Google has clarified its image SEO best practices, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a consistent URL for images referenced on multiple pages. This update aims to improve crawling efficiency for larger websites, as having multiple URLs for the same image can confuse search engines and waste crawl budget. The change reflects a shift from previous guidance, suggesting that even if images need to be used in different languages, they should not have varied file names. Content management systems may inadvertently contribute to this issue, as they facilitate easy uploads with altered file names.
If an image is referenced on multiple pages within a larger website, consider the site's overall crawl budget. In particular, consistently reference the image with the same URL.
We updated the Google Image SEO best practices to clarify that URLs for images should be referenced consistently for easier crawling on larger websites.
This can cause confusion for Google, also, as Google said, impact your crawl budget (but I doubt all that much).
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