Author Topic: SEO and search engine visibility (Read 5041 times)

Ron · « **on:** July 06, 2013, 03:48 »

Guys, I am no where near a SEO guru, but I have been reading up on this since I started up my SYS site.

(on a side note: SS = Shutterstock, SY = Stocksy (?), I am going to shorten Symbiostock to SYS)

Back to SEO. I have read that Google doesnt show duplicate results. THats the reason we only find our agency images only once, from one agency (this is random which agency). My guess is that our 'legacy' images will never show up on Google Images as the image on the agency is already indexed.

Please correct me if my thinking is wrong.

Now, for new images, we do have a better chance. If you add your new images to SYS first, and wait for them to be indexed, you can add your image to the agency and it wont compete for SEO as the image is duplicate and wont be shown in the results.

Am I wrong thinking like that? Hoping someone with good SEO knowledge can add some thoughts.

Also I do notice that FAA and 123 have a very good SEO, at least for my images.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2013, 04:05 »

Your on the right track - this was one of the first SEO things I posted at the start of this project

http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-seo-marketing/before-you-upload-how-to-ensure-sales/

Ron · « **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2013, 04:28 »

Thank you Leo. So far I have been using Yoast SEO plugin and have followed your advice pretty much.

What I did:
Changed all image titles
Changed all image URLs
Added focus keyword
Added Meta description

SYS already adds ALT tag

What I havent done:
bolding focus keyword
Use H2 header

I think when I am done, I am going back to bold focus keywords.
I dont want to use the H2 header as the description just gets too big on my site then. It just doesnt look good. Not sure if the H2 header has a heavy influence on SEO.

I think I did give my work a good chance. Now I just need to keep improving my photography skills and provide high quality content.

picture5469 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 06, 2013, 06:38 »

123rf shows up well for a general google image search. However, i don't know why but if I use fotolia's images and drop them into google they seem to find all websites that use my image better than any other agency.

However, i will no longer upload to agencies only to symbiostock, this will increase my SEO

steheap · « **Reply #4 on:** July 06, 2013, 07:31 »

I find that my images (that I have properly described on the SYS site) normally appear in Google text results and in Image, even though I have the same image on most of the other stock sites. For instance "cat licking lips" shows my stock site on row two, with 123RF and Deposit Photos on row three of the image search results. I think you are right about the image search only showing one of each image though - I do have all those images on all my sites, but only one is shows.

Still - it does show that properly describing them, and having the network effect of SYS brings us to the top.

steve

Ron · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2013, 08:54 »

Yeah, agree. I was surprised to see some images in row 1 or 2 on Google for some searches. It shows the potential and power of SYS. Thats why I have stopped uploading to all agencies. For the past few weeks I am only uploading and SEOing my images on www.semmickphoto.com. Once that is done, and I am hoping tomorrow its all up there, I will start with adding brand new images first and then wait a month for those to settle in, and then offer them to the agencies. So for the time being I am not submitting any more to the agencies. My sales have hit a wall anyway, adding new images does nothing for my earnings. So while my portfolio is making its money, I can work on my own site and make sure SEO and annotation is done properly.

Ive read it can take up to a month for Google to index an image. So I want to give them a fair chance by at least waiting a month. For now Google Analytics tell me I have 610 images and only 20 indexed. LOL.

cascoly · « **Reply #6 on:** July 06, 2013, 13:41 »

Quote from: Ron on July 06, 2013, 08:54

.....Ive read it can take up to a month for Google to index an image. So I want to give them a fair chance by at least waiting a month. For now Google Analytics tell me I have 610 images and only 20 indexed. LOL.

use the fetch and submit option in webmaster tools and you can get indexed (or not) within a day or 2; I routinely do this now for my webpages when added or modified

cascoly · « **Reply #7 on:** July 11, 2013, 02:28 »

I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Imagenomad · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2013, 03:03 »

Interesting Steve. Thanks for doing that.

BTW, did you take into account what currencies different contribs are using? For instance, many of my European cousins will set their prices in Euros and I price in GBP which is worth about 1.50 USD. I mean $1.49 USD. No wait, 1.48 USD. Hold on, it's back to 1.50 USD again...

Nikd90 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2013, 04:40 »

Looks like I need few more connections for SEO to work for me

Please add me

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #10 on:** July 11, 2013, 04:47 »

Quote from: cascoly on July 11, 2013, 02:28

I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Good stuff
http://cascoly.com/symbio/list.asp?list=66

djpadavona · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2013, 07:56 »

Quote from: Ron on July 06, 2013, 08:54

Yeah, agree. I was surprised to see some images in row 1 or 2 on Google for some searches. It shows the potential and power of SYS. Thats why I have stopped uploading to all agencies. For the past few weeks I am only uploading and SEOing my images on www.semmickphoto.com. Once that is done, and I am hoping tomorrow its all up there, I will start with adding brand new images first and then wait a month for those to settle in, and then offer them to the agencies. So for the time being I am not submitting any more to the agencies. My sales have hit a wall anyway, adding new images does nothing for my earnings. So while my portfolio is making its money, I can work on my own site and make sure SEO and annotation is done properly.

Ive read it can take up to a month for Google to index an image. So I want to give them a fair chance by at least waiting a month. For now Google Analytics tell me I have 610 images and only 20 indexed. LOL.

I'm not sure this is going to make a difference. First, there are some SEO's who argue the image most likely to rank is the one which was uploaded most recently, rather than first. Regardless of whether either argument is true, you aren't just competing with your agency photos. The larger pool of competition comes from the websites who bought your images. My best selling image at SS and DT didn't even rank on Google Images last I checked, because a website which downloaded it was now ranking for it instead. And that image had no alt text or title, and was on a low domain authority site.

I don't know that it is possible to understand why Google ranks their images as they do. There seems to be little rhyme or reason a lot of the time.

travelwitness · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2013, 08:11 »

Quote from: Leo on July 11, 2013, 04:47

Quote from: cascoly on July 11, 2013, 02:28
I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Good stuff
http://cascoly.com/symbio/list.asp?list=66

Cool, could be the emergence of a pricing slider :-)

Ron · « **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2013, 09:24 »

Quote from: djpadavona on July 11, 2013, 07:56

Quote from: Ron on July 06, 2013, 08:54
Yeah, agree. I was surprised to see some images in row 1 or 2 on Google for some searches. It shows the potential and power of SYS. Thats why I have stopped uploading to all agencies. For the past few weeks I am only uploading and SEOing my images on www.semmickphoto.com. Once that is done, and I am hoping tomorrow its all up there, I will start with adding brand new images first and then wait a month for those to settle in, and then offer them to the agencies. So for the time being I am not submitting any more to the agencies. My sales have hit a wall anyway, adding new images does nothing for my earnings. So while my portfolio is making its money, I can work on my own site and make sure SEO and annotation is done properly.

Ive read it can take up to a month for Google to index an image. So I want to give them a fair chance by at least waiting a month. For now Google Analytics tell me I have 610 images and only 20 indexed. LOL.

I'm not sure this is going to make a difference. First, there are some SEO's who argue the image most likely to rank is the one which was uploaded most recently, rather than first. Regardless of whether either argument is true, you aren't just competing with your agency photos. The larger pool of competition comes from the websites who bought your images. My best selling image at SS and DT didn't even rank on Google Images last I checked, because a website which downloaded it was now ranking for it instead. And that image had no alt text or title, and was on a low domain authority site.

I don't know that it is possible to understand why Google ranks their images as they do. There seems to be little rhyme or reason a lot of the time.

Thanks Dan, much appreciated.

But that does mean, I have no idea now what is best practice. LOL. I'll upload to my site first though. Maybe make it all exclusive images from now on.

djpadavona · « **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2013, 11:56 »

Quote from: Ron on July 11, 2013, 09:24

But that does mean, I have no idea now what is best practice. LOL.

That's exactly it, Ron. Nobody does. Do a search for SEO for images. Most of the advice is 2 to 4 years old. Regardless, none of the advice seems to match what I see when I do quick comparisons in Google Images. One thing that is obvious is that the algorithm for Google Images is very different from the traditional Google text search. Not many people have an interest in figuring out how to rank their images higher. Take a look at the MOZ blog. The text search advice outnumbers the images advice at least 100 to 1.

cascoly · « **Reply #15 on:** July 11, 2013, 13:00 »

Quote from: Imagenomad on July 11, 2013, 03:03

Interesting Steve. Thanks for doing that.

BTW, did you take into account what currencies different contribs are using? For instance, many of my European cousins will set their prices in Euros and I price in GBP which is worth about 1.50 USD. I mean $1.49 USD. No wait, 1.48 USD. Hold on, it's back to 1.50 USD again...

thanks - i'd forgotten I need to check currencies! will get that in next version -- I can just include current exchange rates: +/- 5% in exchange won't affect the averages much

cascoly · « **Reply #16 on:** July 11, 2013, 13:06 »

Quote from: Nikd90 on July 11, 2013, 04:40

Looks like I need few more connections for SEO to work for me

Please add me

you're on the list at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com but it shows you're still at ver 2.5.0 -- there've been important changes since then, so you should update to 2.5.5

jsfoto · « **Reply #17 on:** July 11, 2013, 13:42 »

Quote from: cascoly on July 11, 2013, 02:28

I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Thank, this is interesting stuff! I just wonder why my alexa-rating is that bad. Just because my domain was registered some weeks ago and other domains were registered earlier? Any ideas what I might do wrong?

cascoly · « **Reply #18 on:** July 11, 2013, 13:55 »

pricing list now calculates currency exchange

there are only 42 sites reporting since several sites haven't upgraded to a version that stores pricing

cascoly · « **Reply #19 on:** July 11, 2013, 14:10 »

Quote from: jsfoto on July 11, 2013, 13:42

Quote from: cascoly on July 11, 2013, 02:28
I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Thank, this is interesting stuff! I just wonder why my alexa-rating is that bad. Just because my domain was registered some weeks ago and other domains were registered earlier? Any ideas what I might do wrong?

probably a combination - new domain, # images, # network connections, how much you've worked on SEO. have you submitted a sitemap to google, eg?

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #20 on:** July 11, 2013, 14:23 »

Quote from: jsfoto on July 11, 2013, 13:42

Quote from: cascoly on July 11, 2013, 02:28
I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Thank, this is interesting stuff! I just wonder why my alexa-rating is that bad. Just because my domain was registered some weeks ago and other domains were registered earlier? Any ideas what I might do wrong?

Mostly its just a time thing. Don't worry about it too much. I'm not sure how current alexa ratings are, but they are fairly legit so I included them as a network demographic mostly for fun.

jsfoto · « **Reply #21 on:** July 11, 2013, 14:29 »

I submitted a sitemap to google last week ... guess I have to be patient till it has an impact. And yes, I think you are right: My next step should be to work on my SEO. I haven't done very much yet. Thanks for your answers

klsbear · « **Reply #22 on:** July 11, 2013, 22:14 »

Quote from: jsfoto on July 11, 2013, 13:42

Quote from: cascoly on July 11, 2013, 02:28
I've added a list of the alexa ratings for all symbiosites at http://symbiostock.cascoly.com

also a list of average prices charged across all sites

Thank, this is interesting stuff! I just wonder why my alexa-rating is that bad. Just because my domain was registered some weeks ago and other domains were registered earlier? Any ideas what I might do wrong?

I was wondering the same about my site, sitting right at the bottom of the list. I submitted Yoast site maps several weeks ago and just submitted Leo's site maps generated by the plug in tonight. Time to get busy working on some more SEO and adding more images so I start getting better results.

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Author Topic: SEO and search engine visibility (Read 5041 times)

Ron

Leo Blanchette

Ron

picture5469

steheap

Ron

cascoly

cascoly

Imagenomad

Nikd90

Leo Blanchette

djpadavona

travelwitness

Ron

djpadavona

cascoly

cascoly

jsfoto

cascoly

cascoly

Leo Blanchette

jsfoto

klsbear

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