Author Topic: Automation for Alamy image manager (Read 5777 times)

jbphoto · « **on:** March 27, 2024, 05:00 »

Hi there,

Does anyone else find the keywording process taking more time at Alamy than at other sites?

Keywording where I have the least motivation, and I had 100s of photos sitting in the "Image not for sale" category, not making any money. I don't use xPiks or other desktop software and I'm curious of other actually use the Alamy AIM.

When it comes to Tech, I doubt Alamy can catch up with competitors (e.g. Adobe Stock automatically suggesting keywords that can be inserted with one click), so to help myself, I've developed a small extension that aims to do a similar thing: auto caption and keyword photos once uploaded. See the demo on youtube: newbielink:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xdfr5Mi6rI [nonactive] and let me know what you think!

j

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2024, 13:46 »

Everything I upload to Alamy already has the keywords. The only part I check is Supertags for the most important words. Maybe a location if important.

zeljkok · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2024, 16:39 »

For Alamy by far the most important is Caption. Then "Super" keywords, then the rest.

"Discoverability" criteria is irrelevant. (Optional Fields on 2nd Tab, 40+ keywords, etc). This has been brought up many times. Just put as many as possible relevant keywords in Title. That can be done independently of Agency. 40+ keywords is actually counter indicative as it can lead to false positives in customer search. This lowers your Alamy Rank which directly impacts sort order and sales. "Super" keywords should NOT be what's is already in the Title.

btw, "Super" keywords is concept similar to Adobe top 10 keywords, only different implementation.

jbphoto · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2024, 07:34 »

Thanks!

I have had that feeling too, that gaming the Discoverability green bar is counter-intuitive if I cannot think of more relevant keywords.

Quote from: zeljkok on March 30, 2024, 16:39

"Super" keywords should NOT be what's is already in the Title.

Sorry, you mean there shouldn't be an overlap between supertags and title? If so, what's the rationale?
I think it's hard to avoid, and it's a recommended practice in SEO (between meta title and metatags), so I genuinely wonder why it's different on Alamy.

Quote from: zeljkok on March 30, 2024, 16:39

btw, "Super" keywords is concept similar to Adobe top 10 keywords, only different implementation.

I agree indeed. All stock websites are not "that" different from each other. When it comes to the portfolio manager UX however, I think some are doing better than others. And that's why I tried to "level up" Alamy and others

My next step for Alamy is to implement auto-supertagging for the most relevant keywords, which would save 10 clicks per image.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #4 on:** March 31, 2024, 09:45 »

Quote from: zeljkok on March 30, 2024, 16:39

"Super" keywords should NOT be what's is already in the Title.

Please explain? Why not in both if the word is very important and enough to be a SuperTag?

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** March 31, 2024, 09:58 »

Quote from: zeljkok on March 30, 2024, 16:39

For Alamy by far the most important is Caption. Then "Super" keywords, then the rest.
"Discoverability" criteria is irrelevant. (Optional Fields on 2nd Tab, 40+ keywords, etc). This has been brought up many times. Just put as many as possible relevant keywords in Title.

100% true*.
Several of us have been asking for ages for them to remove the stupid discoverability bar, as it just encourages people to spam, but to no avail.

Quote

"Super" keywords should NOT be what's is already in the Title.

Do you mean 'caption' rather than title?
If so, that advice makes no sense (to me - maybe you'd care to explain?) and is counter to Alamy's official tutorial (super quiet voiceover

):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DeGewd73uw&t=206s
*For newbies, notice how few keywords are used on their examples.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #6 on:** March 31, 2024, 10:33 »

Caption Alamy 150 characters (Taken from IPTC Description field)
Description SS or IS 200 characters, DT ? many more seem to be allowed?
Title Adobe 70 characters? (but Adobe will read from Description if Title field is blank)

What was the question?

The official field is Description, except: "The Description field, often referred to as a “caption” is used to describe the who, what (and possibly where and when) and why of what is happening in the photograph."

According to IPTC: The "Title" field, is intended to be a unique identifier for the benefit of the creator of an image or for an organization that archives the image.
Someone might mention that to Adobe, but I think it's too late. They have the train on their own railroad.

zeljkok · « **Reply #7 on:** March 31, 2024, 14:00 »

Quote from: ShadySue on March 31, 2024, 09:58

Quote
"Super" keywords should NOT be what's is already in the Title.
Do you mean 'caption' rather than title?

Yes, Caption. It's just one field at Alamy I sometime call it "Caption" sometime "Title". But correct word is "Caption", sorry about that.

Answer to question is redundancy. Let's say you have an image of Apple and Caption reads "Beautiful Big Red Delicious Apple". All these 5 words have been indexed separately (not as phrase) and with highest weight. Repeating any of them as super keywords is redundant and won't increase discoverability. It doesn't hurt; it simply has no effect. Instead your super keywords can be something like "healthy" "food" "snack" "natural" "organic" and normal keywords say "eating" "snacking" "sweet" "dessert" etc.

Further, if both you and me have image of that apple, but you repeated words from Caption in keywords. It won't make your image higher in search results. Factor that determines that is 1) Image sales history - ie if your apple sold twice, mine never your apple will be higher 2) Contributor Alamy Rank - if my rank is higher than yours, then my apple is higher than yours, given that they both have same sale history. What happens if my Alamy Rank is higher, but your apple sold more I am not sure - but I believe they periodically tweak these things in their algorithm.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #8 on:** April 01, 2024, 11:29 »

Quote from: zeljkok on March 31, 2024, 14:00

Quote from: ShadySue on March 31, 2024, 09:58

Quote
"Super" keywords should NOT be what's is already in the Title.
Do you mean 'caption' rather than title?

Yes, Caption. It's just one field at Alamy I sometime call it "Caption" sometime "Title". But correct word is "Caption", sorry about that.

Answer to question is redundancy. Let's say you have an image of Apple and Caption reads "Beautiful Big Red Delicious Apple". All these 5 words have been indexed separately (not as phrase) and with highest weight. Repeating any of them as super keywords is redundant and won't increase discoverability. It doesn't hurt; it simply has no effect. Instead your super keywords can be something like "healthy" "food" "snack" "natural" "organic" and normal keywords say "eating" "snacking" "sweet" "dessert" etc.

Further, if both you and me have image of that apple, but you repeated words from Caption in keywords. It won't make your image higher in search results. Factor that determines that is 1) Image sales history - ie if your apple sold twice, mine never your apple will be higher 2) Contributor Alamy Rank - if my rank is higher than yours, then my apple is higher than yours, given that they both have same sale history. What happens if my Alamy Rank is higher, but your apple sold more I am not sure - but I believe they periodically tweak these things in their algorithm.

Don't be sorry, many agencies have different names for the same things. One language, one definition, would be nice.

I'm still confused: If it doesn't hurt and doesn't help, why the NOT be the same or what's already the Caption?

Is Caption ranked the same as Tags? Are Supertags more important than Caption?

I can say, for the positive, at least they don't have the three boxes and description as well as Caption. Talk about making information about photos more complicated than any other site. Then they eliminated Description, which was there, but ignored, followed by re-ordering the rank of the three boxes, (and making a different one hidden) and then some magical merge of all three into one, which means for a third or fourth time, I had to go back and re-edit the data.

I still don't know what happened to some of the information that was originally uploaded with the files.

zeljkok · « **Reply #9 on:** April 01, 2024, 13:40 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 01, 2024, 11:29

Is Caption ranked the same as Tags? Are Supertags more important than Caption?

No. Caption is the most important. Weight order is:

1) Caption
2) Super Tags
3) Ordinary Tags

This is why repeating of anything already present in Caption doesn't have practical effect. I verified this by experimenting with my own images; searching as customer would for words in Caption only, and later on with same words duplicated in Tags. (I waited few days to make sure everything is re-indexed). No difference.

If they change things so that weight from different sections adds up if keywords are repeated, then it becomes different game. But then algorithm becomes too convoluted & not worth the effort IMHO

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #10 on:** April 02, 2024, 14:15 »

Quote from: zeljkok on April 01, 2024, 13:40

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 01, 2024, 11:29

Is Caption ranked the same as Tags? Are Supertags more important than Caption?

No. Caption is the most important. Weight order is:

1) Caption
2) Super Tags
3) Ordinary Tags

This is why repeating of anything already present in Caption doesn't have practical effect. I verified this by experimenting with my own images; searching as customer would for words in Caption only, and later on with same words duplicated in Tags. (I waited few days to make sure everything is re-indexed). No difference.

If they change things so that weight from different sections adds up if keywords are repeated, then it becomes different game. But then algorithm becomes too convoluted & not worth the effort IMHO

Good to know and keep in mind if I want to push specific images, from a set, to the front.

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Author Topic: Automation for Alamy image manager (Read 5777 times)

jbphoto

Uncle Pete

zeljkok

jbphoto

Uncle Pete

ShadySue

Uncle Pete

zeljkok

Uncle Pete

zeljkok

Uncle Pete

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