Fix It: Filenames
Fix This Issue
If you are getting this error:
You’ll need to change the filenames that are flagged by our app.
NOTE: The new UI does not flag the URLs yet, but this feature is coming soon. If you are on the new UI and have a filename error, you can ignore it for now. You can also look at the filename recommendations below - filenames can help your SEO if you use your keywords in them!
You can do this by:
- Finding those files on your drive
- Renaming them using the suggestions below
- Replacing the file on your live site with the renamed file.
Your filenames are treated similarly to alt-text by search engines. Remember that the search engine doesn’t see images or embedded files, they only read the code.
If your filename is:
cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/3287/0210/files/1_275x.jpg
It doesn’t really give any information. 1 could be anything!
But if instead it’s:
cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0017/3287/0210/files/coffee-beans.jpg
Then the search engine knows it’s a file that contains an image of coffee beans.
You can only modify the part of the keyword that comes after /files/
If you repeat this in your alt-text, now your keywords are appearing twice, without the website looking like you’re stuffing keywords into the on-page text.
Filename Recommendations
- The filename should describe the content of the file
- The filename should use your primary keyword phrase
- Use dashes “-” rather than underscores “_” in your filenames. Dashes connect words, but underscores act as a hard stop, so the words will not be linked.
- Keep your filename around 4-6 words long