Controlling photo naming in Web Designer MX 8?

[Brazen]

Is there a way to configure MX 8 to NOT auto rename my photo files incorporated into my web design upon export?

This is quite annoying that the software takes the liberty of doing this. Ok.... I know many are saying "quit your whimpering" or "what's the big deal... live with it!". When it comes to SEO, using "logical" names for binary files helps the spiders negotiate relevance, since it cannot "read" a jpg, etc like it can text.

I can see where auto-naming 1.jpg, 2.png, etc cleans up the html code for manual edits... but I wish (hope) Xara considers an advanced program option to allow us a choice to "auto" or "retain" file names. Besides..... if I "know" the photo name prior, why confuse me by renaming it to something random?

Thanks in advance for any/all suggestions.

[steve.ledger]

Oh quit your whimpering, live with it!

JK

OK, you're not the first to ask about this.
Thing is, Xara Web Designer is not using your images, it's using copies. Remember it's roots are a vector image application. Your bitmap (photos) are actually bitmap fills in vector bounding boxes which Web Designer exports and names automatically.
Anyway, that's a technicality.
You can use original image names in one of two ways. The old way or the new way.
The old way is you use a placeholder for your image. Not so good as the new way.
The new way is to name it via the 'Names..' dialogue..

Here's how;

Import your photo. Place it on the page.
Right-click it and choose 'Names...'
In the box that popups up, enter filename="wotevayouwant" and press 'Add' (DON'T ADD A FILE EXTENSION!! The export filter will do this.)
But, sometimes the export filter will determine that .png might be best even if you don't want this, so to force JPG, open Web Properties>>Image and in Web Image type set it to 'JPEG (Best for photos) and choose the IQ (85 is best).

When it comes to SEO, using "logical" names for binary files helps the spiders negotiate relevance, since it cannot "read" a jpg, etc like it can text.

Yes yes, but remember you should be using the ALT attribute and possibly even the TITLE attribute anyway... This is probably more important for SEO.
You can do this in Web Properties>>Image



Hope that helps and cheers you up

[Brazen]

sledger,

You rock! Yes.... this will work just fine and thank you very, very much! I definitely use the alt tag on all pics, and the title suggestion is a nice lil suggestion. I'll definitely use that from here on out!

A small repayment: A pro (web author/SEO) in my area I met recently, has had great success with the photo file naming I mentioned above, since Google updated their algorithms recently. The idea is this.... get your company's (or client's) web page listed in all the available directory pages that you can. A Google+ Local Page is mandatory with your business location for google maps. (complete your profiles 100% and with identical info!) Most allow you to upload about 10 pics and even some Youtube videos, etc.

The trick is this: Name all your pics/videos/etc to keywords or desired search phrases associated with your web page. Long tail KW's should be separated by a hyphen such as florida-home-builder.jpg. Open an account at Panoramio.com and upload the 10 images you have on your google+ profile. Then "tag" them on Panoramio with your business location. Same with any videos you may have. On Youtube you can associate videos with a location in advanced options. This is called geo-tagging and from what I've seen, it works wonders in getting your page up there in search results. So basically the spiders see these same pics/vids all over the net directories AND your web site AND google places and ranks your presence higher, faster in at least local search results. YMMV

I believe this is most beneficial for local business (I'm a home builder/remodeler) but I imagine it works for let's say a mail order business as well.

Thanks again for the invaluable assistance above!!!!