Change Mockup Image File Names

I change the title of my images and it hasn’t broken Woocommerce. Yoast SEO gives me a point for the keyword in the title, so that’s what I use. As long as you don’t change the image’s URL assigned when you uploaded it to your media library you should be fine.

If you want the keyword in the URL, simply rename the images before you upload them to your site. Most SEO sources I’ve researched recommend just changing the title, and some recommend adding it in the description, others recommend using it in the URL. Since I’m using it in my product page title, my product description and my image title, I’m afraid that adding it to the URL or the image description as well would be overkill.

• This reply was modified 6 years ago by mammaw95.
• This reply was modified 6 years ago by mammaw95.

Hi Momma,

I appreciate that feedback. I’ll definitely add SEO-friendly titles. I’d really like to change the file names accordingly, however I need to research the possible SEO overkill on that.

Going forward, I’m going manually download the mockup files, rename and title them, then upload them to WordPress. What I’d really like to do is determine if there is a way that I can create products on Printful, transfer/sync all of the product data, but somehow prevent the photos from transferring. Any thoughts on that?

What would be REALLY cool is if Printful would add a feature that would let store owners choose the file naming conventions! ??

Thanks,

Bob

Hi Bob,

You only have to download the images if you intend to change the file names. You can add the titles by going to your media library and clicking on the image. Use the form on the right to add the title, description etc. The information will be added to your images.

If there is a way to prevent the photos from transferring with the products I haven’t found it. Have you tried asking them? The chat button is located on about every page but the dashboard. I’ve used it several times and the staff is very knowledgeable, friendly, and have provided quite a few good suggestions.

You can submit a request to add the file naming conventions here: https://www.printful.com/feature-request and also vote for those you like that have been submitted. No guarantees they’ll do it, but if enough people want it, they are more likely to consider it.

Best of luck with your store.
Mammaw

Mammaw,

Thanks for that feedback. It is very helpful. So far, I’ve only used Printful’s email support, which I had awful experiences in several days of delay in their responses.

I will certainly check out the Feature Request page and submit my suggestion if I find that it has not already been requested.

Thanks,

Bob

Hey Bob!
I’m sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with our customer support. Our team replies as soon as possible! I recommend using our website chat for faster assistance!

Hi.
I think it is an essential and easy to implement feature.
but it has only 3 votes on the printful feature requests here:
https://www.printful.com/feature-request/3602/alt-text-and-image-caption-generation-for-woocommerce

In addition, it is very important to add “image ALT” tags before the product is added, otherwise even if I manually change the alt text from the WP media library, it will be relevant for the new posts with this mockup image (which is none), but the existing listing are not updated, so this lacking functionality hearts the SEO badly.
To conclude – the need is to create image meta, including the fields below before syncing to woocommerce:
Image Title (wp_posts .post_title of the image/png attachment)
— can be set similar to wp_posts .post_title of the product_variation if exists, or wp_posts .post_title of the product)
Caption (wp_posts .post_excerpt of the image/png attachment)
Description (wp_posts .post_content of the image/png attachment)
Alternative Text: (wp_postmeta._wp_attachment_image_alt of the relevant image)

Also it would be nice if the pattern can be configured though the WP plugin interface. E.g.
ALT Text = CONCAT([optional prefix], separator, pruduct_variation_title | product_title, separator, [optional suffix]),
So using this pattern:
prefix = ‘Printed’
pruduct_variation_title = ‘Flex Fleece Hoodie sweater – black_rectangle_girl – Dark Heather Grey’
suffix = ‘by Iris Rosenberg’
separator = ‘ ‘ (white space)

for this listing: https://www.irisrosenberg.com/product/flex-fleece-hoodie-sweater-black_rectangle_girl/<br />
the images metadata would look like:
_wp_attachment_image_alt = “Printed Flex Fleece Hoodie sweater – black_rectangle_girl – Dark Heather Grey by Iris Rosenberg”.

Thank you in advance.

Thanks for the feedback!

@skostik
Hi,

Not sure why your image alt tags would not appear on your product post if you add them to the image in your library. Do you update the page after adding the tags?

I use the Yoast plugin and it recognizes the image alt tags I add immediately when I edit the image for my product page during setup and update it.

Yoast suggests adding one image alt tag with your complete keyword phrase. I just click the main image and add it to that one, and hit the set image button. When I’ve completed editing, I click the update button on the product page, and clicking the image takes me to the correct page.

I’m sure the tags are relevant to the product post because I have searched for the keyword phrases I use several times to see where they rank. Surprisingly, even when the product page doesn’t appear on the first page, the product image with the image alt tag appears in the top 20 image results.

Hope this helps.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by mammaw95.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by mammaw95. Reason: Added additional information

@mammaw95
Hi.
I guess If I went manually product-by-product and image-by-image, I could have gotten all fixed. But this is a tremendous effort – each product with sizes and colors can potentially generate dozens of mockup images, and to fix them might take much more time than it took to create this product.
I currently used an SQL query in the cPannel and changed some of them, but I think this is not the correct way of approaching this issue ??
The whole point of the printful integration plugin is to have it all done automatically.
There are some improvements that need to be done (as always in SW), hopefully, this functionality can be pushed faster, since it really doesn’t require a big effort to implement.

@skostik
Hi,
Still confused. Mockups are only generated for the colors you select for the product, not every size. I usually select only the 3 colors that look best with my design for my products, which creates 3 mockups.

Since changing the title does not affect the image url, you can open your media library and add the titles to each image there, copy the title and paste it in the alt text field. When the search engines crawl the image URLs from your product pages they will find the titles and the alt text for the images. As an added precaution I opened each product page and updated it, but I honestly don’t think that was necessary since Yoast recognized the titles and alt text before I updated the pages, and it mimics the SE crawls.

I saved some time by installing a free plugin to export my URL list. The product title is in the url, all I had to do was type it in the image title field, then copy and paste it in the alt text field.

I realize it’s extra work, but until Printful offers the capability to automatically add the info, it’s an alternative solution that won’t break your site or your syncs.

There are also plugins available that edit the images automatically, but the ones I’ve tried didn’t work very well–or more precisely did not add the info in the way I would have done it.