SEO Image File Name – Do Underscores (_) matter?

[hendrix940]

Please, which image file name is better for SEO:

photographername_city_state_shortdescription.jpg
or
photographername_citystate_shortdescription.jpg

Does putting underscores (_) between the city/state matter?

Of course, in the ALT tag, we will list Name, City, State, Description.

[Andy Howells]

I may be wrong but I sincerely doubt that img src url’s matter at all. Your ALT tags on the other hand, those are important, not just for SEO but for accessibility too.

[chrisburton]

I agree with @andy_unleash.

[chrisburton]

Isn’t that what the title attribute is for?

Edit: After doing some research, a descriptive file name is suggested…with hyphens.

[djdaniel150]

Underscores are seen by search engines generally as “word combiners”, and hyphens are seen as “word separators.” Scott was right, never use underscores for anything. You can make a sure bet that this issue reflects one of the many, over 200 factors that Google takes into account when evaluating your website. They’ve inadvertently stated this in the past, even Matt Cutts has stated plenty of times himself not to use underscores.

[Author]

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