Good afternoon from snowy b-more.

NatureMaven

Greetings everyone! I am a new member of smugmug. I have had so much fun browsing everyone's sites that I haven't gotten much work done on my own
site yet. You folks are amazing! :bow

I have a question about naming files prior to upload. I understand it is important to name your files the best you can to appease the search engine gods but specifically, which of these 2 examples is better, the shorter version or the longer one? I know that once I upload I cannot change the file name. All the more reason to pick a good one:

1) palamino-horses.jpg
2) palamino-horses-animals-photography.jpg

will the search engines ( or smugmug) punish me for having too long of a name for my image? Thanks in advance for your help.

Phyxius

Hi!

My name is Christina and I'm a support hero here at SmugMug. I'm also a Marylander and fellow equestrian so, I'm super excited to see you post here on DGrin!

You definitely want to use words instead of the IMG_123 filename your camera spits out but, the more words you add the less weight Google assigns to each. The big mistake almost all photographers make is to spam Google with too many words.

Looking at the example you posted I'd probably drop the animals and photography parts of the file name. These would be better as gallery or homepage descriptions because they are rather vague. In my opinion two things more important than file names are keywords and links. Google values links back to your site from other relevant sites. For example I post here on DGrin and also on an equestrian forum. I have my website address and a description in the signature of each post. This can create hundreds and thousands of quality links back to your site which will make Google giddy.

For some great information on Search Engine Optimization check out our help page here:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/search-engines

And this DGrin thread: http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=45537

One more quick note, be sure to check your spelling, in this case palomino instead of palamino.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, we are always happy to help.

Best Regards,
Christina

NatureMaven

Phyxius wrote:

Hi!

My name is Christina and I'm a support hero here at SmugMug. I'm also a Marylander and fellow equestrian so, I'm super excited to see you post here on DGrin!

You definitely want to use words instead of the IMG_123 filename your camera spits out but, the more words you add the less weight Google assigns to each. The big mistake almost all photographers make is to spam Google with too many words.

Looking at the example you posted I'd probably drop the animals and photography parts of the file name. These would be better as gallery or homepage descriptions because they are rather vague. In my opinion two things more important than file names are keywords and links. Google values links back to your site from other relevant sites. For example I post here on DGrin and also on an equestrian forum. I have my website address and a description in the signature of each post. This can create hundreds and thousands of quality links back to your site which will make Google giddy.

For some great information on Search Engine Optimization check out our help page here:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/search-engines

And this DGrin thread: http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=45537

One more quick note, be sure to check your spelling, in this case palomino instead of palamino.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, we are always happy to help.

Best Regards,
Christina

Dear Christina,
Thanks so much helping me with proper image naming! You're not going to believe this but my name is Christina too. but I go by Chris. As soon as my gallery (and spelling) looks decent I'll put it in my sig. Until then, your new Maryland photo friend, Chris Scroggins

RogersDA

Maryland is cool. At least it is today! So far about 6 inches of white on the ground. Hey Phixius - Megan is doing great at her riding lessons. Now she wants her own horse (or two).





Darn - I just hijacked this thread.

Phyxius

NatureMaven wrote:

Dear Christina,
Thanks so much helping me with proper image naming! You're not going to believe this but my name is Christina too. but I go by Chris. As soon as my gallery (and spelling) looks decent I'll put it in my sig. Until then, your new Maryland photo friend, Chris Scroggins

Hi Chris,

So cool, such a small world! I look forward to checking out your site when it's ready. Stay warm in this weird MD winter.

RogersDA wrote:

Maryland is cool. At least it is today! So far about 6 inches of white on the ground. Hey Phixius - Megan is doing great at her riding lessons. Now she wants her own horse (or two).





Darn - I just hijacked this thread.

Haha, hijacker! Wow, I'm totally impressed with the Maryland contingent. Our little state is taking over. Okay, so maybe that's an exaggeration.

I'm happy to hear that Megan is doing well with her lessons! Horses are a virus for which there is no cure. Resign yourself to that fact now. Maybe I'll see you guys at some shows soon.

BigRed

NatureMaven wrote:

Greetings everyone! I am a new member of smugmug. I have had so much fun browsing everyone's sites that I haven't gotten much work done on my own
site yet. You folks are amazing!

I have a question about naming files prior to upload. I understand it is important to name your files the best you can to appease the search engine gods but specifically, which of these 2 examples is better, the shorter version or the longer one? I know that once I upload I cannot change the file name. All the more reason to pick a good one:

1) palamino-horses.jpg
2) palamino-horses-animals-photography.jpg

will the search engines ( or smugmug) punish me for having too long of a name for my image? Thanks in advance for your help.

When deciding on your file naming conventions, another thing you might want to think about is workflow. For example, some folks want to be able to easily find their source files on their PCs (for future editing, etc.), so preserving the original camera names is helpful.

Just a thought from another Marylander!
.

NatureMaven

BigRed wrote:

When deciding on your file naming conventions, another thing you might want to think about is workflow. For example, some folks want to be able to easily find their source files on their PCs (for future editing, etc.), so preserving the original camera names is helpful.

Just a thought from another Marylander!
.

Dear Phyxius, RogersDa and BigRed,
Thanks for the warm welcome and the advice. I'll put your words of wisdom to good use. Sorry it has taken me this long to reply, sometimes work gets in the way of being sociable, but you all know that! NM