Most people don't think about search engine indexing when they create and save a web page. Naming conventions for newly created web pages typically consist of one word tags that are recognizable by the web master. Website images are often saved using the practical "img-1", "img-2", "img-3" methodology. Proper naming of your web pages and images can contribute positively to how a web page ranks for a given search term.

A Website By Any Other Name Is Still A Website

Okay, so that header is a weak play on Shakespeare, and in itself is true, but when it comes to search engine optimization, your file structure and how you name your web pages can impact your search ranking. In our web marketing document, we note that there are over 100 factors that affect how a website is ranked. One of those factors is the URL. The URL or domain name is the unique identifier for your website. Take the URL www.harleydavidsonadventures.com. A crawl of that URL would find the words "harley", "davidson", and "adventures" in the domain name. Those keywords are considered in identifying the purpose of the website. Now if you were to click the "accessories" hyperlink from the homepage of that website, the URL in the web browser would change to www.harleydavidsonadventures.com/accessories.html. If you read our article on keyword harmony, you will understand by naming that web page "accessories" on the Harley Davidson Adventures website, the URL will now be indexed for the keyword combinations "harley", "davidson", "adventures", "accessories", "harley accessories", and "harely davidson accessories".

While file names don't carry the same weight as domain names when it comes to indexing, the naming conventions do affect the way a website is ranked.

Picture This

Similar to the way file names are an indexible part of an URL, images are also crawled and categorized. Since the web crawlers can't "look at" the pictures, they rely on the file name and the website image is associated with to help decide the identity of a web image.

If you've ever done an image search on Google, you know that the images returned during a search are all linked to websites. This is why it is important not only to name your website pictures beyond "img-1.jpg, img-2.jpg etc., but to consider the keywords you use to name them. Going back to our Harley Davidson Adventures example, if you visit the www.harleydavidsonadventures.com/harley-rental.html page, and view the source code (from your web browser, click "view", then "source") you'll find an image tag that looks like this: "img src="images/harley_davidson_rental.jpg" alt="Harley Davidson Rental". This is the image tag that pulls the picture of the rental into the web page. Notice how the image is labeled "harley davidson rental", properly identifying the image, and also using keywords that fit the theme of the web page. The webmaster could have named the image "Softail" or "Blue Motorcycle", but chose "Harley Davidson Rental" to strengthen the purpose of the website. Also notice that an "alt" tag was used with a proper keyword description. The "alt" tag displays text on the website in the event that the image doesn't load, so the viewer knows what should be displayed there.