Meredith's Husband: 0:42

Hey, this is Meredith husband, I've got some SEO advice for you. But I'm gonna keep it really simple so that you can understand it. So make sense. And most importantly, so you can actually use this is gonna be our best episode ever. I know I feeling it. That's actually probably not true, of course. But I'm excited about it.

Meredith: 1:08

That's all the matters.

Meredith's Husband: 1:09

On some level. That is what matters. Yeah. We're gonna talk about today. Good. One of the buzziest things in SEO right now. Oh, one of the buzziest like what I see all over the place, not inside, not inside the SEO industry, but in mainstream and what I see everybody talking about everybody getting excited about? We're gonna talk about that today. Okay. And that is file names. Oh, everybody's talking about file names.

Meredith: 1:37

Everyone. I mean, word on the street is file name.

Meredith's Husband: 1:40

I know you can't walk down the street without overhearing a conversation about firearms. Everyone's talking about it. I'm gonna tell you what's going to happen with file names. Oh, really? Yeah. Now, this is my opinion. Yes. But if you just if you're listening and you disagree, you can message me on Instagram. I will wager any amount of money that you want on this, that what I'm going to talk about today is true. Is is going to happen. Okay,

Meredith: 2:10

hold on. Hold on. Buster is just

Meredith's Husband: 2:13

Buster is our dog. Lester is one of our dogs. They

Meredith: 2:15

got to know by now. If anyone is listening our dogs are Marcel and Buster.

Meredith's Husband: 2:20

Right? I do cut most of Marcel and Buster out. Are you do? Yeah. Most of not all, but most. Just like I will probably cut this out what I'm saying right now.

Meredith: 2:33

Okay, well, okay, so just got a dental and now he's also chewing on something. So

Meredith's Husband: 2:37

he's on? Like some some probably very nice painkillers. Yeah. Okay, so file names. So everybody's stuck. You can't go. Like we said, you can't walk down the street without hearing somebody talk. It's everywhere. It's AI tools. It's every it's all kinds of tools. Oh, file names, family and family. It will rename your file names. Dot family. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so this comes from, there is a section on the Google blog. Google has a blog. I was gonna say Google has a blog, though they have they have several blogs. But one of them. One of them called the keyword is specifically about SEO and also aimed towards kind of the layman. That's good, isn't it? Yeah,

Meredith: 3:22

that's a that's a very keyword kind of clever. Like,

Meredith's Husband: 3:24

I mean, there's a lot of Google, like developer blocks that are super technical, which are above my head. But the keyword is pretty good. And it's where people like me, who are not super technical, not developers, where we go to get information from Google, when we want to know, hey, what does Google have to say about this? Can anyone just get this? Anyone can go here, really. And I bet 99.9% of you didn't know it existed? I did. Anyway, this is where the so what we're talking about today is file names. There's a page, somewhere on that Google blog, if you were to look it up, you could probably find it. I don't know what you would search for. But it talks about file names. And it says something like, You should name your file, your file names with appropriate keywords, right? Which makes it sound like, Hey, this is an opportunity to put your keywords in. Now, this has been there for years. That's been there for at least five years, probably 10 years. So it's not it's not it's nothing new. But that's what I would call the mainstream has picked this up. So like this has been around in the SEO industry, like I said, for years, and now it's being picked up by mainstream

Meredith: 4:37

the mainstream, not the sub stream, the main stream

Meredith's Husband: 4:41

mainstream is probably not the it makes it sound to hoity toity to be in the SEO industry and then mainstream, but it's like the, the mass media like it's being talked to is buzzy now, okay, it's getting a lot of attention. It's buzzing. But it's been out for years, but it's been out for you. And this is the typical trend. This is how SEO works. This is just how it works. I'm gonna go through this process, what I see happening and why this is buzzy right now. Okay, so it's on the blog that you you should name your file names with a keyword,

Meredith: 5:10

okay. A keyword.

Meredith's Husband: 5:13

You should they say I forget the language Exactly. But it's something like, you know, add keyword rich content to your file. You know, I don't know what it is, but it's something along those lines. And this has been picked up by like I said, the mainstream the people who develop software, the people who develop SEO tools that people who are selling you shit have caught on to this and it's become a buzz buzzword, Okay, file names. It used to be your meta tags. It used to be your meta keywords used to be your meta description. It's this sort of thing happens over and over and over in the SEO industry. That's why I want to talk about it.

Meredith: 5:45

Yeah, let's get to the point where it was I have no idea. I don't know, I just

Meredith's Husband: 5:51

okay. So file names right now, if you put keywords into your file names, to be honest, it will probably help your rankings. It will. And it has for a few years, and it will continue to do that for a few years. So here's the here's the process and where we are in that process. Google says, Hey, there's this thing you can do. Make sure you do it. SEO is use it. Other people use it, it catches on, people start to overuse it. Right. Of course, people start to abuse it. People start to spam it. Yeah, human nature. Google eventually says, Okay, guys, let's quit it. You stop, that doesn't work anymore. Okay. And then people keep doing it. They keep abusing it. It's now in the mail every But now everybody thinks it's like the thing to do, I think of is very much as like a stock market tip. Right? Like, you know, you hear hot tips. Yeah, by the time you and I hear hot tips about the stock market, it is old news. The people if we go out, and we buy stocks, based on the hot tips that we hear that people on Wall Street are going to be pocketing our money. And then we're going to be we're gonna have terrible investments. Yeah, this is kind of like a hot stock tip. Right? So eventually, Google says, Hey, guys, okay, this doesn't work anymore. Please stop, they probably the next step will be for them to remove that language from their blog, and say something more cautionary, like, please don't stuff keywords into your file names. People will keep doing it, then Google will quietly they will not announce this, but they will quietly start to use it as a way to spot people who are trying to spam Google system. Oh, wow. Remember the Google spam team. So they will very quiet again, they won't announce this. They'll just quietly say okay, we're gonna we're gonna the people who are still trying to stuff all their keywords into their file names. We're just going to use that. And we're going to try to spot the people who are are overzealous and how much they're trying to optimize their website. So

Meredith: 8:00

you know, right now there, there are people listening, who realize, Oh, crap, I made stuff. My key. I hope so. Are they gonna come and gamma? No,

Meredith's Husband: 8:08

hold on? I'll get to that. Don't worry. I'll take care of you. Okay. That's why, okay, so that's what's happening. Now, the next step is for Google, I think, to change the language on their blog, and they'll say, Hey, guys, okay, this doesn't really do much anymore. And this has happened, this has happened with so many times, I can't even count. But like, the more well known things that this has happened with are your meta tag, your meta description, your keyword tag, things like that. Like as eventually Google comes out and says, Hey, guys, your meta keywords tag, we don't even pay attention to it. Please Stop stuffing it with your keywords. And people keep doing it. And then Google starts to use that as a way to spot websites that they don't penalize you. Exactly. It's rare that Google will like see something you're doing and like, say they need to be demoted. There have been in the past, there have been active manual penalties that Google would hand out. And when they did that, they would actually send people emails and say, Hey, we're kicking your site out of Google, or, you know, you've been penalized. But no more. That's rare that that would happen. I mean, they don't want to make that announcement. They they want, you know, Google, they want a way to spot people who are trying to spam the system. Remember, it's the Google spam team. Yeah, this is the way they're gonna spot spam. Yeah, they do. The red with a lightning bolt. They will have, like Martin like Super Mario Brothers, maybe a turtle. Okay. So at that point, then then what happens in this cycle is very often people doing the and this is to be honest, it's very common in the SEO industry, people will keep doing this. Like if you went out today and hire an SEO firm, they would probably be working on this type of stuff. This is what they would be doing. They would overstep it. They would, yeah, borderline? Yes, they would, or they would tell you, Hey, we're gonna take care of all your file names. It's the really important thing to do right now. People tend to get out of the SEO industry, after they have gone through this cycle a couple times. And they have done this sort of stuff. Because what happens is, you're always going to need to be reinventing your, you're going to need to find the next gimmick. Not a gimmick, but like so once Google decides, hey, when we're not using file names anymore, you're going to need to find the next thing that is going to help your rankings in the short term, and it will have a lifespan of a couple years or a few years. yours or whatever, and then you'll need and then it will start to be not penalized, but like, it's going to become a red flag, and you're gonna need to find the next thing. And this is the cycle that a lot of SEOs go through. And then they eventually get tired of it. And they say, like, oh, SEO is dead. It doesn't work anymore. It the industry is over. I couldn't hack it. Yeah, I've been hearing that SEO was dead since like, 2000. Because, yeah, it's like theater is dead. Yeah. And I always say, I know, I actually know exactly when SEO will be dead. It will be when people stop using Google. And I don't see that happening tomorrow, Sunday night, not tomorrow. There'll be something else.

Meredith: 11:15

So what are we supposed to do?

Meredith's Husband: 11:16

So So what do you do? So how do you name your files? So I thought I would tell you, I would tell you, Meredith how I name your file. Thank you. And everyone can listen. I'll tell you how to do it. And hopefully, this will be enlightening. Yeah, so let's say that I want were naming the files on your images, the image file names on your children's page on your children's photography page. Okay, so here's how I would name here's how I do name those files, we actually have just finished working on your site. And this is how I've been naming those files. The file names say in the gallery. So this page has a gallery right? A lot of photography sites are gonna have image galleries on them. I would name them. Every single image would be Zinner, photography, children, and then say 06, or whatever number that would be in the gallery. Now, there's height, there's hyphens between those words, always put hyphens between your words,

Meredith: 12:13

and in the middle hyphens, not the lower hyphens. Those are not hyphens,

Meredith's Husband: 12:17

or underscores. Yeah. Always, always avoid underscores because Google recognizes them as a character. Whereas Hyphens are a space. So if you do a search for children's photography, Meredith Zinner, Google will interpret that as and you put hyphens in there, or do you have a file with hyphens in and somebody does a search with spaces, which they would normally do. Google counts those as being equal, if you put underscores, Google is going to try to match that with people who are actually searching for underscores. And nobody is searching for underscores. Okay, this

Meredith: 12:52

is a little nugget right here. Yeah, just

Meredith's Husband: 12:55

don't, don't include underscore in your URLs and your file names don't include underscores unless where this is applicable is if you have if you're selling software, which which or not, but if you have software version 1.2, that would be version underscore one underscore two. Will be version hyphen, one underscore two. That's what Yeah, Okay, nevermind. Okay. So you'll notice, Massa tag you say your files are Zinner, photography children, oh, six, that is the image that is the sixth image in the gallery of your children's page. Now that I liked that file name for a few reasons. Number one, it puts your brand name in it right away. Yeah, it's very clear who this who this image belongs to. Right. If your name were Jane Smith, I would say Jane Smith, but Meredith Zinner is, is pretty rare. Yeah. There's not many Zinner photographers,

Meredith: 13:51

no, I'm the last of the line. Me and my brother, only a couple of

Meredith's Husband: 13:55

so we're good putting Zinner photography, then children tells me which page of the website it's on children. Oh, six is the sixth image. So notice it also notice it also, it has your it does have a keyword and it has children. Right. It also has photography, right. So it does it does help with keywords. Be very, what people are doing and what happens is people will start to name their files things like Chapel Hill wedding photographer, dot jpg. Yeah, don't do that. If you're doing that, don't do that. And I'm not picking on anyone. There are people listening? Who might think like, Wait, he saw my file? I did. I'm not talking.

Meredith: 14:40

Okay, we all make mistakes. That's why we're here. We're here to learn. That would be

Meredith's Husband: 14:45

that would be a good example of something not to do. And people are likely taking that a step further and being like, what you just suggested Chapel Hill wedding photographer, best engagement, session, honeymoon, whatever. Award winning. Yeah. Or you or or force or somebody would probably do like, you know, in your situation might do. Brooklyn, children's photography, toddlers, pets, family Park Slope. You know, don't that's even worse. So don't do that. However, if you have done that, if you have named your files that don't go back and change them, Oh, why not? Don't change them. Just wait until you replace those images. Oh, which you will someday knowing that this is gonna last forever on the website next time. You put an image on the website, tried to name it a little better. Don't change the names. Why not existing images? Trust me on this one. Okay. It's experience. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Just trust me.

Meredith: 15:44

We're gonna listen to my husband, friends. And only this case. Alright, so was an album by Peter Gabriel. What are people wagering money on?

Meredith's Husband: 15:58

Oh, so if you think that I'm wrong about this, yeah. If you think no, no, no, no, Google has on there. And I know people are thinking this. I know it. If you think, oh, no, it's on Google's blog, that it's that they say this works. And I've tested it. And I know that this works. And you are in youth, you insist that I'm wrong about this. I would love to wager you. It'll be a long wager. Unfortunately, it's a couple years before this is going to play out.

Meredith: 16:24

Okay, wait, so people are wagering

Meredith's Husband: 16:27

against, if you think, oh, no, this is this is going to work forever. This is going to keep my rankings I'm stuck. I'm putting keywords into my images over stuffing. And it's working. I see, I see benefits in the growth. I'm telling you that in probably within two years from now, Google will change the wording on their website, they will say don't stuff, your keywords, that method will no longer you will no longer see the improvement and rankings. And you may actually see those any image that was named like that, if you keep doing that, you're gonna see they do not rank very well.

Meredith: 17:01

How about that? Okay,

Meredith's Husband: 17:03

and why do you suppose I know this? Yeah. Why do you how do you know this? We're already towards the end of this process. We're on the tail end of this. Oh, really. We're already we've gone through. It's been something that's been known for years in the SEO industry, it's gone mainstream, it's picked up a lot of buzz, people are using it to no end, it continues to work, not as well as it used to, but it continues to work. And the next step is going to be Google saying, okay, guys slow down with the file names. Okay. That's where we were right up to that first. So I suggest, yeah, naming your file names, was something that's going to be helpful to you. Okay. And given that you are a photographer, and you're photographing whatever you're photographing, those file names are probably going to have some variation of your keyword. And that's going to work pretty well, in the long term, good day. This is how to survive when in the long term

Meredith: 18:02

in which we are.

Meredith's Husband: 18:06

The other way, and you know what, like I said, a lot of people, and most of the SEO industry is focused on the short term, especially like SEO firms, because they need to show their clients growth in, they usually promise like three months or six months or whatever. So they're focused on the short term. Now, it could work like I'm saying file names could work. If you start naming your files with all of your keywords, you could see benefit in the next three to six months, you could see a bump, and depending on where you're starting, it could be a bump that you would be noticeable. Like if you have a lot of stuff ranking on page two, it could be a bump that gets you onto page one that could be noticeable to your business. And two years from now, though, you're going to be renaming your file names, right? You have to go back and redo everything, which honestly people do people do that all the time. I'm sure all the time.

Meredith: 18:59

I prefer to do it right the first time, or let me rephrase it. I prefer to have you do it. Right. Yes.

Meredith's Husband: 19:07

podcast is over.

Meredith: 19:12

It's been said,

Meredith's Husband: 19:13

forget about.

Meredith: 19:18

Thank you, everybody.

Meredith's Husband: 19:20

Bye. If you're finding these episodes helpful, I created something that I think you're going to find even more helpful. It explains the SEO process similar to these episodes in a way that I hope is new for you, but it also puts them in order so that you know what to do first and second and third through the entire SEO process. And I hope saves you a lot of time by giving you an actionable step by step plan. It's called the SEO roadmap, and you can find it at Meritus husband.com/roadmap.