’s official guide, it’s what all the other seo services use:

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Thanks again @miekwave! Lots of nformation here. A lot to learn.
But thank you so much for all your help!

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