Author Topic: useful observation regarding searches! (Read 1495 times)

lagereek · « **on:** March 17, 2011, 07:53 »

In the beginning of last week I asked 8 of my regular clients, 6 in the UK and 2 in Stockholm to keep a score of HOW they used the search, irrespective of site or whatever. Take in mind, these are all regular buyers, AD-agencies, graphics and designers and they dont mind spending either.

Every single one of them NEVER wasted any more time then to search first 3 or 4 pages, if no dice, on to the next site and the overwhelming majority used phrases.

None of them used any other then "relevant" or like the IS "best match" many didnt even think about it, or the search within, in spite of years of buying.

All in all, one guy, an AD and a friend, said, no we are trying to work here and havent got the time to look too long for shots.

Well, ofcourse you cant judge it by just a few buyers like this but my hunch is that this is the way the majority work unles theyre looking for an RM shot or something that costs a heck of a lot more money.

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2011, 08:12 »

That's always been what's been said on the iStock forums, hence the constant obsessing over Best Match.
Always surprised me, because when I was teaching, I spent hours (of my own time!) scouring e.g. Microsoft clip art for images for my presentations and worksheets, as did most of my colleagues.
On Alamy only today, I saw someone had viewed almost 9000 images, and zoomed on 185 on a very broad search term. I often see broad searches there go into the thousands, but of course others that look only on the first page (usually on narrower searches)
Maybe people working on tight budgets or deadlines presumably do view fewer files.
Interesting that they would move to another agency rather than keep going on the file.
The new iStock best match (as it currently stands) is going to h*ck them off, majorly.

leaf · « **Reply #2 on:** March 17, 2011, 08:18 »

thanks for the info.

Dreamstime on the other hand claim that 20-25% of people use categories in their searching..

Check out the answer at 5:00


Valuable Keywording Tips from Dreamstime.com

leaf · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2011, 08:18 »

but just to echo you.. from the perspective of my sales, it seems that best match search ranking has an awful lot to do with sales numbers.

lagereek · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2011, 08:31 »

Quote from: leaf on March 17, 2011, 08:18

thanks for the info.

Dreamstime on the other hand claim that 20-25% of people use categories in their searching..

Check out the answer at 5:00
Valuable Keywording Tips from Dreamstime.com

Cheers! interesting, the category-search, one would have thought the categories plays a minor part.

rimglow · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2011, 12:48 »

Interesting that Dreamstime puts a heavy interest on Titles, whereas I've been told that Titles never show up in iStock searches. Only keywords show up there.

ShadySue · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2011, 12:55 »

Quote from: rimglow on March 17, 2011, 12:48

Interesting that Dreamstime puts a heavy interest on Titles, whereas I've been told that Titles never show up in iStock searches. Only keywords show up there.

Yes, titles don't count in istock searches, but they do count for Google searches. I have no idea how many people looking for an image to buy go to Google first.