keywords

[Marvin McAbee]

Now I noticed that you can pull keywords together to form a single keyword.  My question is would it be better to have keywords such as 1965 Ford Mustang as one keyword or leave them separate.

Thanks Marvin

[Joseph Clemson]

My experience is that if you use a keyword phrase '1965 Ford Mustang' and someone searches using that  precise phrase, your image will be ahead of someone of a similar ranking who has used the single keywords 1965, Mustang, and Ford. 

 

Using keyword phrases doesn't prevent false search returns, for example someone who searches for Mustang (expecting a kind of horse) may see your image, even though you don't have that individual keyword. A keyword phrase does, however, marginally lessen the chance of a false positive.

 

Given that 1965, Mustang and Ford all have other meanings than your car, I would probably use the phrases 'Ford Mustang' and '1965 Ford Mustang' and avoid the single word terms. Every picture and subcjet  though has to be judged on is own merits, sometimes single keywords will fit the bill perfectly. 

[Marianne]

I agree with Joseph. It can be a dilemma trying to come up with the most common variations such as "Ford Mustang" and "1965 Ford Mustang," "red mustang," etc. without overdoing it, but at least you don't have to worry about finding every keyword combination. While I find it frustrating that you can end up with your images showing up in searches for single word keywords that you have purposely avoided, on the other hand, when you keyword for agencies that won't show your "1965 Ford Mustang" file when someone searches for "Ford" or "1965 Ford,"  unless you have those exact words or phrases, it means that you have to add all the single keywords and all the possible phrases, which can be difficult to do without appearing to be keyword spamming. It is really an art.

 

Sometimes I think that when I first started out I was better at it because I thought like an average naive customer and not like a stock photographer, LOL. Honestly, I sometimes see articles about how to keyword, and I just can't imagine that any real person searches using some of the stock phrases suggested. Searching my Pseudonym Summary and AoA and also looking at the keywords that clients have used to find my images elsewhere gives me a much better sense of which keywords are really important. I do much prefer the new tags now that I've gotten used to it, and the ability to easily pick out the most important keywords as supertags, especially since my tags are alphabetized by LR. 

[John Morrison]

2 minutes ago, Marianne said:

It is really an art.

 

Indeed so... but it's one of the 'black arts', without one accepted set of rules. Those who are thinking about tags and relevance are 'ahead of the game', IMO, when compared to those photographers whose tags are wrong, or spammed, or incoherence, or all the same...

[Mr Standfast]

Just keep looking at "all of alamy" it's our window onto searches

[SFL]

12 hours ago, Marianne said:

I agree with Joseph. It can be a dilemma trying to come up with the most common variations such as "Ford Mustang" and "1965 Ford Mustang," "red mustang," etc. without overdoing it, but at least you don't have to worry about finding every keyword combination. While I find it frustrating that you can end up with your images showing up in searches for single word keywords that you have purposely avoided, on the other hand, when you keyword for agencies that won't show your "1965 Ford Mustang" file when someone searches for "Ford" or "1965 Ford,"  unless you have those exact words or phrases, it means that you have to add all the single keywords and all the possible phrases, which can be difficult to do without appearing to be keyword spamming. It is really an art.

 

Sometimes I think that when I first started out I was better at it because I thought like an average naive customer and not like a stock photographer, LOL. Honestly, I sometimes see articles about how to keyword, and I just can't imagine that any real person searches using some of the stock phrases suggested. Searching my Pseudonym Summary and AoA and also looking at the keywords that clients have used to find my images elsewhere gives me a much better sense of which keywords are really important. I do much prefer the new tags now that I've gotten used to it, and the ability to easily pick out the most important keywords as supertags, especially since my tags are alphabetized by LR. 

 

Hi Marianne

 

You are not referring to Alamy in the above highlighted context, are you?  

 

I just want to understand how Alamy's keywording works.  That's all.

 

Sung

[Marianne]

12 hours ago, SFL said:

 

Hi Marianne

 

You are not referring to Alamy in the above highlighted context, are you?  

 

I just want to understand how Alamy's keywording works.  That's all.

 

Sung

 

No Sung, I'm not referring to Alamy in the highlighted text. Everyplace is different and I was commenting on how some sites differ from Alamy, especially as there are some new people here who may have started out elsewhere. I started with Alamy in 2008 and I'm still learning to master their keywording, but they are no harder nor easier than anywhere else. 

 

At Alamy, if you keyword "1965 Ford Mustang", the image may well show up in searches for "1965 Ford," "Ford Mustang,"  "1965 Mustang," "1965," "Ford," and "Mustang," so you do not need to come up with every possible permutation.

 

Every search algorithm has its quirks and they are well-kept secrets but in general terms Alamy's search draws from any of the words you use,  even single words in a phrase (which can be good or bad for your rank depending upon how relevant each word in a phrase is). While this can be frustrating, some other site's searches will not show an image for a single word if it is only keyed as part of a phrase, which can help or hinder the search depending on the relevance of those words, other sites only let you use single words so that a phrase is not even possible, which can be good or bad depending on the words you are using. There is no perfect search. Each type of search has its strengths and weaknesses, and the weight given to single words over phrases, a photographer's rank, how new an image is, etc. are all anyone's guess, and some sites change how these are weighted from time to time to bring undiscovered images to light.

 

So, trying to think like a buyer,  keeping your keywords relevant, and not keywording for extraneous things in an image all help, as these are the things that are within your control. Irrelevant keywords hurt your search position no matter what site you are on. 

Edited July 9, 2019 by Marianne

[SFL]

Thank you, Marianne

When I read your thread the first time, I thought "OMG! Do I now have to add all single word keywords to my images (Alamy), too?"

Afterwards I read it a several time more, then I realise that you were referring to other agencies.

Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure that I understood correctly, so I asked the question.

Thank you for your time to explain the art of keywording.

Sung 😊

 

[Marianne]

16 minutes ago, SFL said:

Thank you, Marianne

When I read your thread the first time, I thought "OMG! Do I now have to add all single word keywords to my images (Alamy), too?"

Afterwards I read it a several time more, then I realise that you were referring to other agencies.

Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure that I understood correctly, so I asked the question.

Thank you for your time to explain the art of keywording.

Sung 😊

 

 

Not sure I have the "art" down but I'm getting there. Glad my second explanation was clearer and more helpful 😎