Keywords, captions, supertags, location

[rickygui]

Been in my mind for a long time. Please help. 

 

1) Let's say my caption have "luxury brand shops", is it necessary to include in keywords again?

2) Is supertags necessary to apply?

3) At the Optional section, there is "location". Is it necessary to apply again when caption and keywords already stated the location?
 

[M.Chapman]

12 hours ago, rickygui said:

It seems for now Keywords weigh a heavier role for me.

 

Not necessarily. If an image has been on sale for a while, then there are other factors that can come into play. For example, if an image has been previously zoomed during a search for Singapore rental then it's position in the search results is likely to be improved.

 

The best way to test the weighting given to tags, supertags and captions is to carry out a test over a few weekdays on a freshly uploaded image where you also have no other images that contain the same test search word in caption or tags.

 

On the first day put the search word in the caption.

Wait 24 hours (for the database to update) and note the position of your image in the search and how many images are returned in total

Now move the search word into the tags.

Wait 24 hours (for the database to update) and note the position of your image in the search and how many images are returned in total

Now convert the tag to a supertag

Wait 24 hours (for the database to update) and note the position of your image in the search and how many images are returned in total

 

Note: It's worth changing another keyword each time as well, so you can be sure the database has updated as it doesn't always update within 24 hours.

 

One might think it's possible to speed the test up by using 3 images at once (with the search word in a different field of each image). But this won't give a true indication because the images may be disperesed using Alamy's dispersal algortithm which ensures equally ranked images from the same contributor are not presented next to each other.

 

Mark

 

PS. I'm part way through a new test at the moment and will report back at the end of the week.

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by M.Chapman

[rickygui]

6 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

 

Not necessarily. If an image has been on sale for a while, then there are other factors that can come into play. For example, if an image has been previously zoomed during a search for Singapore rental then it's position in the search results is likely to be improved.

 

The best way to test the weighting given to tags, supertags and captions is to carry out a test over a few weekdays on a freshly uploaded image where you also have no other images that contain the same test search word in caption or tags.

 

On the first day put the search word in the caption.

Wait 24 hours (for the database to update) and note the position of your image in the search and how many images are returned in total

Now move the search word into the tags.

Wait 24 hours (for the database to update) and note the position of your image in the search and how many images are returned in total

Now convert the tag to a supertag

Wait 24 hours (for the database to update) and note the position of your image in the search and how many images are returned in total

 

Note: It's worth changing another keyword each time as well, so you can be sure the database has updated as it doesn't always update within 24 hours.

 

One might think it's possible to speed the test up by using 3 images at once (with the search word in a different field of each image). But this won't give a true indication because the images may be disperesed using Alamy's dispersal algortithm which ensures equally ranked images from the same contributor are not presented next to each other.

 

Mark

 

PS. I'm part way through a new test at the moment and will report back at the end of the week.

 

Look forward to your update. Those have thousands of images, is no joke to look through all the KW. 

[M.Chapman]

In a search for Owston, my freshly uploaded image appears at the following positions out of 155 images returned when doing a search with "relevant" set.              

Owston in Caption and as Supertag - 5

Owston as Supertag only -  7

Owston in Caption and as Tag - 8

Owston in Caption only -   17
Owston as Tag only - 27

 

So, in the case of this image and search, the weighting priority currently looks like Supertag > Caption > Tag, with Caption + Supertag being better still.

 

Ideally I should have picked a subject with more images returned to give wider spread, but it's a tradeoff with how long it takes to find the image and the chances of extra images being added by other contributors during the test which can mess things up.

 

NB. Alamy can and do change the search algorithm weightings from time to time, and I'm told they even have the capability to alter the algorithm according to the nature of the search. For example travel (place name) searches may be handled differently to wildlife searches with more recent (date taken) travel images being promoted in the results. Oh, and don't forget contributor rank and previous image zooms can also be taken into account. In the case of Owston images it maybe my contributor rank is better than most of the other contributors of "Owston" images as I never dropped below position 27 out of 155, or maybe it's just that my image is the newest. Who knows.... only Alamy...

 

Mark
 

Edited November 13, 2020 by M.Chapman

[Mr Standfast]

Thank you Mark.

 

🦔

[meanderingemu]

16 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

In a search for Owston, my freshly uploaded image appears at the following positions out of 155 images returned when doing a search with "relevant" set.              

Owston in Caption and as Supertag - 5

Owston as Supertag only -  7

Owston in Caption and as Tag - 8

Owston in Caption only -   17
Owston as Tag only - 27

 

So, in the case of this image and search, the weighting priority currently looks like Supertag > Caption > Tag, with Caption + Supertag being better still.

 

Ideally I should have picked a subject with more images returned to give wider spread, but it's a tradeoff with how long it takes to find the image and the chances of extra images being added by other contributors during the test which can mess things up.

 

NB. Alamy can and do change the search algorithm weightings from time to time, and I'm told they even have the capability to alter the algorithm according to the nature of the search. For example travel (place name) searches may be handled differently to wildlife searches with more recent (date taken) travel images being promoted in the results. Oh, and don't forget contributor rank and previous image zooms can also be taken into account. In the case of Owston images it maybe my contributor rank is better than most of the other contributors of "Owston" images as I never dropped below position 27 out of 155, or maybe it's just that my image is the newest. Who knows.... only Alamy...

 

Mark
 

 

 

Thanks,  this seems consistent with my tests where the biggest impact was making a Tag only word Supertag the highest impact, then adding a Caption just as Tag.