Word order effects outcome

[SamanthaO]

Having spent some days hauling through AoA to see how my images are ranking compared to keyword searches. Can anyone explain the following:

 

Search term: australia twelve apostles - my first image doesn't appear until page 11 of the search results

 

Search term: twelve apostles australia - multiple images appear on page 1 of the search results

 

All of my images had twelve apostles as a supertag and australia as a regular keyword. Neither had australia twelve apostles or twelve apostles australia as a keyword or supertag.

[Rebecca Ore]

If the most common search is country <finer granulatrity like town, geological formation>, try adding those to your keywords.  Also, when people have multiples of a single thing, Alamy won't present all of them as a group which keeps people from blocking other with many only slightly different shots of the same thing.   Alamy has over 8,000 shots of the Twelve Apostles.  My understanding is that zoomed or licensed shots will show up higher and similar shots by the same photographer will be scattered around search results to keep someone from gaming the searches by posting several hundred to several thousand of a subject.

 

 

[wiskerke]

40 minutes ago, SamanthaO said:

Having spent some days hauling through AoA to see how my images are ranking compared to keyword searches. Can anyone explain the following:

Search term: australia twelve apostles - my first image doesn't appear until page 11 of the search results

Search term: twelve apostles australia - multiple images appear on page 1 of the search results

All of my images had twelve apostles as a supertag and australia as a regular keyword. Neither had australia twelve apostles or twelve apostles australia as a keyword or supertag.

 

There's no definite answer, because we do not know how many times each of the other images have been zoomed or sold for those keywords. You do know that about your own images.

But it's an easy test: change the keywords and the caption of one image and see how it behaves after 24 hrs.

I would take an image from somewhere in the middle to start with. Then with an image that has been zoomed and sold before. The same for an image that has been zoomed or sold before with that exact key phrase.

Before you start changing all keywords of your 18 thousand images: the ranking is totally different for all other search phrases, unless you are one of the top sellers. (And even then.) How do you recognize a top seller? Their images appear to the front of the 1st page at very short intervals. The regular interval between 2 of one's images is around 20 images. This used to be per pseudonym, but is now per contributor. For an illustration of this try a search for something very common e.g. London. Just use Relevant. (But do check the difference with Creative.)

Try to figure out which pseudonyms are actually one contributor. One is very simple. And note how close the images appear together.

 

wim

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, SamanthaO said:

Having spent some days hauling through AoA to see how my images are ranking compared to keyword searches. Can anyone explain the following:

 

Search term: australia twelve apostles - my first image doesn't appear until page 11 of the search results

 

Search term: twelve apostles australia - multiple images appear on page 1 of the search results

 

All of my images had twelve apostles as a supertag and australia as a regular keyword. Neither had australia twelve apostles or twelve apostles australia as a keyword or supertag.

 

My guess might be that because you have twelve apostles as a supertag they came up early because that phrase was used first.  Possible that people who had australia as a supertag came ahead of you when australia came first in the search.  They may not have had twelve apostles as a supertag.  Try that.  Change one where australia is a supertag but twelve aposltes is not. And search using the two phrases again and see what happens.  It may also be what people also have in their captions. 

 

Or Alamy's computer throws some dice to see which order the images will be arranged.  Just as likely.

 

Jill

[M.Chapman]

17 hours ago, SamanthaO said:

Having spent some days hauling through AoA to see how my images are ranking compared to keyword searches. Can anyone explain the following:

 

Search term: australia twelve apostles - my first image doesn't appear until page 11 of the search results

 

Search term: twelve apostles australia - multiple images appear on page 1 of the search results

 

All of my images had twelve apostles as a supertag and australia as a regular keyword. Neither had australia twelve apostles or twelve apostles australia as a keyword or supertag.

 

I had a problem which may illustrate how this can happen. One of my images of Loweswater always appeared before all my other images of Loweswater. It didn't matter where "Loweswater" appeared in my caption and tags in any of my images. This image always appeared first. I pursued with Alamy and they confirmed that the reason this image appeared first was that it was the only one that had been zoomed previously with a search term of Loweswater. So, a previous zoom using exactly the same search term, was being given a higher importance by the search engine than whether Loweswater appeared in caption, tag or supertag, or any combination. The only way to demote the image was to delete the image and reupload.

 

I suggest some of your images may have been previously zoomed with a search term "twelve apostles australia" but not with the search term "australia twelve apostles".

 

Caveat: Alamy can change the search algorithm at any time.

 

Mark