USA tags?

[John Mitchell]

I'm currently working on some new photos taken in Seattle, and I'm wondering if it's a good idea to use "United States of America" as a tag or supertag. I generally include just "USA" because I assume that buyers and researchers probably prefer searching with the abbreviation. Also, "USA" should result in fewer false positives than "United States of America" in search results.

 

What do you use -- United States of America, United States, USA, U.S.A.?

[MizBrown]

USA will be a huge category.  Seattle and Oregon will be smaller categories.  I assume that most people looking will know the US states, but did put USA in the location.

[Bryan]

I find that photos taken in the USA do relatively better than those from Europe, so I am inclined to pull out most of the stops when keywording. To date, and that is largely pre tag, I have included USA, united states, America and American.

 

For those that I have registered since tagging, I may have replaced America with north America, which cuts it down a bit.

 

My philosophy is generally to try to maximise exposure to the buyers, I'll take the hit on CTR provided I get the sales.

 

Have you tried searching AOA for customer searches?

[John Mitchell]

I find that photos taken in the USA do relatively better than those from Europe, so I am inclined to pull out most of the stops when keywording. To date, and that is largely pre tag, I have included USA, united states, America and American.

 

For those that I have registered since tagging, I may have replaced America with north America, which cuts it down a bit.

 

My philosophy is generally to try to maximise exposure to the buyers, I'll take the hit on CTR provided I get the sales.

 

Have you tried searching AOA for customer searches?

 

AOA shows that buyers very seldom use "United States of America" but include "USA" very often in searches -- e.g. "Seattle, Washington, USA".

[Ed Rooney]

Here in NYC, I use USA . . . but I do include New York City. 

[Betty LaRue]

Mine is Oklahoma, USA, United States, North America. Some specific to my city, I lead with Oklahoma City, but may drop North America.

As I go through my legacy images, I've been adding Oklahoma, USA to my captions, especially of wildlife. After all, my bird is not found overseas, and sometimes not even every USA state.

 

Betty

[KevinS]

I agree with John that people like to be as brief as possible sometimes. After using USA for years, I've begun adding US as I think buyers use that as a preface sometimes when searching (as in "US cities").

[Ed Rooney]

Mine is Oklahoma, USA, United States, North America. Some specific to my city, I lead with Oklahoma City, but may drop North America.

As I go through my legacy images, I've been adding Oklahoma, USA to my captions, especially of wildlife. After all, my bird is not found overseas, and sometimes not even every USA state.

 

Betty

 

 

My knowledge of wildlife is mostly that humans can't run as fast as any of the other species of predators . . . but I'm thinking that most of the wildlife you capture images of can be found in other parts of the USA. When I shoot a bowl of pasta I don't include USA or NYC or even Italy, since those terms would be limiting (I do include "Italian").

 

Kevin: Coincidentally, I've started putting in US as well as USA too.

 

A USA search brings up 6,277,780 hits, and I have 4 on Page One.

 

A US search shows only 1,719,787, but I have 1 recent submission on Page One. 

 

Am I doing something right? Hmm.

[John Mitchell]

Including US in addition to USA sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion. I stopped using "North America" some time ago for most of my images taken in the USA, Canada, and Mexico (formerly "The Three Amigos") for fear of false search-engine hits. However, AOA shows that nichey searchers do occasionally use "North America," so that was probably a mistake on my part. Mexico is a tough one as well, because many people don't realize that Mexico is considered part of North America, not Central America or South America.

[Ed Rooney]

Next thing, John, we'll be including 'Earth' in our tags. 

[wiskerke]

If clients start using Solar System in their searches, and I happen to spot that in AoA, I'll be happy to us Solar System as a tag.

Oh blast. 144x.

 

wim

[Betty LaRue]

I do use US, and sometimes U.S.

And one thing I found is there are birds in the western mountains we don't have in Oklahoma. I have bluejay, but not Steller jay, or magpies, or any hummingbird except ruby throated ones. We have white Pelicans, but not the gray ones. I have to go to the Texas coast and other places to see those.

And as far as alligators go, we have none, other than an occasional rare one I think was dumped after it outgrew someone's bathtub.

[John Mitchell]

How about abbreviations for US states and Canadian provinces? AOA shows that that clients sometimes use them in searches.

 

I often include BC (British Columbia) -- i.e. Vancouver, BC

[gvallee]

How about abbreviations for US states and Canadian provinces? AOA shows that that clients sometimes use them in searches.

 

I often include BC (British Columbia) -- i.e. Vancouver, BC

 

I do include States abbreviations for Australia: NSW, QLD, WA, NT, SA, TAS.

Would you search for 'New South Wales' or 'NSW'? Just joking, but AoA shows that clients search for both.

 

I also keyword 'Oz'. Perhaps I'm pushing it but one never knows.

 

Gen

[MariaJ]

How about abbreviations for US states and Canadian provinces? AOA shows that that clients sometimes use them in searches.

 

I often include BC (British Columbia) -- i.e. Vancouver, BC

 

I use province and state abbreviations because I have seen them come up in searches.  I'm wondering now if it's better to have separate tags, or two-word tags, e.g., "Vancouver BC" or both.

 

Also, is it known for the new tags that periods are necessary, i.e., is USA equivalent to U.S.A. in searches?

[gvallee]

 

How about abbreviations for US states and Canadian provinces? AOA shows that that clients sometimes use them in searches.

 

I often include BC (British Columbia) -- i.e. Vancouver, BC

 

I use province and state abbreviations because I have seen them come up in searches.  I'm wondering now if it's better to have separate tags, or two-word tags, e.g., "Vancouver BC" or both.

 

Also, is it known for the new tags that periods are necessary, i.e., is USA equivalent to U.S.A. in searches?

 

 

That's easy to test:

 

USA = 5,870,478

U.S.A. = 1,002,589

 

In the past year:

searches for U.S.A. = 7

searches for USA = 452 pages (20 images per page)

 

Gen

[Jill Morgan]

I do use US, and sometimes U.S.

And one thing I found is there are birds in the western mountains we don't have in Oklahoma. I have bluejay, but not Steller jay, or magpies, or any hummingbird except ruby throated ones. We have white Pelicans, but not the gray ones. I have to go to the Texas coast and other places to see those.

And as far as alligators go, we have none, other than an occasional rare one I think was dumped after it outgrew someone's bathtub.

 

I always think it is good to put in state or province, especially of any wildlife shots. A person could be writing an article or book on "birds of Oklahoma" so I am sure they would include Oklahoma in their search.

 

Jill

[Betty LaRue]

Agreed.

[Allan Bell]

Next thing, John, we'll be including 'Earth' in our tags. 

 

 

You do realise that people who might be living on another "EXO planet" will call their world "Earth" too.

Could cause lots of problems for Alamy and image buyers.

 

Allan

[spacecadet]

Well, TRAPPIST-1 is only 40 lightyears away, so we might get paid a bit quicker.

[spacecadet]

The star with the Earth- like exoplanets discovered by Belgians who are now famous and celebrated their discovery with a certain type of beer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1

When they had another look afterwards they noticed that the star appeared to be  a binary. Next day, just the one star.

[John Mitchell]

 

How about abbreviations for US states and Canadian provinces? AOA shows that that clients sometimes use them in searches.

 

I often include BC (British Columbia) -- i.e. Vancouver, BC

 

I use province and state abbreviations because I have seen them come up in searches.  I'm wondering now if it's better to have separate tags, or two-word tags, e.g., "Vancouver BC" or both.

 

Also, is it known for the new tags that periods are necessary, i.e., is USA equivalent to U.S.A. in searches?

 

 

Good question. I'm using separate tags - "Vancouver", "BC", "British Columbia" --  but I have no idea why. Adding both U.S.A. and USA to keywords sounds like a good idea.

 

BTW, some buyers use "Vancouver BC", while others use "Vancouver, BC" (with comma). Search results appear to be different.

 

OMG, I forgot about "B.C."

[Charles Stirling]

I had thought that 2 letter searches didn't work or is it just when they are the only letters in the search but OK in more compound searches?

 

Answering my own question, just checked and simply need 3 characters or more in the search. Accepts full stops so US on its own not accepted U.S. is.  Now need to go back and look at my UK and GB entries.

[KevinS]

I had thought that 2 letter searches didn't work or is it just when they are the only letters in the search but OK in more compound searches?

 

Answering my own question, just checked and simply need 3 characters or more in the search. Accepts full stops so US on its own not accepted U.S. is.  Now need to go back and look at my UK and GB entries.

 

I'm able to create a tag of two letters, US, and it does work as a search term in both AIM and on Alamy.com. Not sure why you are not able to get US accepted. I'm in the US, if that makes the difference?

[Charles Stirling]

If I put in just US or just UK or any other 2 characters, nothing else, I get a message must be 3 minimum.  Accepts if have more and it uses the 2 letters in a search.

 

Looks like worth having some of these variations as well, maybe I should go back and add more