search engines dont find my website photos despite.......

On 4 Mar 2005 07:26:12 -0800, John.c4.DeleteThis@ntlworld.com (John) wrote:

 >Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
 >apreciated.
 >I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
 >devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
 >named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
 >find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
 >engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
 >a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
 >search... Im at a loss!.... John.

Funny enough, John, I can't find your website in your post either.
Sigh.

BB
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 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Big Bill <kruse RemoveThis @cityscape.co.uk> wrote in message news:<iogi2116d94nlfs0k1eb07q1anqmvml9di RemoveThis @4ax.com>...
 > On 4 Mar 2005 07:26:12 -0800, John.c4 RemoveThis @ntlworld.com (John) wrote:
 >
  > >Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
  > >apreciated.
  > >I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
  > >devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
  > >named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
  > >find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
  > >engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
  > >a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
  > >search... Im at a loss!.... John.
 >
 > Funny enough, John, I can't find your website in your post either.
 > Sigh.
 >
 > BB
OK point taken.....didnt realise that you all would need to wade
through it but I guess it makes perfect sense. The site is
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.canyontocanyon.com" target="_blank">www.canyontocanyon.com</a> galleries are reached through the buttons, try
Grand Canyon for starters...thanks for taking the time... John<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

David Preston <dave.RemoveThis@dbpreston.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:<d0abg4$h4q$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>...
 > John wrote:
  > > Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
  > > apreciated.
  > > I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
  > > devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
  > > named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
  > > find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
  > > engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
  > > a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
  > > search... Im at a loss!.... John.
 > Do they have <alt> descriptions? Are the links to them to the jpegs
 > themselves or to container pages?
 >
 > Post the url then people can try to work out what's going wrong.

David Ive posted below..somewhere!..many of the 'key' photos have
simple alt descriptions but the links are to container
pages....produced on Dreamweaver4. John.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

John wrote:
 > David Preston <dave.RemoveThis@dbpreston.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:<d0abg4$h4q$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>...
 >
  >>John wrote:
  >>
   >>>Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
   >>>apreciated.
   >>>I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
   >>>devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
   >>>named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
   >>>find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
   >>>engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
   >>>a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
   >>>search... Im at a loss!.... John.
  >>
  >>Do they have <alt> descriptions? Are the links to them to the jpegs
  >>themselves or to container pages?
  >>
  >>Post the url then people can try to work out what's going wrong.
 >
 >
 > David Ive posted below..somewhere!..many of the 'key' photos have
 > simple alt descriptions but the links are to container
 > pages....produced on Dreamweaver4. John.

I just looked at one page. I could see that it was about 'Jerome,
Arizona', but that was the only text anywhere on the page - no <alt>
descriptions for any of the photos or anything else textual to help the
spiders.

Search engines can only understand text, so they will really struggle to
identify the content of your pictures.

If you can, turn off the images in your browser (you may need to clear
your cache too) and you will see roughly what a spider 'sees'. There's
not much for them to go on!

Here's a quick strategy-

Give all the pictures meaningful <title> and <alt> tags - this gives
engines chance to assess what the pics are about.

And consider a 'Site Map' type page with meaningful text links to each
gallery page, making sure that engines can find _it_ too. That will
ensure that those pages are found and give a clue to what they contain,
as currently they are linked to by graphical buttons (which spiders may
not understand/follow).<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

David Preston <dave.DeleteThis@dbpreston.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:<d0cvqv$urs$1@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk>...
 > John wrote:
  > > David Preston <dave.DeleteThis@dbpreston.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:<d0abg4$h4q$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>...
  > >
   > >>John wrote:
   > >>
   > >>>Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
   > >>>apreciated.
   > >>>I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
   > >>>devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
   > >>>named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
   > >>>find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
   > >>>engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
   > >>>a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
   > >>>search... Im at a loss!.... John.
   > >>
   > >>Do they have <alt> descriptions? Are the links to them to the jpegs
   > >>themselves or to container pages?
   > >>
   > >>Post the url then people can try to work out what's going wrong.
  > >
  > >
  > > David Ive posted below..somewhere!..many of the 'key' photos have
  > > simple alt descriptions but the links are to container
  > > pages....produced on Dreamweaver4. John.
 >
 > I just looked at one page. I could see that it was about 'Jerome,
 > Arizona', but that was the only text anywhere on the page - no <alt>
 > descriptions for any of the photos or anything else textual to help the
 > spiders.
 >
 > Search engines can only understand text, so they will really struggle to
 > identify the content of your pictures.
 >
 > If you can, turn off the images in your browser (you may need to clear
 > your cache too) and you will see roughly what a spider 'sees'. There's
 > not much for them to go on!
 >
 > Here's a quick strategy-
 >
 > Give all the pictures meaningful <title> and <alt> tags - this gives
 > engines chance to assess what the pics are about.
 >
 > And consider a 'Site Map' type page with meaningful text links to each
 > gallery page, making sure that engines can find _it_ too. That will
 > ensure that those pages are found and give a clue to what they contain,
 > as currently they are linked to by graphical buttons (which spiders may
 > not understand/follow).

Many thanks for that one David..the Jerome page is devoid of 'alt'
tags but there are many galleries where the Jpgs carry an 'alt'
description tag. I will work on the rest..did you notice from the
home page there is a shortcut to most of the galleries (page bottom)
would this be picked up by the spiders? regards John.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

On 5 Mar 2005 09:18:14 -0800, John.c4 DeleteThis @ntlworld.com (John) wrote:

 >Big Bill <kruse DeleteThis @cityscape.co.uk> wrote in message news:<iogi2116d94nlfs0k1eb07q1anqmvml9di DeleteThis @4ax.com>...
  >> On 4 Mar 2005 07:26:12 -0800, John.c4 DeleteThis @ntlworld.com (John) wrote:
  >>
   >> >Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
   >> >apreciated.
   >> >I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
   >> >devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
   >> >named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
   >> >find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
   >> >engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
   >> >a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
   >> >search... Im at a loss!.... John.
  >>
  >> Funny enough, John, I can't find your website in your post either.
  >> Sigh.
  >>
  >> BB
 > OK point taken.....didnt realise that you all would need to wade
 >through it but I guess it makes perfect sense. The site is
 >www.canyontocanyon.com galleries are reached through the buttons, try
 >Grand Canyon for starters...thanks for taking the time... John

You seem to be lacking a lot of alt tags. Perhaps it would help the
engines categorise the pictures if you included them.

BB

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 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Once upon a time, far far away John.c4 RemoveThis @ntlworld.com (John) spluttered

 >Hi... I know Im not doing something correctly.. any help much
 >apreciated.
 >I run a fairly successfull travel advice website. Much of this is
 >devoted to photo galleries of various locations. Many of the jpgs are
 >named but even after months, an image search (even specific)will not
 >find any of these photos.The actual website is found on many search
 >engines along with specific pages and the photos on them.I understand
 >a good way to pull people to your website is often through an image
 >search... Im at a loss!.... John.

John;

Two pointers:

1) Use <h> headers for your page headings

2) Name the pictures with a sensible name, eg: "Grand Canyon.jpg"


Matt

--
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<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com" target="_blank">http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Matt Probert wrote:

 > 2) Name the pictures with a sensible name, eg: "Grand Canyon.jpg"

Even better: use names without spaces; and for ease of maintenance,
use all lower case, eg: "grandcanyon.jpg"

--
-bts
-This space intentionally left blank.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Once upon a time, far far away "Beauregard T. Shagnasty"
<a.nony.mous.TakeThisOut@example.invalid> spluttered

 >Matt Probert wrote:
 >
  >> 2) Name the pictures with a sensible name, eg: "Grand Canyon.jpg"
 >
 >Even better: use names without spaces; and for ease of maintenance,
 >use all lower case, eg: "grandcanyon.jpg"
 >

Is that tested? I know it sounds plausible, by "convention", but the
reason I ask is that the pictures in The Probert Encyclopaedia are
named just as you would expect them - like "Grand Canyon.jpg" and
Google has masses of them in its image search index, so this is
obviously a "Google friendly" naming convention.

Matt

--
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 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Matt Probert wrote:
 > Once upon a time, far far away "Beauregard T. Shagnasty"
 > <a.nony.mous.DeleteThis@example.invalid> spluttered
 >
  >> Matt Probert wrote:
  >>
   >>> 2) Name the pictures with a sensible name, eg: "Grand
   >>> Canyon.jpg"
  >>
  >> Even better: use names without spaces; and for ease of
  >> maintenance, use all lower case, eg: "grandcanyon.jpg"
 >
 > Is that tested? I know it sounds plausible, by "convention", but
 > the reason I ask is that the pictures in The Probert Encyclopaedia
 > are named just as you would expect them - like "Grand Canyon.jpg"

"You would expect them?" I would not expect that. <g> I said "even
better", not that it wouldn't work.

 > and Google has masses of them in its image search index, so this is
 > obviously a "Google friendly" naming convention.

Google probably made adjustments when Windows started making web
servers, and Windows "web tools" allowed the use of spaces in file names.

Picking one of your graphics at random, and entering the URL into
Firefox, the browser adds the "%20" to interpret the space.
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey%20Firefly.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey%20Firefly.jpg</a>

If I were to enter this link here without the %20, I doubt if you
could click on it; let's see:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey" target="_blank">http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey</a> Firefly.jpg

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 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Beauregard T. Shagnasty replied to hisself:
 > If I were to enter this link here without the %20, I doubt if you
 > could click on it; let's see:
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey" target="_blank">http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey</a> Firefly.jpg

Nope. The clickable part (in Thunderbird) is:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey" target="_blank">http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Fairey</a>

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 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:

 > Google probably made adjustments when Windows started making web
 > servers, and Windows "web tools" allowed the use of spaces in file names.

Errr... UNIX has allowed spaces in file names for a lot longer than
Windows has.

Linux (and probably most other UNIXes) allows any character except slash
to appear in a file name -- even characters like asterisk, question mark
and line breaks. (Though many programs will b0rk when they see such files.)

White space characters are not allowed in URLs though. It is important to
remember that URL-space is not a file system, even if it happens to look
like a file system and quack like a file system.

So you can have a file name "Foo Bar.html" on your server, but the URL
"http://example.org/Foo Bar.html" is not a proper URL.

If you type a URL with a space character in it, most (for practical
purposes, all?) browsers will transparently map it to the hex equivalent
"%20".

Also, most web servers will transparently map "%20" back to a space
character before attempting to retrieve the file.

In general, as %20s look ugly, it's best to avoid spaces in URLs and
instead use hyphens. (Underscores may seem better at first, but are
difficult to discern when the URL is underlined.)

--
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Contact Me ~ <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact" target="_blank">http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite....... 

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 17:20:44 +0000, Toby Inkster
<usenet200503 DeleteThis @tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote:
 > ...
 > it's best to avoid spaces in URLs and
 > instead use hyphens.

Gets my vote too - for all the reasons given and addresses all the issues
raised in this thread.

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 >> Stay informed about: search engines dont find my website photos despite.......