Re: individual images SEO is terrible
Posted: 14 Jun 2021, 06:28
I understand that, and maybe I benefited in some way from the old way of google to do things.mjau-mjau wrote: First of all, as noted earlier, it's likely Google is not finding the image pages, because click opens "popup". X3 actually has the link to the image page in the HREF tag of each popup link, and many years ago, Google would index the link. However, in modern days, Google simulates human behavior and therefore understands that "click" does not actually go to the image page (when popup is enabled).
I totally know there is no magic solution.mjau-mjau wrote:There is really no "magic" solution to this. Should click go to a page that is emphasized for search engines (like Koken)? Or should it simply display the image in the most optimal way for humans (X3 popup)? There may be some ways to optimize for both worlds, although I will need to consider that for a future release.
For now, you can of course disable the POPUP, but let it be clear that X3's image "landing page" is VERY limited. It can perhaps be slightly customized (visual style), but this page is primarily generated for sharing and search, and not for humans. I can't get additional features and plugins working here without scheduling for an update.
The popup is pretty and fast. The page is fast and not really pretty.
The only features I'd need on that page are a bigger image, possibility to view the full size photo (that could be a popup: it wouldn't matter here, and the plugins to work.
Well that would be nice, an Atom RSS is already being generated for pages.mjau-mjau wrote:Yes this is likely indirectly related at some level, although it's unclear how much. Also worth noting, is that this would likely mean that you could keep "popup" since the image pages are linked to from elsewhere anyway (clearly indexed by Google).Joseph_balson wrote:I was using koken automatic RSS to automatically post my photos on various big or small website with direct links to the image: I can't do it anymore, X3 rss is not about photos, and the atom format is not recognized by those websites. Therefore I lost my backlinks, making everything worse in google.
This of course is a separate feature in itself, so I would need to consider it.
Don't know how you could do it with images that are uploaded from lightroom (not the upload module in X3).
Sure, I would really appreciate that.mjau-mjau wrote:With images in sitemap, it's likely you wouldn't need the popup disabled either, as the sitemap notifies Google about the images and their container pages.
I could perhaps create a custom script for this prior to any X3 update, if you want to try the effect?
Yes, I get that.Probably, although it wouldn't make a huge difference if the FILENAME used by X3 contains the search phrases wanted for the image. If it doesn't then yes it will have an impact, because the url should contain the search phrases you want for the image. Keep in mind, all this is related to the fact that Koken uses database, and also changes (and controls) the filenames of all your images (because they need to be managed by the database). Amongst other things, the database can then create and store abstract url's for each request, linked to each image. In X3, when a request comes in /path/some-file/, it will look for /page/some-file.jpg ... It can't relate an abstract path (for example from EXIF) unless all this (and images) are managed by database. All this would require a massive shift in how X3 works, using a database, and images and paths would not be physical, but controlled by database (like Koken).
I'm not sure the majority of your customers would want to switch to a database managed X3.
I definitely would. But I already managed to somehow manage X3 in lightroom, and if all these tweaks allow my images to be indexed and served by google again, I can live without a database, even if it's a little less efficient.
I know it's not a bug or flaw from X3. There is very likely little you can do about a search feature, or a list of keywords / keywords in an image linking to all the other images containing that keyword.mjau-mjau wrote:As you must understand, I can't attend to these complaints, as they are not from flaws or bugs in X3, but requirements from some specific users who are used to and expecting some specific website behavior that does not exist in X3. Yes I am open to new features in the future, but the above is not something that I can resolve for you in the short term.Joseph_balson wrote:I keep gettings emails from my existing customers complaining about my website, and just asking me to do the search and send them the previews of the photos they want.
As of now, X3 is fast, pretty, and in the end almost useless: the only new visitors I get are not potential customers, and my existing customers can't use it.
But if image search works again with the solutions you propose here, that would be huge progress for me.
That would be just great.What I can offer now:
I can create a custom script that adds all your images to sitemap. This will likely bypass the need to disable the popup, which really is not productive I think.
Next release:
- Keywords in image page
- RSS feeds for sharing on other websites
I can't quantify the value of the above, but all logic says that images should be available in search again. It's unclear how much SEO-effect the RSS sharing from other websites has, because it could be huge or very little (depending on the rank of the other websites). I doubt "keywords" has much effect being "visible" on the page, unless they are part of the search and NOT already part of the image name / url (in which case, it's redundant). Having image URL's generated from IPTC is useful, but only if they contain the search phrases, and only if they contain words not already in the file name / url. In other words, in X3, the file name is crucial to emphasize what searches the image may show up for.
I don't really see how X3 could easily generate images URL from the EXIF: like the keywords to links thing it would require a HUGE amount of parsing.
I can work out a way to do it in Lightroom when I export to X3: using a combination of titles/description to generate a file name on the fly. In that case, what would be the limitations and best formatting for X3?
The process would be as an example:
photo file name: DSC_123456789.jpg
title: Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae
description: butterfly on a flower
generated file name during LR export to X3 over SSHFS: butterfly-on-a-flower-small-tortoiseshell-aglais-urticae-2021-01-01.jpg
after the export, I'd likely have to click on some update button in X3 to generate the RSS / sitemap.