In a WordPress e-commerce website - Why are product titles with wording better than titles with just numbers?

Question

I am updating new stock onto a companies website and I have been replacing the titles of the product images. For example, where a product once had the title '2056.1' I had deleted this and replaced it with an accurate description of the actual image e.g: 'Red Beeswax Crayon'.

Can someone confirm that this is a good idea?

The doubt arises because now when looking up a media file it has made the old system of simply typing into the search bar '2056.1' more complex. Because now one must search for the title - what if that heading gets edited at some point? Yes it can be searched for by its permalink however there are multiple images within each products listing and furthermore there are multiple listings with the same title.

Basically can someone tell me the best practise for product titles?

Answer 1

Titles are always better for image/product searches, ranking and user experience.

What do search engines like?

Alt text for photos, relevant image titles, and descriptive text. Numbers have little worth, even if a model/sku number is used if there is no text supporting it.

For keeping names unique and similar referencing as before.

Your best solution is to simply amend relative descriptive text to the beginning of the name.

For instance if I were to look for a product, I would search color/product name/model number or product name/color/ model number.

I do see numbers at the beginning of titles at times but that is usually news related and for date related items and organizing, numbers first seems to work better for all purposes.

Search engines go by what is user relevant and if it seems something doesn't look user friendly then you are most likely right and search engines will agree based on user actions..