Milton Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Hi all, Although I have been registered with Alamy since 2015, it is only this year that I have started taking it seriously and uploading in volume, and this is my first forum post (although I have been lurking for a while). As I understand it the CTR rating is key to how high up your images appear in searches (is that right?), so I have taken care to keyword properly. But no matter how relevant I make the keywords my images are appearing in searches that bear no relevance to the image. As an example a couple of days ago a user searched for ‘Washing Up’ and my images of a young child playing with pegs on a clothesline appeared in the search due to the fact that two of my keywords are ‘washing line’ and ‘close up’. I am wondering if there is any method to avoid the individual words in a keyword phrase being used in isolation – my average CTR is taking a pounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 CTR is relevant, but only a small part of Alamy's ranking process. Had a look at your relevant images and tags, then did a search for 'washing up', but didn't notice them on the first 10 pages. I only did a visual check, so may have missed them. There are many other images using this search phrase which are in a similar plight to yours. You're doing nothing wrong, I wouldn't worry too much. Doing a search for "clothes line child" you have (at least) three images on page 2 of 22 pages of search results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shantz Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 There is no way that I know of to avoid having your images returned on a search if the searched words occur anywhere in the tags or captions. Individual words within phrases in a tag are presently searched, although I think I read somewhere that they would have lower relevance that individual words in their own tag. The buyer can use quotes to require the exact phrase. For example, "washing up" in the search should not return your images. I have seen such exact phrase searches only rarely in my Alamy measures. Some years ago, before tags, Alamy was going to allow contributors to require exact phrases in searches with the double quotes, but it never went live. Your only hope is that your competitors have the same problem. I'm always getting hit with searches that return my images from New Mexico -- the state in the US -- when the searcher was looking only for Mexico -- the country. Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 I get a ton for England on my images of New England - and for years any photos I've taken on the west coast end up in searches for someone named "Marianne West" even though I don't have my name in my keywords. So many other examples. We all have the same issues. Don't sweat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milton Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 Thanks for the responses - basically it's a common problem that affects everybody in a variety of ways. I was hoping that there was a neat trick to get around it (like using quotes) but, as you say Marianne, I won't sweat it anymore. Losdemas, it's good to know that at least it appears lower down in the search and that CTR isn't a major factor in the Alamy ranking algorithm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 If you have "washing up" as a supertag, your images will appear higher on a search for that tag. But there's no way to prevent them appearing in a non-quotes search with "up" or "washing" in it. All of us with bigger collections have silly search result from time to time. Over time you can work out which tags you might need to delete but some are just unavoidable. My Christian name appears in my pseudo so if someone looks for marks of any kind I pop up. You'll probably do the same in searches for the English poet. Just have a larf about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milton Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 3 hours ago, GS-Images said: Hi Milton. Sales mean a lot more. If you achieve sales, your CTR doesn't make a lot of difference. Nobody here will be able to tell you how much difference it may make, and Alamy won't tell you either. They have effectively said though that is isn't very important (I won't look up an exact quote but that's the way it came across). Upload only your best images, don't add irrelevant tags, add all important words to captions as well as supertags, then sit back and wait and hope. Good luck, Geoff. Interesting. Didn't know about adding the important words to captions. I have been a bit hit and miss with captions - sometimes I fill them in correctly, other times I just quickly chuck something in. Will have to review them at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 4 hours ago, Milton said: Interesting. Didn't know about adding the important words to captions. I have been a bit hit and miss with captions - sometimes I fill them in correctly, other times I just quickly chuck something in. Will have to review them at some point. Do that review before your port gets huge, otherwise it'll be a nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 On 10/03/2018 at 11:31, spacecadet said: If you have "washing up" as a supertag, your images will appear higher on a search for that tag. But there's no way to prevent them appearing in a non-quotes search with "up" or "washing" in it. All of us with bigger collections have silly search result from time to time. Over time you can work out which tags you might need to delete but some are just unavoidable. My Christian name appears in my pseudo so if someone looks for marks of any kind I pop up. You'll probably do the same in searches for the English poet. Just have a larf about it. Tell me about it. John Keates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 At least I'm only an American childrens' writer or a county councillor in, IIRC, Sussex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 2 hours ago, spacecadet said: At least I'm only an American childrens' writer or a county councillor in, IIRC, Sussex. There is also a John Keates Photography website too that has nothing to do with me. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.