Keywording, more or less?

[yokochanie]

I have read with interest some recent posts on keywording.

 

I do use keywording software. It is Keyword smart. It helps come up with different words meaning the same thing, like "happy" will generate about 20 words.

 

Now I know a lot of people say the less the number of keywords the better. I tried that. But my point is, surely as long as the keyword relates to a picture then it is ok, regardless of the number. For instance, if I am a picture editor in England or American and want a 'happy smiling boy' that is what I would key in. But if English is not my first language, for instance if I was Japanese or Russian, then maybe I might key in 'male child, joyous, grinning' hoping to get the same picture. These are all words that would translate to 'happy smiling boy', but not words I might have used. So for me, keyword smart suggests the words I would not think of or wouldn't use but still relate directly to the picture.

 

So if that idea is correct, that keywords cater not just for English speakers, then is it not a good idea to use as many similar meaning words as possible?

 

Earlier one man on here showed us a picture of a car and he used only the name I believe of that car and it gets good views. But that is ok if you know the name of that car. What if you wanted a classic family type car from that period but didn't know any of the names, (how many Americans know British car names and English know many American car names?). So does not his approach, while getting him good results in his ranking, mean that he is limiting his sales a bit by not including other words that relate directly to the picture.

 

Of course I realise this argument will run and run for years. I myself cut all my keywords down to the very basic four years ago and noticed a big dip in views. Slowly I am re-keywording and adding as many different words meaning the same as I can that relate to the picture,...this seems to be giving me better results, but of course that could be down to a lot of other reasons as well.

 

As for keywording smart, it's strength lies in concept words and very much in views of people, ie 'front view' 'facing the camera' , 'facing view' 'from the front' type thing, all of which can go in the third level of keywords but all of which might be something that someone keys in. I don't know, if Alamy works like that but it seems not to be a bad idea, but happy to hear any views on this post, for or against.

 

Ok, let the games begin....

 

 

[dov makabaw]

In terms of how much keywording I always use the maximum that I feel is relevant, conditioned by what have been used in searches. As far as facing view is concerned have you checked whether searchers use this? I have found a number of misspellings used on a regular basis that I have incorporated. IMO the only bad keywords are those that result in images coming up in irrelevant searches. This can be an issue with ambiguous words such as landscape, circus, lords etc.

 

dov

[skylineboy]

you have given me something to think about indeed,

 

i try to cater for what americans would think of when they search for car images of british cars, and what british would think of on american cars.

 

eg americans may call our cars small, british may think of american cars as being big gas guzzlers. but more room for improvement - as ever thanks to tips or comments thats making me think of how better to do things!

[wiskerke]

trunk-bonnet

lorry-semi

gas-petrol

 

there are some really good US vs UK English dictionaries out there.

 

wim

[skylineboy]

as ever! its only easy when you know the answer.

 

really simple idea, that i hadnt thought of. esp the trunk / bonnet! grr at myself!