HEADS UP! New Direct Image URLs on SmugMug

RogersDA

Andy wrote: »

That gallery is unlisted

Ahhhh...how I forget....thanks Andy.

Luc De Jaeger

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I'm with you Allen - there is no way I'm going to change every filename before upload. My blog photos are found immediately, and that's with the addition of alt tags only. My photos on smug? There are a few, but they are just the tiny versions of the photos. Keywords seem to make no difference in the visibility of the images.

--- Denise

I'm not going to change the filenames either (that's an insane additional workload for me). I've always used the original dsc_xxx picture names. Imho the filename is currently not that relevant for Google Image search. All my Flickr photos only have tags and a description (with the original dsc_xxx filenames) and they are almost all found in very good positions in Google Image search. So, it must have another reason why my Flickr photos are found in Google Image Search (one of the reasons can be blogs, though most of my Flickr photos are not posted in blogs either -- but blogs might work).

Luc

jfriend

Luc De Jaeger wrote: »

I'm not going to change the filenames either (that's an insane additional workload for me). I've always used the original dsc_xxx picture names. Imho the filename is currently not that relevant for Google Image search. All my Flickr photos only have tags and a description (with the original dsc_xxx filenames) and they are almost all found in very good positions in Google Image search. So, it must have another reason why my Flickr photos are found in Google Image Search (one of the reasons can be blogs, though most of my Flickr photos are not posted in blogs either -- but blogs might work).

Luc

Ease up folks. Smugmug just made it so that "IF" you set the filename to something relevant to your image, the change to include it in the URL as the actual filename of the image will help your SEO in Google Image search. If you don't set the filename (and most people don't), you don't lose anything. The filename in the URL is now your filename instead of SM's generated filename. SM is just trying to give people the most optimizations they can. You don't have to use them all if you don't want to.

Erick L

jfriend wrote: »

The filename in the URL is now your filename instead of SM's generated filename.

The filename is still the one generated by SM:
http://www.borealphoto.com/Places/Gaspesie/pv108001/215158855_G7esr-XL-1.jpg

You don't have to use them all if you don't want to.

We don't have to use filenames but we are forced to use nicenames. They may be nice for those who don't know how to caption and keyword but I find them more troublesome than the old URL form.

jfriend

Erick L wrote: »

The filename is still the one generated by SM:
http://www.borealphoto.com/Places/Gaspesie/pv108001/215158855_G7esr-XL-1.jpg



We don't have to use filenames but we are forced to use nicenames. They may be nice for those who don't know how to caption and keyword but I find them more troublesome than the old URL form.

Only newly uploaded images in public galleries get new filenames (I don't know where you got that URL from).

The old URL form still works. Use it if you want to.

http://www.borealphoto.com/photos/215158855_G7esr-XL-1.jpg

LichtenHansen

Still a looooong way to a decent SEO in Smugmug
Better late than never. This little tiny tiny step on the long way to a decent SEO on Smugmug was long ago suggested by a lot of SM users including me: Image filenames on Smugmug.

Smugmug - You should really listen to Erick L and the many other SM users dissatisfied with the less than average Google Text search and the extremely poor Google image search. Or just have a look at Google's Seo Starter Guide. Smugmug still has a loooong way to go when it comes to SEO.

pgman

jfriend wrote: »

When Google fetches the contents of the shortened URL (to see what content it is), the web server returns a 302 result code and a new location (and no content other than the new URL) which means that the contents have been moved to a new location (referred to as a "redirect"). Google then looks up the content on the new location which can be the full URL. Since shortened URLs are used all over the web now (particularly in Twitter), this is the somewhat standard of implementing them and Google is well acquainted with how to follow them.

Yes and no. Google has no problem with the 302s, it will follow them, unless it's in the sitemap. If it's in the sitemap, Google will report an error.

URLs not followed
When we tested a sample of URLs from your Sitemap, we found that some URLs redirect to other locations. 
We recommend that your Sitemap contain URLs that point to the final destination 
(the redirect target) instead of redirecting to another URL.

So what's in the new sitemaps?

Erick L

jfriend wrote: »

The old URL form still works. Use it if you want to.

I want them as URLs when people browse the site so links don't ever need to be redirected when a photo or a gallery is moved. A sure way to drop in the SERP is to change URLs. Redirects aren't good enough.

It looks like the old URL form doesn't work with new images so I guess we're stuck with nicenames.

Allen

Erick L wrote: »

...

It looks like the old URL form doesn't work with new images so I guess we're stuck with nicenames.

The photo number and key are in the browser url. Copy them from there.

http://nickname.smugmug.com/photos/XXXXXXXXX_xxxxxxx-L.jpg

http://mydomain.com/photos/XXXXXXXXX_xxxxxxx-L.jpg

JBHotShots

I'm slightly confused here or maybe its just me not knowing enough to make changes. With all of the changes that SM has made since I've become a Pro user, I think this is my 4th year, I have done nothing but upload my pictures and put a very brief description in my galleries and I find my site all over Google. Now I'm not complaining by any means, but I'm not sure if I need to make any changes or not to my work flow. Can I keep doing what I've been doing for several years now or am I going to have to change my process?

Andy

LouDoggsRuca wrote: »

I'm slightly confused here or maybe its just me not knowing enough to make changes. With all of the changes that SM has made since I've become a Pro user, I think this is my 4th year, I have done nothing but upload my pictures and put a very brief description in my galleries and I find my site all over Google. Now I'm not complaining by any means, but I'm not sure if I need to make any changes or not to my work flow. Can I keep doing what I've been doing for several years now or am I going to have to change my process?

You don't need to change a thing. You CAN if you wish, make your filenames more descriptive - e.g., sunset-pfeiffer-beach.jpg like in my example.

JBHotShots

Touche...