Site images or... Will my ranking falter if I change all my images?

[nipplecharms1]

Hello all and glad to be back for a while. We have worked the site (Webnauts kicks a$$) and it is starting to RULE!

That said, I am about to revamp all my product pictures. I have looked around but could not get a clear answer so I thought I would bring the discussion here for comments and feedback.

A little background. First, DO NOT click on my site link if you are offended by semi “Adult” content. Some of my pictures show our jewelry in the wearing position. Therefore, if some nudity offends you or your community, please do not visit our site. Instead, just give us your general ideas. Our mouthpiece makes us state that!

For those of you that do not care and want to visit, note that some of these (ok, most of them), G-rated and X-rated (but not porn per se), do rank and rank well in Gizizzle images, for example.

I want to change some of these (G- and X-rated graphics) to look/appear more “professional.” What will that do to the rankings? I will leave the ALT tags the same but the picture names might change.

I can leave the old graphics in the current graphics folder if I need to. Would it be better to put the new pictures in a different folder? That would change the URL of the picture but the old ones would be there for any current positioning. Will that make the new pictures start back at square one? I would think any new picture would start at the bottom of the heap. Yes? No?

I think I have a few questions somewhere in this mess. Anyone want to take a stab and give some advice? my question is if I change the pictures, will my rankings tank on google images search?

Thanks all in advance. I expect some very “easy to understand” responses (begging politely!)

My best,

Michael

[nipplecharms1]

140+ views and no one has an opinion on this? Is the questions confusing?

If I swap out a picture, change its name and size, will it hurt me in google image search? OR yahoo or MSN?

thanks

Michael

[htdawg]

hi,
changing an image's name if it ranks well in google image search will effect your ranking (maybe better or worse depending on keyword phrase), changing image size will not.

[weslinda]

Nip: Are you getting traffic in via the images versus the pages? If so, then changing the image files could be a concern. If not, then changing them will have no real affect on the page. Content is king, but images aren't always content.

If you are receiving traffic into specific images, I would look at either simply overwriting those images if at all possible.

[Rod Abbotson]

Copy the original images in a different folder for back up. Then just overwrite the images you want to change. If you think this is having a detrimental effect the you can overwrite back with the originals.
I change many of my images on my website every couple of days by overwriting it doesnt seem to effect my positioning in google on either web or image search as all are the same names.

Rod