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  4. How important is the file extension in the URL for images?

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How important is the file extension in the URL for images?

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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  • dsbud
    dsbud last edited by Sep 26, 2017, 12:48 PM

    I know that descriptive image file names are important for SEO. But how important is it to include .png, .jpg, .gif (or whatever file extension) in the url path? i.e. https://example.com/images/golden-retriever vs. https://example.com/images/golden-retriever.jpg

    Furthermore, since you can set the filename in the Content-Disposition response header, is there any need to include the descriptive filename in the URL path?

    Since I'm pulling most of our images from a database, it'd be much simpler to not care about simulating a filename, and just reference an image id in my templates.

    Example:

    1. Browser requests GET /images/123456
    2. Server responds with image setting both Content-Disposition, and Link (canonical) headers

    Content-Disposition: inline; filename="golden-retriever"
    Link: <https: 123456="" example.com="" images="">; rel="canonical"</https:>

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • willcritchlow
      willcritchlow @dsbud last edited by Oct 5, 2017, 1:10 PM Oct 1, 2017, 11:01 AM

      In theory, there should be no difference - the canonical header should mean that Google treats the inclusion of /images/123456 as exactly the same as including /images/golden-retriever.

      It is slightly messier so I think that if it was easy, I'd go down the route of only ever using the /golden-retriever version - but if that's difficult, this is theoretically the same so should be fine.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • dsbud
        dsbud @willcritchlow last edited by Sep 29, 2017, 7:01 PM Sep 29, 2017, 7:01 PM

        @Will Thank you so much for this response. Very helpful.

        "If you can't always refer to the image by its keyword-rich filename"...

        If I'm already including the canonical link header on the image, and am able to serve from both /images/123456 and /images/golden-retriever (canonical), is there any benefit to referencing the canonical over the other in my image tags?

        willcritchlow 1 Reply Last reply Oct 1, 2017, 11:01 AM Reply Quote 1
        • willcritchlow
          willcritchlow last edited by Sep 29, 2017, 12:33 PM Sep 29, 2017, 12:33 PM

          Hi James. I've responded with what I believe is a correct answer to MarathonRunner's question. There are a few inaccuracies in your responses to this thread - as pointed out by others below - please can you target your future responses to areas where you are confident that you are correct and helpful? Many thanks.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • willcritchlow
            willcritchlow last edited by Sep 29, 2017, 6:56 PM Sep 29, 2017, 12:31 PM

            @MarathonRunner - you are correct in your inline responses - it's totally valid to serve an image (or other filetype) without an extension, with its type identified by the Content-Type. Sorry that you've had a less-than-helpful experience here so far.

            To answer your original questions:

            1. From an SEO perspective, there is no need that I know of for your images to have a file extension - the content type should be fine
            2. However - I have no reason to think that a filename in the Content-Disposition header will be recognised as a ranking signal - what you are describing is a rare use-case and I haven't seen any evidence that it would be recognised by the search engines as being the "real" filename

            If you can't always refer to the image by its keyword-rich filename, then could you:

            • Serve it as you propose (though without the Content-Disposition filename)
            • Serve a rel="canonical" link to a keyword-rich filename (https://example.com/images/golden-retriever in your example)
            • Also serve the image on that URL

            This only helps if you are able to serve the image on the /images/golden-retriever path, but need to have it available at /images/123456 for inclusion in your own HTML templates.

            I hope that helps.

            dsbud 1 Reply Last reply Sep 29, 2017, 7:01 PM Reply Quote 4
            • Martijn_Scheijbeler
              Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by Sep 27, 2017, 11:50 PM Sep 27, 2017, 11:50 PM

              If you really did your research you would have noticed the header image is not using an extension.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
              • dsbud
                dsbud last edited by Sep 27, 2017, 10:39 PM Sep 27, 2017, 10:37 PM

                Again, you're mistaken. The Content-Type response header tells the browser what type of file the resource is (mime type). This is _completely different _from the file extension in URL paths.

                In fact, on the web all the file extensions are faked through the URL path. For example, this page's URL path is:

                https://moz.com/community/q/how-important-is-the-file-extension-in-the-url-for-images

                It's not

                https://moz.com/community/q/how-important-is-the-file-extension-in-the-url-for-images.html

                How does the browser know the the page is an html doc? Because of the Content-Type response header. The faked "extension" in the URL path, is unnecessary.

                You can view http response headers for any URL using this tool.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                  Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by Sep 27, 2017, 10:16 PM Sep 27, 2017, 10:16 PM

                  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brutal-poll-shows-most-people-214647063.html Good luck!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                    Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by Sep 27, 2017, 10:12 PM Sep 27, 2017, 10:12 PM

                    Do you need a new keyboard?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                      Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by Sep 27, 2017, 4:05 PM Sep 27, 2017, 4:04 PM

                      @James Wolff: I'm really hoping you're being sarcastic here. As it's totally fine to serve it without the extension. There are many more ways for a crawler to understand what type a file is. Including what @MarathonRunner is talking about here.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                      • dsbud
                        dsbud last edited by Sep 27, 2017, 3:45 PM Sep 27, 2017, 3:30 PM

                        This isn't accurate. File extension (in the url path) is not the same as the **Content-Type **response header. Browsers respect the response header Content-Type over whatever extension I use in the path.

                        Example: try serving a file /golden-retriever.png with a content type of image/jpeg. Your browser will understand the file as a .jpg. If you attempt to save, your browser will correct to golden-retriever.jpg.

                        You can route URLs however you want.

                        Additionally, I'm not aware of any way browsers "leverage cache by content type". Browsers handle cache by the etag/expires header.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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