When do you put location in essential keywords?

[NielsVK]

Hi,

I often wonder in which keyword field I should put the location where a photo was taken. For many travel images location is relevant. On the other hand, I see a lot of generic location searches (e.g. "vancouver") in my alamy stats for which many of my images get viewed, dragging my CTR down. I guess in a way this is unavoidable, but I wonder if maybe I'm putting the location in the main essential keywords field too often.

Some examples:

For an image of the skyline of Vancouver, I obviously put "Vancouver" in the main essential keywords.
But what about an image of a ferry with the Vancouver skyline in the background?
An image of people kayaking with the Vancouver skyline in the background?
An image of people playing beach volleybay in Vancouver (but it could have been anywhere)?
An image of a famous landmark or tourist sight in Vancouver?
A detail image of a totem pole in Vancouver?

Any input appreciated!

Thanks
Niels

Edit: I meant to ask: when do you put the location in the essential keywords?

[Vincent Lowe]

I never put 'Vancouver' in any of my keywords - but then I've never been there......

 

Seriously - for what it's worth I always put the location in the caption and also in the 'comprehensive' fields, regardless of subject (unless it's a home 'studio' type shot of course).  I don't know whether or not this is a good idea but I haven't got the time or inclination to get hung up on CTR, alamy rank, etc.

[Niels Quist]

In any of the examples you mention I would definitely put vancouver in the essential, main or comprehensive keywords - which box will depend on the importance of the location - and I am often dealing with different spellings of the locations. If the location is only secondary information I may also use the comprehensive - in order to avoid too many unnecessary views. I don't take the CTR very serious, unless I discover stupid and completely unnecessary finds.

But you never know what customers will search for from a certain location.

 

Same exception as Vincent with studio shots or shots resembling this.

[Allan Bell]

Enter place names in Caption, Main and Comprehensive but not Essential. Only when necessary though.

 

Allan

[John Mitchell]

I would include "Vancouver" in the main keywords of all the types of images that you mentioned. Personally, I've always thought that sales are more important than CTR, and the two (i.e. sales and CTR) often don't appear much related to each other IME. Having travel-related  images come up in generic searches seems unavoidable to me.

[NielsVK]

Thanks for your responses. I think I mixed up the keyword fields and meant to ask "when do you put the location in the essential keywords?"

[John Mitchell]

Thanks for your responses. I think I mixed up the keyword fields and meant to ask "when do you put the location in the essential keywords?"

 

I always put "Vancouver" (because I live there too) in "essential" keywords for my Vancouver travel-related images because I assume that buyers looking for these types of images want a specific location. However, for non-travel photos, I put the location in the "main" or "comprehensive" fields only if I think it might possibly matter to a buyer. I always fill out the "location" field, even though it is no longer searchable. 

[Pearl]

For travel images I always put the city/town name in ess keywords field and very often the country as well.  I then add the more specific location to ess keywords or any particular features that are important e.g. street cafe, town centre shops etc.  It all depends on what you think is important to the buyers.  i don't worry too much about CTR as I would rather my images get viewed when appropriate.

 

Pearl

[Nikolas_G]

 

Thanks for your responses. I think I mixed up the keyword fields and meant to ask "when do you put the location in the essential keywords?"

 

I always put "Vancouver" (because I live there too) in "essential" keywords for my Vancouver travel-related images because I assume that buyers looking for these types of images want a specific location. However, for non-travel photos, I put the location in the "main" or "comprehensive" fields only if I think it might possibly matter to a buyer. I always fill out the "location" field, even though it is no longer searchable. 

I most often do the same thing. I put "Athens" in the main kwords when I shoot a demonstration, but I put "Athens" in the ess kwords when shooting a sightseeing place.

[dov makabaw]

I always try to guess what the buyer is likely to be looking for and how he is going to word his search in that context.

 

In the case of Volleyball and Vancouver I would put both in the Essential together with Canada as prerequisite.

 

I often trawl the customer searches for keywording ideas and have learnt a lot from this.

 

dov