Author Topic: Agencies search engines - does time play a role? (Read 2543 times)

StockStudio · « **on:** May 20, 2018, 02:58 »

So this question relates to both video (which I do mostly) and pictures. Obviously some of our images are becoming good sellers right away - just a matter of uploading the right content at the right time I guess. But I have read some threads claiming that on most agencies content gets higher ranking as time goes by (again - assuming the content is of good quality). In my portfolio most sales originate from files uploaded on 2016. On one hand I was thinking my new files aren't selling. But should I just wait for the new clips to "kick in"? What's your experience?

pkphotos · « **Reply #1 on:** May 20, 2018, 08:15 »

The cream always rises

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #2 on:** May 20, 2018, 08:19 »

Personally, what I think is happening is this.

It has nothing to do with content "kicking" in on the agency site. They have their algorithm, and it does whatever it does. You could have a clip listed there 10 years, and you aren't going to get any extra special ranking for simply having a clip there. (They may rank you higher if you make sales, etc - but not simply because you have a clip in their library).

What it is - is this. They are simply getting more people to their site through "google". Google search takes about 2-3 months (sometimes faster) to get indexed. If, once your clip gets indexed by *google* - you appear in *google* search - and then someone searches for your video, and then goes to a video site to get it (and doesn't simply decide to sign up for their membership program) - *then* you get a sale.

Aside from a few speciality sites (i.e., envato) - I don't think your sales have anything to do with the agency trying to promote you. (In fact, it appears they really don't care which clip sells - as long as *something* sells because then they get a cut of that). It's just simply because someone looked for something in google, decided they liked your image/video over what was presented on the hard sell to sign up for a membership, and decided to purchase it.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #3 on:** May 20, 2018, 09:21 »

Quote from: StockStudio on May 20, 2018, 02:58

So this question relates to both video (which I do mostly) and pictures. Obviously some of our images are becoming good sellers right away - just a matter of uploading the right content at the right time I guess. But I have read some threads claiming that on most agencies content gets higher ranking as time goes by (again - assuming the content is of good quality). In my portfolio most sales originate from files uploaded on 2016. On one hand I was thinking my new files aren't selling. But should I just wait for the new clips to "kick in"? What's your experience?

The Google reasoning by SuperPhoto can be part of it, absolutely.

But if we're strictly talking about the agency/marketplace search engines, more time by itself is negative in every search engine I've tested.

Very simplified, "Best Match" ranking is most often determined more or less like this: Sales / time. A clip with 0 sales over 1 day can be ranked high, a clip with 0 sales over 2 years will be ranked VERY low.

But, and a big but, as time passes, a clip can get sales from more specific searches, or from links, Google, etc. Enough of those, and over time, it will climb the search rankings.

If it does well, it will now rank high also on very general searches, meaning it will further solidify its position. So indirectly, more time can mean a higher ranking, but only if the clip gets the occasional sale of course.

---

Let's say I have a clip of a sunset in the Maldives with a specific sand type. It will be invisible after a week for any general searches like "sunset", "beach", "vacation" etc. There are simply too many clips with many sales that will show up before it, and hundreds are added each week.

But if the Maldives becomes a very hot topic, along with that special sand type, specific searches of "sunset", "the sand type", "Maldives" will find your clip and yield sales.

Let's say you collect a good number of sales over the course of a year or two. Now your clip will also rank much higher on the more general searches like "sunset".

---

A direct answer to your question: Yes, time plays a very big role. Sales, however, play a bigger role.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 20, 2018, 09:37 »

I'm not sure anyone really knows much for sure.....what really puzzles me of late is the number of old and not particularly good pics I have had sitting unsold for years on SS that suddenly have a small run of sales.

pancaketom · « **Reply #5 on:** May 20, 2018, 12:32 »

I think there are a lot of other factors that go into the search "special sauce". For instance your location, the location of the buyer, zooms and views, previous search terms that were used for sales, sales, views with no sales, etc. Keywords, description, title... Previous purchases by that buyer (maybe they tend to buy high key stuff)... I think the searches are getting so complex that the programmers don't even know what exactly is always going on. Maybe in the short term of the A/B testing that yields more sales, but in the long run that might not actually be the case. I feel this is probably more likely at places like Getty and SS that think they are so clever...

Certainly on sites like SS I have a lot more mid aged image sales (2010-2015 or so than recent images or very old images). That is based on most the most popular in the last 3mo to 1 yr and also just what it looks like looking through the sales. Also the older images sell more than all but a very few recent ones. Compared to Adobe where new images seem to sell just as well (I have the same images, but they have all been uploaded in the last few years, so maybe if they were uploaded a long time ago they would be doing better).

On some sites like DT your overall portfolio and account is much more important (and thus contributor's work tends to clump in the results) not to mention there they seem to turn portfolios on and off.

unnonimus · « **Reply #6 on:** May 20, 2018, 22:43 »

you said: "But I have read some threads claiming that on most agencies content gets higher ranking as time goes by"

search engines have to sort their content. they can sort by date, by file size, randomly, etc. but most use a scoring system. so a stock agency will do the following:

for each image, a score will be assigned to it, which might be generated per search or pre-determined.

teh score will be determined on these factors or more:
- whether the keyword is in the title or description or keyword list
- whether the keyword (search term) is an exact match for the title
- the image resolution
- the number of times the image has been viewed
- the amount of money earned by the image
- how long wince the submission was made
etc

then all the search results are sorted by their scores, and the highest score is shown first, and the lowest score shown last.

it makes sense that you would give a higher score to recent submissions, because you need to give all submissions a chance, otherwise old submissions would prevent newer submissions from ever appearing in search results.
also, if an image is old, and never sells, and no one views it, it may not be salesworthy and should be bumped to a lower position by new submissions.

for most search engines:
- new content will bump off older content that has never sold
- as time goes by, a clip that performs well will move higher in the search rankings

if you search google you can probably find more info about scoring search engine results.
this page explains how it works for some sample searches:
https://moz.com/blog/search-engine-algorithm-basics

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Author Topic: Agencies search engines - does time play a role? (Read 2543 times)

StockStudio

pkphotos

SuperPhoto

increasingdifficulty

Pauws99

pancaketom

unnonimus

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