How to optimise the discoverability

[Dilchaspiyaan 0]

I am new to Alamy and this question might have been asked before. Even after entering all the mandatory and optional information and tags, the discover-ability remains poor. What are the other ways to improve it?

[Sally 184]

Over 40 keywords.  But just make sure they are relevant.

[spacecadet 1,787]

Don't worry about discoverability. It has no effect on search or sales.

Frankly I think Alamy's a bit embarrassed to have included it because it's been confusing contributors all along.

Most of my recent images have fewer than 30 tags (sorry Sally, not "keywords" now that they can be combined in phrases) and having close to 50 can be problematic if you want to add more in batches.

[Bryan 8,444]

I started off being quite parsimonious with keywords (now tags) but I now look daily at the at the views on my images and it is rare that I don't see a  search term that could be applied to a range of images. Occasionally, it's even a Doh......  moment, how did I miss that obvious word string? The customers are always right, we need to annotate our images according to their whims. 

 

With new images I generally take a look at AOA to see where the interest lies.

 

Just the other day I was walking through the town and spotted a new keywording possibility for an existing image, and then promptly forgot what it was - I need to carry a notepad these days!

 

Regarding that 50 tag limit, yes it can be a real pain when selecting a group of images, but I find that I can generally consolidate some of the tags, and add new ideas. In reality we have huge scope in the new system.

[Allan Bell 1,239]

16 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Just the other day I was walking through the town and spotted a new keywording possibility for an existing image, and then promptly forgot what it was - I need to carry a notepad these days!

 

 

Or you could use a small cheapish hand held recorder. Probably easier than pencil and paper.

 

Allan

 

 

[Bryan 8,444]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Or you could use a small cheapish hand held recorder. Probably easier than pencil and paper.

 

Allan

 

Allan, I'm a guy who uses film era manual focus lenses, and I only possess a dumbphone which is rarely switched on. Pencil and paper will be fine ......... if I can remember to pack em!

 

Another thought, Alamy appears to be suggesting that we need to include the optional fields to improve discoverability. I added a primary category to an image and it immediately leapt into the green zone. This is easy to do, you can select huge numbers of images that fall into particular categories and make the appropriate selection. Not sure how helpful this is going to be, but, for the effort involved, maybe worth a shot.

[Allan Bell 1,239]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Allan, I'm a guy who uses film era manual focus lenses, and I only possess a dumbphone which is rarely switched on. Pencil and paper will be fine ......... if I can remember to pack em!

 

Another thought, Alamy appears to be suggesting that we need to include the optional fields to improve discoverability. I added a primary category to an image and it immediately leapt into the green zone. This is easy to do, you can select huge numbers of images that fall into particular categories and make the appropriate selection. Not sure how helpful this is going to be, but, for the effort involved, maybe worth a shot.

 

Hi Bryan thanks for the heads up on that I will give it a try and see what happens.

 

Allan

 

Well I did what you suggested but nothing happened. Do we have to wait for the Alamy sweep update?

 

ITMA

 

 

 

Edited January 13 by Allan Bell
add comment

[Bryan 8,444]

49 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Hi Bryan thanks for the heads up on that I will give it a try and see what happens.

 

Allan

 

Well I did what you suggested but nothing happened. Do we have to wait for the Alamy sweep update?

 

ITMA

 

 

 

I suspect that the image needs to be borderline green Allan, when the discoverability  might change. I didn't have to wait, the change was instantaneous.

[Betty LaRue 1,336]

40 tags or more

caption

i copy caption to Optional : more information

fill everything else in Optional 

goes green

[Allan Bell 1,239]

14 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

40 tags or more

caption

i copy caption to Optional : more information

fill everything else in Optional 

goes green

 

I find it difficult to put 40 tags on my images without spamming and I do not spam.

 

Allan

 

 

[Cryptoprocta 365]

Has there been any evidence that you get more sales if you hit green?

I've just been going over files in the Image Manager back as far as 2013 (lots more still to do), and I've only been able to turn a very few green, and that by adding some words which although probably relevant to the file are unlikely to be searched on. However, I'm correcting typos and separarting tags which were merged on the move to the new system.

(One thing I've noticed is that if a keyword is particularly long (specifically "Royal Signals Motorcycle Display Team"), it seems that almost every time I try to make it a supertag, it merges with another keyword, even when I tried magnifying to 200% in an effort to improve accuracy.

 

Edited January 15 by Cryptoprocta
typos

[Betty LaRue 1,336]

14 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I find it difficult to put 40 tags on my images without spamming and I do not spam.

 

Allan

 

 

I don’t spam, either. But I use plurals and phrases.

[Dilchaspiyaan 0]

Thank you all for your inputs !! really appreciate your time and effort. Wish they had a keyword suggestion tool!! That would have saved a lot of time. 

 

Abhi

[Allan Bell 1,239]

2 hours ago, Dilchaspiyaan said:

Thank you all for your inputs !! really appreciate your time and effort. Wish they had a keyword suggestion tool!! That would have saved a lot of time. 

 

Abhi

 

There are a few on the net but I find they suggest more words that are unrelated to the images I am working on.

 

Keeps the old grey matter working though.

 

Allan

 

 

Edited January 15 by Allan Bell
computer typo

[Betty LaRue 1,336]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

There are a few on the net but I find they suggest more words that are unrelated to the images I am woking on.

 

Keeps the old grey matter working though.

 

Allan

 

 

What did you cook in the wok besides tags, Allan? 

[Allan Bell 1,239]

15 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

What did you cook in the wok besides tags, Allan? 

 

AAARrrggghh!!!       How do you turn off the spellchecker on the computer?

 

Allan

 

 

[spacecadet 1,787]

2 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

AAARrrggghh!!!       How do you turn off the spellchecker on the computer?

 

Allan

 

 

If you've typed "wok" for "work" you need to turn it on.

[Allan Bell 1,239]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

If you've typed "wok" for "work" you need to turn it on.

 

It is happening so much now that I have to blame something.

 

Allan

 

 

[spacecadet 1,787]

Just now, Allan Bell said:

 

It is happening so much now that I have to blame something.

 

Allan

 

 

The "r" key must need a clean.

[Allan Bell 1,239]

Just now, spacecadet said:

The "r" key must need a clean.

 

Of course the spellchecker did not correct my error, it thought I meant Woking in Surrey.

 

Stupid thing.

 

Allan

 

 

[spacecadet 1,787]

1 minute ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Of course the spellchecker did not correct my error, it thought I meant Woking in Surrey.

 

Stupid thing.

 

Allan

 

 

"Greymatter Woking" sounds like an old telegraphic address for the University of Surrey.

 

I'll get my coat.

[Allan Bell 1,239]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

"Greymatter Woking" sounds like an old telegraphic address for the University of Surrey.

 

I'll get my coat.

 

 

Allan

 

 

[Betty LaRue 1,336]

[spacecadet 1,787]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

Our pleasure. We know how to look after a lady

Edited January 15 by spacecadet

[Betty LaRue 1,336]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

Our pleasure. We know how to look after a lady

I need all the laughs I can get!