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Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: RacePhoto on February 10, 2013, 17:01

Title: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: RacePhoto on February 10, 2013, 17:01
Based on observation. Anyone watch their Alamy rank? How do you know if the CTR has raised or lowered you search placement, or if it did anything at all?

Only time I saw a re-ranking drop was when some idiot (or maybe a registered buyer who happens to be in the same field as myself?) Went and look at every single image I have on Alamy. I mean over 1000 clicks, not one zoom. I dropped some pages. Next re-rank, I was back to where I always was. So one or two missed searches doesn't change anything. Keep in mind they have to look at the page you are on, not just have it on page six and never viewed.

Your rank is a simple calculation given by your views for the previous period divided by the sum of your zooms and sales over the same period. Since most people have many times more zooms than sales you would expect sales to play a small part in ranking and therefore your rank would approximate to your click-through rate. My pseudo with no sales, ranks the same place as the one with almost all my sales. Hint, sales may not be very important in the secret equation.

And Alamy says this:  Use AlamyMeasures to get an overview of which searches have had your images included in them and how you measured up against the competition when you were seen.

Not seen, no change. Maybe someone can find the whole math formula and the re-ranking schedule. I took a quick look and it's a broken link from where I used to see it.

Not everyone searching is monitored, only some specific buyers. So there goes, making it even more mysterious. No one knows who, no one knows how, and all we get is some vague explanation of how it works.

ps I've had sales without a view or zoom.

Yup, the whole thing is as clear as mud!
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: tab62 on February 10, 2013, 17:37
don't worry about it Racephoto- just take more pics and submit as much as possible. The more bobbers in the water the better chance of catching dinner...

Tom
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: dbvirago on February 10, 2013, 17:43
I have also had sales without views. Haven't had a zoom or sale since they changed the ranking - currently CTR is 0. I have never been able to figure out their rankings, sort, what sales, how and when.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 18:04
Total Views for Poncke      :   2,383
Total Zooms for Poncke   :   11
Average CTR for Poncke   :   0.46
Total CTR for Poncke           :   0.46
4 sales


I have no idea how to influence the CTR and I dont want to understand either ,I just upload and see what happens.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 10, 2013, 18:18
my last uploads there are from Feb 2012

Feb 2012 to Feb 2013 (8 sales)

Total Views for    :    15,738
Total Zooms for    :    49
Average CTR for    :    0.31
Total CTR for    :    0.31
Average CTR on Alamy for last month    :    0.63

from the 8 sales only 2 were zoomed
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on February 10, 2013, 18:32
I don't understand it either. From last year when I started uploading RF (I had some older RM sales - not many - while an IS exclusive)

Total Views for Jo Ann Snover   :   11,159
Total Zooms for Jo Ann Snover   :   84
Average CTR for Jo Ann Snover   :   0.75
Total CTR for Jo Ann Snover   :   0.75
Average CTR on Alamy for last month   :   0.63

15 sales in that time. I think only once was there a zoom and a sale (but I don't keep close track as I really can't grasp how any of these stats tell me anything useful).
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 19:10
Thats weird, my CTR for last month is 0.63 same as Luis and JoAnn
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 10, 2013, 19:12
Thats weird, my CTR for last month is 0.63 same as Luis and JoAnn

because it is the average for Alamy
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: ann on February 10, 2013, 19:17
Along with Zooms, Sales certainly must influence Alamy Rank, considering that's main goal of the business.

Right now, my Total CTR happens to be close to Average CTR on Alamy, though it can range from 0 to above Average during any one month.
And my sales are probably average. But I don't know what my Alamy Rank is.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 19:17
Thats weird, my CTR for last month is 0.63 same as Luis and JoAnn


because it is the average for Alamy


(http://www.addictinginfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/homer-simpson-doh.gif)
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Travelling-light on February 10, 2013, 20:25
Race, do you know about BHZ?
This is a way of checking if your rank is rising or falling.
What you do is put BHZ in the highest ranking (essential) section of keywords on one of your files, then wait for the system to update.
Then put BHZ in the search box. You will see over 2800 results, that's how many contributors are currently using the scheme. You then search through the results for your file, make a note of the position.
Next time Alamy does a re-rank, check again, you will see if your rank has risen or fallen.
You can't tell what your actual Alamy rank is, but this will give you an idea of whether or not your rank is rising or falling.
As for the stats being useful, we have found that we get on average 1 sale for every 5 zooms, with a two month lag. From what I read in the Alamy forum, that is about average for everyone.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 20:44
Past 12 months (all RM):
           Views: 22,461
Total Zooms : 149
Average CTR :  0.13
Total CTR     :  0.66
Average CTR on Alamy for last month:    0.63
Sales: 40
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Alamy on February 12, 2013, 05:18
Hello everyone!

Apologies for the confusion / mystery surrounding 'AlamyRank' - truth is, it's a very complex algorithm and not a simple forumla - also, because we need to make tweaks and improvements to the search functionality as time goes on, there is a certain amount of fluidity to the precise workings of it all. CTR, Sales history, Keyword placement (essential, main, comp) and keyword proximity (where words appear within the search box) also come into it as one big mix that gives your images a 'score' which is then fed into the search results. This all happens in fractions of a second to return images in what is probably the fastest stock image search engine in the world.

Put simply though, the only tactic you can employ is to submit your best work and keyword it thoroughly with a high degree of relevancy.

Thinking specifically about CTR then. CTR (Click Through Rate) does have an impact on your ranking (as part of the big mix mentioned above), and we give you the average figure across all of Alamy so you can see how your images are performing compared to your competition.  If your images are seen many times in search results but never clicked on, this will have a negative effect on your rank and vice-versa. The search engine will also mix some results around to give everyone a fair chance, particularly if you are just starting out and have the median rank. Sales and the sales value have positive effect on your rank, so the more sales you make and the higher the value those sales are contribute significantly.

We are also doing lots of work behind the scenes on the search results:

http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/10/19/5164.aspx (http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/10/19/5164.aspx)

Further info here:

http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/10/29/5241.aspx (http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/10/29/5241.aspx)

...and this is all yielding positive results for our customers:

http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/12/20/5288.aspx (http://www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2012/12/20/5288.aspx)

So hopefully this clarifies things a little for you. In  a nutshell - CTR is important, but so are sales, keyword relevancy, Keyword proximity and all the workings the content team are doing behind the scenes on developing the search results.

Oh, and a couple more points for you that will hopefully be useful!

- "I had a sale but no zoom"

We can only match up a zoom to a sale if the customer completes this in one go, eg, search, zoom, buy. Quite often the customer will search and then come back later to buy, so we can't match these two up. Also, sometimes the picture researcher who finds the images, then passes them over to another account for purchasing, again, we can't match these two up as related.

- Play the "BHZ" game

Our advice on this? Don't bother. It only tells you how well you are doing compared to everyone else playing the BHZ game and it is very inconsistent because some people have multiple images in there, some have BHZ in the caption only, some in the essential keyword field, some only in the comprehensive field etc etc. Combine that with the 'big mix' (above) of elements that determine the ranking, you can quickly see that your BHZ placement is going to tell you virtually nothing. The better way to see how you are performing is to keep an eye on some real searches and see where you are coming up within those results.

Finally, in terms of frequency of updating the ranks, it's not set in stone but it works out that roughly every 100 days we will update the results using the previous 300 days data.

Hope that helps!

James Allsworth
Content Executive
Alamy
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: leaf on February 12, 2013, 05:20
Thanks for the great information James.  It is super to have information from the source.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: incarno on February 12, 2013, 06:07
Thanks for the great information James.  It is super to have information from the source.
I agree, therefore is it possible to have the newbie link removed in this case?
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: leaf on February 12, 2013, 06:47
Thanks for the great information James.  It is super to have information from the source.
I agree, therefore is it possible to have the newbie link removed in this case?

done.  I have James an imaginary 25 posts to his credit so his links are now live
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: dbvirago on February 12, 2013, 08:12
Thanks for the info, James. I did have one question. A few weeks ago, I had a potential client interested in one of my shots. I sent him a link to Alamy, and the search terms I knew would work. He said he opened a couple of my images, but I never saw a zoom. Possibly, he did something wrong, but I was pretty specific. I was away from my computer and emailing him from my phone, or I would have given him the link to my port or the specific image. Any idea what happened there - or user error?
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: ShadySue on February 12, 2013, 08:29
^^ It's only zooms from a selected number of Alamy's most important buyers which get counted.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Alamy on February 12, 2013, 08:38
^^ It's only zooms from a selected number of Alamy's most important buyers which get counted.

It's true that not all customer data is counted (otherwise photographers could just register a fake client account and zoom all their own images) but it also may have been the case that the client in this case was not logged in.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on February 12, 2013, 10:47
Very nice of you to take the time and try and fill us in on what goes on at Alamy, James. Much appreciated.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Poncke on February 12, 2013, 14:44
James, you legend you !! Thank for clearing that up, now I feel a lot better about my chances. I have been doing some keyword admin and slashed all unrelevant keywords. I got too many views on images that were not related to the search. Too many cryptic stuff etc.

Also, had a few sales, so my rank should be positively affected now, and I am adding more images as we speak.

Yes !! Alamy just became relevant for me  ;D
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: BelIblis on February 12, 2013, 21:24
I always check my "Zooms" that never sold, for copyright infringement. (Via google images reverse image search). Really worthwhile – particularly if it's a RM image and is registered with the US Copyright Office. Unless the infringement happens on a blog or chinese/russian/... website: Pay day, big time.
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: Alamy on February 13, 2013, 03:58
James, you legend you !! Thank for clearing that up, now I feel a lot better about my chances. I have been doing some keyword admin and slashed all unrelevant keywords. I got too many views on images that were not related to the search. Too many cryptic stuff etc.

Also, had a few sales, so my rank should be positively affected now, and I am adding more images as we speak.

Yes !! Alamy just became relevant for me  ;D

:)

Glad to hear it!
Title: Re: How Important is CTR for your Alamy Rank?
Post by: RacePhoto on February 16, 2013, 01:27
Thats weird, my CTR for last month is 0.63 same as Luis and JoAnn

I suppose you are going to make me look at mine now?  :D

The reason for the original was people being concerned, asking, complaining about searches that give bad results that "hurt their rank" and wondering. I don't watch it, I don't pay attention, I just upload and hope for sales.

Yes I've been in the BHZ Game since I started there and two of my pseudos are back to back and stay that way. If you missed it. One has almost all my sales, the other has almost no sales. That convinced me. But it does show relative rank compared to others playing the game, for the ones who play according to the rules.

Edit: Added this to keep the information easier to find, so you don't need to go search to find it.

How to join the BHZ game - ONE PHOTO ONLY!

1) RM photo (not RF!)
2) Edit the keywords and add BHZ in the Essential Keywords box (no others)

Locate your image, page number and placement, make a note. Might take awhile to show in the search as Alamy has to run a database sort.

3) Wait up to 90 days for the database to update and
4) Find your photo again

Just as James says, it's a game. It's only going to tell you in relation to others playing the game. Some people have multiple images, some have added RF, some  game the game and put BHZ in a different field. It's all relative and for amusement purposes only.  :)