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I would like to get a handle on X3 and SEO. At this time I'm not sure at all which information is being used for SEO purposes and which is not. There is also the matter of exactly how to name pictures for example. Some samples explain that multi word folders should
be connected with dashes in the name like : word1-word-2-word3. Some SEO guides suggest underscores in file names instead of spaces or use the %20% for spaces. Could somebody shed some light on this matter with some hints as to good practices and so forth? It would be really much appreciated.

Well, X3 is "optimized" for SEO ... in which we mean that all fields are populated appropriately. Although one could write a book on SEO, it can often be narrowed down to what is important.

First of all, since you are specifically asking about the URL. Google (and other search engines) are smart enough to figure out what you mean in the URL, regardless of your approach. If you have multiple words, your options would be: Why go with spaces? It looks ugly, no professional website uses it, and no search engine would give you any benefit. Underscores? Not a bad option, but it seems very programmatic. My favorite is hyphens, because the url is still readable, yet it does not try to hide that it is an URL. Users are not supposed to read urls to understand the category of the page.

You should NOT use long url's just to improve SEO. Url's should be for humans, and Google have already stated this. Too long url's may be considered as word-spam. Url's have some weight in SEO, but not too much.

Beyond doubt the MOST important factor for each page SEO, is the page TITLE. It should contain up to 60 characters, human-readable, and it's appropriate if some of the same words are repeated in the page content also.

It's really not much more complicated. Other SEO factors would be external, pages linking to your website, website repertoire etc.

Thank you so much clarifying this issue. I started to rename the names of the pictures with hyphens, but
it appears that as soon I change the name, X3 is forgetting the description field content. I see no other way to
do it otherwise.
As to the TITLE of items .... Use hyphens here as well?

I discovered the %20% ugliness and am working to clean up the site. Thank you for your brief run-down on good practice.

sunqueen wrote:Thank you so much clarifying this issue. I started to rename the names of the pictures with hyphens, but
it appears that as soon I change the name, X3 is forgetting the description field content. I see no other way to
do it otherwise.

Yes Unfortunately this is a current flaw with the physical structure of X3. It was unfortunate that you created titles/descriptions before you wanted to rename files.

sunqueen wrote:As to the TITLE of items .... Use hyphens here as well?

No! The TITLE, both for PAGES and IMAGES, is available to compensate limitations with file names, and website url's. Although the file/folder name should be simple/short, titles can be longer, and can contain spaces and any special characters.

mjau-mjau wrote:

sunqueen wrote:Thank you so much clarifying this issue. I started to rename the names of the pictures with hyphens, but
it appears that as soon I change the name, X3 is forgetting the description field content. I see no other way to
do it otherwise.

Yes Unfortunately this is a current flaw with the physical structure of X3. It was unfortunate that you created titles/descriptions before you wanted to rename files.

sunqueen wrote:As to the TITLE of items .... Use hyphens here as well?

No! The TITLE, both for PAGES and IMAGES, is available to compensate limitations with file names, and website url's. Although the file/folder name should be simple/short, titles can be longer, and can contain spaces and any special characters.

Gotta learn one way or another
I decided to go with Underscores in folder names and hyphens in file names. (re-inforced by the pinterest issue of 404's when file
names have spaces.)
Hopefully, some users get to see this 'hint' prior to rename 100's of files "After" the fact.