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Views & CTR of the past months


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Had a pretty constant number of views and CTR in 2016. Had a peak in october and november, with 2500 views and a CTR of 2.85 in november.

Then my views and CTR plummeted in december. And now almost no views but pretty good CTR...

I'm trying to understand why:
- seasonal effect, holidays...?
- too much similar images?
- subjects?
- re-rank?
- new system?
- quality of photos?
- my ex cursed me?

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

 

 

DITTO

 

Pearl

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Michael, you do appear to have a lot of similar images. Perhaps that is upsetting the new search engine.

 

Guess I'm lucky in that the new engine hasn't affected me much one way or the other. Things appear to be ticking away normally. However, I can appreciate why Kumar and others are upset. 

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

 

 

I'm beginning to believe more and more that Alamy have hit the reset button. By that I mean that with the new algorithms introduced everyone has had their rank reset to the medium introductory rank. People like yourself who have produced solidly keyworded images by the thousands will no doubt see a temporary drop in sales but I believe will quickly recover and may even prosper.  Nevertheless it is uncertain times and recovery may take some months. One can only hope that the algorithms work well and as intended. At the moment I've had no sales for January so far and I'm more than a tad disheartened. All I can do is sit tight and see if things do indeed recover. On another note. Those who are currently using the new tools may have an early advantage. Is this fair?

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

 

 

I'm beginning to believe more and more that Alamy have hit the reset button. By that I mean that with the new algorithms introduced everyone has had their rank reset to the medium introductory rank. People like yourself who have produced solidly keyworded images by the thousands will no doubt see a temporary drop in sales but I believe will quickly recover and may even prosper.  Nevertheless it is uncertain times and recovery may take some months. One can only hope that the algorithms work well and as intended. At the moment I've had no sales for January so far and I'm more than a tad disheartened. All I can do is sit tight and see if things do indeed recover. On another note. Those who are currently using the new tools may have an early advantage. Is this fair?

 

 

Can't say for sure, but judging from my search results, rank still seems to be factoring into the equation. I don't think that my rank was reset to medium introductory.

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

 

 

I'm beginning to believe more and more that Alamy have hit the reset button. By that I mean that with the new algorithms introduced everyone has had their rank reset to the medium introductory rank. People like yourself who have produced solidly keyworded images by the thousands will no doubt see a temporary drop in sales but I believe will quickly recover and may even prosper.  Nevertheless it is uncertain times and recovery may take some months. One can only hope that the algorithms work well and as intended. At the moment I've had no sales for January so far and I'm more than a tad disheartened. All I can do is sit tight and see if things do indeed recover. On another note. Those who are currently using the new tools may have an early advantage. Is this fair?

 

 

It would not and it isn't happening as far as I'm aware. Those have just twice the headaches.

 

wim

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

 

 

I'm beginning to believe more and more that Alamy have hit the reset button. By that I mean that with the new algorithms introduced everyone has had their rank reset to the medium introductory rank. People like yourself who have produced solidly keyworded images by the thousands will no doubt see a temporary drop in sales but I believe will quickly recover and may even prosper.  Nevertheless it is uncertain times and recovery may take some months. One can only hope that the algorithms work well and as intended. At the moment I've had no sales for January so far and I'm more than a tad disheartened. All I can do is sit tight and see if things do indeed recover. On another note. Those who are currently using the new tools may have an early advantage. Is this fair?

 

 

It would not and it isn't happening as far as I'm aware. Those have just twice the headaches.

 

wim

 

 

Thanks for that Wim.

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I think the change in results, good and bad, is due to the use of keyword phrases by the new search engine.

 
If your old images have intact keyword phrases like ,costa rica, then it will help you. If they are divided into single words ,costa,rica, it will work against you.
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I think the change in results, good and bad, is due to the use of keyword phrases by the new search engine.

 
If your old images have intact keyword phrases like ,costa rica, then it will help you. If they are divided into single words ,costa,rica, it will work against you.

 

 

Glad you mentioned that. I went back and looked at my Costa Rica images that I uploaded a few years ago. I had used [costa rica] but they are currently coming up live as costa,rica, so I might have some re-keywording to do. [british Columbia] may also be a problem.

 

Come to think of it, though, I believe Alamy said that phrases in [ ] will be kept intact. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.

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Had a pretty constant number of views and CTR in 2016. Had a peak in october and november, with 2500 views and a CTR of 2.85 in november.

 

Then my views and CTR plummeted in december. And now almost no views but pretty good CTR...

 

I'm trying to understand why:

- seasonal effect, holidays...?

- too much similar images?

- subjects?

- re-rank?

- new system?

- quality of photos?

- my ex cursed me?

As has been mentioned, an astounding number of not just similar, but almost identical images on many of your subjects, it looks like you take 7 images of everything on motor drive and upload the lot!

Are you making 4 sales average a month for your port?

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Probably to do with the new search engine.  It seems to be operating without rank being an important factor.

 

Jill

Almost certainly to do with the new search engine - my rolling monthly zoom numbers and views are down by 40%, and c/w this time last year are also substantially down. 

 

The other problem is that the order in which my own images come up in a search has changed and many searches are turning up less appropriate images of mine than they used to. 

 

I guess others must be gaining from this change and seeing zooms/views improving, and I am pleased for them.

 

However for someone who has put a lot of work into getting decent numbers of images on site with good keywording over many years, it feels a bit of a let down.

 

Kumar

 

Me too.  Sales have dried up for me as well.  My rank plays some role in placement, but not as much as before.

If it has to do with phrases, I hope Alamy will go back to my original comma placements because although it looks like "British, Columbia, " now, I hope the search algorithm goes back to my original "British Columbia, " (I don't use quotes for keywording)

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Most of my “keyword phrase” in quotes have survived the conversion.

 
What has not survived is the keyword2phrase in this sequence “keyword1phrase” ”keyword2phrase” “keyword3phrase”. I think the conversion engine gets confused as to which “ encloses which keyword phrase.
 
[keyword phrase] that I used around scientific names [Ardea alba] has not survived.
 
If you look at the keywords for image DFH7H8 you can see it happening. [Ardea alba] does not survive as a phrase. “great egret” survives as a phrase. “great white heron” does not survive as a phrase, although the individual words are present.
 
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-three-shot-sequence-of-same-great-egret-ardea-alba-takeoff-in-rouge-61230100.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=938AC9A0-35F7-4F3A-8E4A-33E34FAB0506&p=141261&n=2074&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=12&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D12%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3D%26qt_raw%3D%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3Dbill-brooks%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D0%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D0%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3D%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D3EE5EG5PK3YZCQBJVSZ4DE7ZQ6TLVPTA26FXEQ9DTVA4EB7GN2GTE9BCFBLNKAN5%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D1%26t%3D0%26edoptin%3D
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I began keeping track on a monthly basis my Views, Zoom and Sales back in May of 2015 using an Excel spreadsheet.  It has given me some insight into trends with my own port.  My views for the last thirty days are down considerably, but the same thing happened a year ago during the holiday period.  I assume because of the holidays people that use images aren’t working much in that time period.  There was also a period beginning in August of  2015 to January of 2016 when views were down by 25%.  Sales and Zooms also seemed to follow the same trend.  This was the period when Alamy made changes to the search engine in August 2015.  I assume in January 2016 they either returned to the old version or updated the search engine to something else as there was a dramatic rise in all three measures.  Views have remained steady over the last year.  We can only wait and see what the latest iteration of the search engine will bring.  I hope it is an improvement. 

 

A big problem with Alamy right now is the excessive similars uploaded by contributors who don’t seem able to self regulate.  It has to make a very bad impression with customers and create frustration when trying to find that perfect photo.  I hope it doesn’t drive customers away. 

 

It would be an interesting tactic to use against a competitor to load their collection with visual spam as a way  to drive customers to other sites.

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Most of my “keyword phrase” in quotes have survived the conversion.

 
What has not survived is the keyword2phrase in this sequence “keyword1phrase” ”keyword2phrase” “keyword3phrase”. I think the conversion engine gets confused as to which “ encloses which keyword phrase.
 

 

Yes, that's why pretty early on in my time at Alamy I started using commas to separate keywords and phrases rather than spaces and speech marks as when you have more than one phrase, it can all get very confused... with commas, it has always worked for me. And in that respect, nothing has changed with the recent changes...

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Most of my “keyword phrase” in quotes have survived the conversion.

 
What has not survived is the keyword2phrase in this sequence “keyword1phrase” ”keyword2phrase” “keyword3phrase”. I think the conversion engine gets confused as to which “ encloses which keyword phrase.
 
[keyword phrase] that I used around scientific names [Ardea alba] has not survived.
 
If you look at the keywords for image DFH7H8 you can see it happening. [Ardea alba] does not survive as a phrase. “great egret” survives as a phrase. “great white heron” does not survive as a phrase, although the individual words are present.
 

 

Is it worth going back and redoing everything? I guess that's the big question.

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+1 John

 
I will be going back and reworking everything, every single image.
 
Some of my early images are inferior to newer ones, or inferior to the competition, so those images will be deleted.
 
I have been studying keywording philosophy and realize some of my early keywording (2004) is inferior or out of date. I am also going to use more keyword phrases, than before, to prevent false positives in the search.
 
Some of my images needed more than the old 50 character limit of the essentials box. With 10 supertabs, that can also individually contain phrases, the old essential keyword box has been expanded.
 
Some of my old keyword phrases will not survive the conversion. This will not be a big additional chore if I am reworking everything anyway.
 
Some of my talented photographic competition will not do the above, or do it in a half hearted manner. My reworking will make me more competitive. 
 
Reworking keywording can be an opportunity.
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