What makes a good image URL?
A good image URL is short, lowercase and descriptive, uses hyphens between words and has a single file extension — for example /images/red-running-shoes.webp. It contains no spaces, brackets, %20, capital letters or random codes, so it never breaks and tells search engines what the image shows.
Why are WhatsApp and camera file names a problem?
Names like “WhatsApp Image 2024-05-01 at 10.23.45 AM.jpeg” or “IMG_4821.JPG” describe nothing, contain spaces and capitals that turn into %20 and case-sensitive URLs, and look careless in image search. Renaming them after what the image shows is one of the easiest image SEO wins.
What is a double extension?
A file such as banner.jpg.webp has two extensions, usually because an image was converted to WebP and kept its old name. It still loads, but it is confusing, wastes characters and can trip up some servers and CDNs. Rename it to a single extension.
How long should alt text and the title attribute be?
Keep alt text under about 125 characters and the title attribute under about 120. Alt text should describe what the image shows in plain words; the title can add context people see when they hover. Purely decorative images can use an empty alt (alt="").
Do images need both alt text and a title attribute?
Alt text is essential for accessibility and image search. The title attribute is optional for Google, but it is part of the XcodeFix image standard because it improves the experience for people who hover images. The report flags missing alt text as critical and a missing title as a smaller fix.
How do I rename images without breaking my site?
Upload the renamed file, update every page that uses it (the report lists them) and add a 301 redirect from the old image URL to the new one so existing links and image-search rankings carry over. Many CMS media plugins can rename and redirect in one step.