eliminating needless-damaging keywords

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

Any (easy) ways to determine from

among one's current keywords those

that are needless &-or even hurting

one's CTR?

I assume via Measures data, but how? 

Only one's own data or AoA data...?

 

Many report "cleaning up" keywords

but never give bloody details !!

[John Morrison]

There’s an old saying in marketing that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. Tagging and keywording may be a bit like that: another imprecise science.

 

I notice that some people tag every pic with a precise location, even if the pic is a bird on a twig, or a bowl of fruit on a table… which means they will turn up in searches when they shouldn’t…

[Mr Standfast]

Whenever I look for an image for POTM, images sold, zooms or similar I always find a  dodgy keyword.  Always fix it.

[Phil Robinson]

With 149464 images on here, I doubt it.
I had a look at your first page and there a lot of images of a laptop screen captioned and keyworded 'Miami Beach' - I don't think that's going to help. 

 

Have a look at the Your Images bit of Alamy Measures to see what people have searched for and which of your images came up in those searches then think about whether those images were what a customer would want to find using that search term. If not, try searching your images with that keyword and delete it from all the pics where it isn't relevant.

It's a slow process and with 150000 images it's going to take a while.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Phil Robinson

[Phil Robinson]

7 hours ago, John Morrison said:

I notice that some people tag every pic with a precise location, even if the pic is a bird on a twig, or a bowl of fruit on a table… which means they will turn up in searches when they shouldn’t…

I always give the location on wildlife images (and the time of year) in the caption as that can be important, but not in the keywords.
I've also seen studio shots (and "Live News" shots of mobile phone screens) captioned with the exact location when it really is irrelevant where they were taken.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Phil Robinson

[Nigel Sawyer]

Hi

 

I think that any words used in the caption are also used by the search engine so location given in either will appear if that location is searched for.  It also seems to include the name you give a file before uploading it - I unfortunately forgot to change a file name from something like 2021_NLS_Kenya_bird_zzzz and when I searched for Kenya this image appeared despite there being no mention of Kenya in the caption or keywords.

 

Also at times it is useful have an idea of what can be found/ has been found at a given site so I do use the exact location for searches and as I am looking for birds and insects in particular even if they are on a branch or bush or flower it is a useful keyword to have.

 

So not sure it makes any difference where the location.

 

Nigel

 

 

[Cal]

8 hours ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

Any (easy) ways to determine from

among one's current keywords those

that are needless &-or even hurting

one's CTR?

I assume via Measures data, but how? 

Only one's own data or AoA data...?

 

Many report "cleaning up" keywords

but never give bloody details !!

 

it feels like I'm going against the grain sometimes but I'll often intentionally leave out the location of an item if it's a closeup isolated shot, like a very generic sign (I may only place "UK" in the keywords) or something like a bird where the specific location, ie the country park it's in, isn't relevant. This was after my CTR absolutely tanked one month because I was getting hundreds of errant searches for a country park leading to a load of my photos of the wildlife in that park, which were simply isolated shots of birds on water.

[spacecadet]

Same here, if location is completely irrelevant it stays out. But it's very rare for me. Even the location of food is usually relevant if it's in a restaurant.

I tightened up my keywording quite early, but occasionally a search brings up some older irrelevancies which I may then correct.

Edited October 12, 2023 by spacecadet

[Jill Morgan]

Location is important for birds as you could have someone doing a book on "Birds of (pick any area)".  Specific location probably not as relevant as the park the bird is in.

 

Quite often location, even though important to the image, will give you all kinds of useless views.  If using British Columbia, you will show up in results for anything with the term "British" and any searches for the country "Columbia".  Some can't be helped.

 

Jill

[Jose Decio Molaro]

As I wrote in the other topic, I believe the best way is to be honest with what you are describing.
Errors may exist.
In Alamy's case, I don't know if the bar with the 10 plus makes a difference.
I believe we should put accurate information in descriptions and keywords.
The search is carried out using key words and the buyer may feel deceived with information and key words that are not part of the photo
As they say: describe for the blind to see...

[Phil Robinson]

3 hours ago, Nigel Sawyer said:

I think that any words used in the caption are also used by the search engine so location given in either will appear if that location is searched for. 

 

 

They are but it was always the case that captions were given a lower priority than keywords, I don't know if that's changed.
If you do a search for, for example, a tennis player, you get loads of images of other players - because in the caption it says that they were playing against the player you were searching for. For tennis pix I always put the opponent in the 'extra info' bit in the optional section, which isn't searchable. 

[John Mitchell]

5 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

Quite often location, even though important to the image, will give you all kinds of useless views.  If using British Columbia, you will show up in results for anything with the term "British" and any searches for the country "Columbia".  Some can't be helped.

 

Jill

 

Yup. Perhaps I should move to Nunavut. 🥶

 

P.S. The country in South America is actually "Colombia", but there are lots of other Columbia's out there.

Edited October 12, 2023 by John Mitchell

[John Morrison]

4 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

Location is important for birds

 

Yes, mea culpa. I used exactly the wrong example!

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

8 hours ago, Phil Robinson said:

I had a look at your first page and there a lot of images of a laptop screen

a. that's temporary, they will soon be pushed back

 

captioned and keyworded 'Miami Beach' - I don't think that's going to help. 

a. as to location in a laptop screen scene,

based on experience, there will be those

wanting to include it in their own photo caption;

but I don't put it in supertag as a way to "demote"
such images to behind all my other "Miami Beach"

images ranking in top pages of "Miami Beach searches...

thanks for responses-advice...

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Yup. Perhaps I should move to Nunavut. 🥶

 

P.S. The country in South America is actually "Colombia", but there are lots of other Columbia's out there.

 

Now, believe it or not, I knew Colombia was spelled with an "o". Brain not working today.

Jill

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

Now, believe it or not, I knew Colombia was spelled with an "o". Brain not working today.

Jill

 

Most English-speakers like us call it Columbia, so understandable. I'm stuck with "British", though. 🎩

[geogphotos]

I don't see any easy way of doing this relative to the time and effort involved - time and effort which I feel probably better spent on other things.

 

The only method I see is to work through every View.

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

I don't see any easy way of doing this relative to the time and effort involved - time and effort which I feel probably better spent on other things.

 

The only method I see is to work through every View.

Likewise. Proactive is out. Reactive if at all, and only if I notice a large number of search returns, which these days is indicative of a "legacy issue" of slightly spammy keywords.

One or two, or even ten, no way is that going to pay back.

[Normspics]

I do check each photo of mine that is zoomed, just to give a second glance and tidy things up. 

[Nigel Sawyer]

Unfortunately some contributors are not very good at adding keywords

 

Just came across this one  M0JFKB - seems to have keywords for several things that are not relevant to a picture of a beetle - in this case keywords such as butterfly, photography, photographer but the keywords that are relevant such as insect, beetle, Coleoptera, macro, etc, for what looks to be a good photo are missing and there is no way of informing the contributor he/ she is potentially loosing a sale because the image will not appear under the right keywords...

 

(Was generally looking for "Colombia butterfly" as hopefully going there in the new year and want to see what is already available on Alamy)

[spacecadet]

On 13/10/2023 at 19:12, Normspics said:

I do check each photo of mine that is zoomed, just to give a second glance and tidy things up. 

That's not a bad policy- a zoom has at least been on someone's shopping list.

I've immediately adopted it an beefed up a few supertags. Thanks.

Edited October 15, 2023 by spacecadet

[Phil Robinson]

I just had the only zoom on a search for "UK MP biscuit"
Rishi Sunak, holding a biscuit.
Glad I included biscuit as a keyword.

Edited October 15, 2023 by Phil Robinson

[Phil Robinson]

Just now, Phil Robinson said:

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by Phil Robinson

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, Phil Robinson said:

I just had the only zoom on a search for "UK MP biscuit"
Rishi Sunak, holding a biscuit.
Glad I included biscuit as a keyword.

That takes the ............

I'll get my coat.

[Michael Ventura]

My problem is not needless and damaging keywords, I may have too few.  After 20 years of shooting film and having to get a caption on the fat side of the slide mount, I tend to be too concise and to the point.  I am sure many of my images could use more relevant keywords.