What’s In a Name?
Tips for using your brand photos to help you get found online
Getting found online organically is a big struggle for many businesses in this digital age. And when it comes keywording strategies to increase your search ranking, a lot of people focus only on their website copy (text).
But the often-overlooked asset to your findability is your brand photos, or image content.
Most times your new headshots and brand photos will be delivered to you with a generic number, or even possibly your name, as the filename. (eg. DSC874903.jpg, or JanelleKeys-07.jpg) Or, if you’re downloading stock photos from sites like Unsplash or iStock, these will be named with something descriptive (like “vintage-Fuji-camera”.jpg) and possibly followed by the photographer’s name.
So when search engines are scanning the internet on behalf of people searching for your particular service, these filenames do nothing to help your business come up.
However, by renaming the photos to a more keyword relevant filename before you upload them to your website, now your photo content adds to your findability - not just your text content.
Tips for renaming your brand photos to help you get found online….
Rename your photos before uploading them to your website. For example, I renamed the photo above to 'Sydney-Brand-Photographer-Janelle-Keys.jpg' before I uploaded it to my website.
If you’re uploading the same photo, but to a different area on your website like a blog post, rename the photo again and re-upload it to your blog eg. “Tips-for-coming-up-in-online-searches-01.jpg”
Try to think of keywords and phrases that your target audience would use when searching on Google, Bing, or even ChatGPT.
When using generic stock photos from royalty free sites, it’s generally permissible to rename the filenames, although you should check with the licencing agreements on each particular site. If the stock photos are free, it’s always good etiquette to give the photographer credit, which you can do in the image caption. For example, if used on my brand photography blog, the filename for this stock photo could be renamed to “Top-brand-photographers-in-Sydney-01.jpg”, while still adding credit to the photographer underneath.
Photo Credit: Spenser Sembrat courtesy of Unsplash
So before you upload your headshots, brand photos, or generic stock photos to your website, think about how you’re using them, and make sure you give them new filenames that include popular searchable keywords and phrases which will help increase your chances of getting found online.
