Rename all of my photos?

[photocroatia]

Hi Pekka,

Yes I have another weird and wonderfull request, just wondering if there is an easy way to do it.

I want to rename all of my file names, why you might ask, to help with Search engines.

What I have at the moment is PERSONS_NAME_PLACE_1.jpg ........ PERSONS_NAME_PLACE_25.jpg etc etc

What I would like is PERSONS_NAME-COUNTRY-PLACE-1.jpg

Is there a file lenght restriction?

The problem I am having is that my photos aren't being displayed using "google image search" and its because of my file names.

If there is no easy way, what would the hard way be?

Thank you.

[Pekka]

If you see

http://images.google.com/images?q=harjanne&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

you see it indexed CRW_9022_00001_fixed3_ok2.jpg and CRW_1122_RT16b.jpg very high. Most important item for Google is photo name (header tag).

Only file name lenght restriction is OS filesystem filename lenght.

To rename all filenames automatically to more "human" I would need to write a script which would change filenames with ftp and store the new name to photo table, and create the names from specified criteria found in photo data.

[photocroatia]

Thanks Pekka,

I thought the most important was the name of the file?

Don't get me wrong my photos are indexed by google, but more because of my domain name and random and script name and because of the header tag.

The problem with underscores (which I have learn't) is that they are not treated as space, where a "-" is treated as a space

So if you take this example: D_KORUNIC_ZAGREB_3

If I search on: D_KORUNIC_ZAGREB_3 - I get a hit

If I search on: D_KORUNIC ZAGREB - I get nothing

If you search on: KORUNIC ZAGREB - The only hits you get are my random script and my thumball script.

I am confused and convinced that if I had my photo file names as per the above example: D_KORUNIC-CROATIA-ZAGREB-3, the photo would be found because of the file name and not because of the site name , directory name or header tag etc.

Sorry Pekka, just one more question, why is it when I search on: KORUNIC ZAGREB croatia

Why is it that juts my thumball photos are indexed? I created the thumball scripts to help the search engines, but now I think the file name would be even better.

Sorry I could be wrong but this is my understanding!

[Pekka]

The reason that your http://www.photocroatia.com/thumball/ is indexed "better" is that it is not inside frame.

Reason why D_KORUNIC ZAGREB does not get a hit is that in http://www.photocroatia.com/GALLERY/photo.php?photo=3484&exhibition=3&pass=public&lang=eng or in yout thumball there is no such string. Also, I'm sure Google seeks for words in dictionaries.

Reason for not getting specific photo pages hit by Google is that there is not enough distinction in your photo titles - Google may see too much repetition as attempt to fool it.

Also, note that people do not know what a result is before they search it. You search "in reverse". If I search photos by Korunic I would search normal Google for "korunic photos" and that gives your site on top. When I search "zagreb photos" I get your site (non-frame page) on 4th spot.