Author Topic: Image search ranking (Read 2109 times)

pangamedia · « **on:** June 27, 2023, 15:18 »

Hi,

I've been following the ranking of a few of my images with specific search terms for ± 6 months. Which you can find in my blog. There is no analyses involved, just displaying the ranking over this time period. Nice to see is how an image occasionally jumps up and down large amounts in ranking from one day to another. Sadly, we cannot know why as we do not know the ranking algorithms of our beloved microstock agencies.

The images are on my blog: https://pangamediaanalytics.com/blog/search-ranking-of-assets/

pancaketom · « **Reply #1 on:** June 27, 2023, 16:54 »

We are somewhat at the mercy of the search results. Sure, we can make more and better (we hope) images, but unless there is no competition, where we end up on the search makes a huge difference in how much we make. Interesting that an image with no sales would jump up so much in the search, but the search is a mysterious thing, and probably no longer the same for every searcher.

A long time ago I kept a vague eye on my most popular seller on SS. It generally was on the top line or at least the top 2 or 3 lines on a one word photo search with many thousands of results. (there are over 500,000 for it now). It pretty much held this position for a few years and then one day I checked and couldn't find it - searching out about 20 pages, although I could have missed it. Eventually I found it again about 5 pages in, but sales went from about 1 to 1.5 per day to maybe monthly.

Back on iS a long time ago it seemed that any time an image started to gain traction they would change the search and sales would stop.

pangamedia · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2023, 13:15 »

Quote from: pancaketom on June 27, 2023, 16:54

We are somewhat at the mercy of the search results. Sure, we can make more and better (we hope) images, but unless there is no competition, where we end up on the search makes a huge difference in how much we make. Interesting that an image with no sales would jump up so much in the search, but the search is a mysterious thing, and probably no longer the same for every searcher.

I would say that we are completely at the mercy of search results, which makes the metadata so important (although boring). I noticed that the search depends on country (for one, top pages are different in different countries). I do not know how far they go though: would they adjust it per user? Something that isn't impossible those days..

Quote from: pancaketom on June 27, 2023, 16:54

A long time ago I kept a vague eye on my most popular seller on SS. It generally was on the top line or at least the top 2 or 3 lines on a one word photo search with many thousands of results. (there are over 500,000 for it now). It pretty much held this position for a few years and then one day I checked and couldn't find it - searching out about 20 pages, although I could have missed it. Eventually I found it again about 5 pages in, but sales went from about 1 to 1.5 per day to maybe monthly.

Back on iS a long time ago it seemed that any time an image started to gain traction they would change the search and sales would stop.

Those large jumps are interesting and worrisome for me. It means that best sellers can stop being best-sellers from one day to another and hence your revenue as well. Exactly, what you describe above. Which is not a sustainable income: some portfolios are too much at the mercy of the agencies this way.

Micha91 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2023, 13:28 »

One of my bestsellers, despite still being in second place in search results on SS, suddenly stopped selling. Since the beginning of June, it seems to have disappeared from search results altogether.

I have also noticed a significant drop in sales from the US for the past month, so the varying search results for different regions seem to be true.

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Author Topic: Image search ranking (Read 2109 times)

pangamedia

pancaketom

pangamedia

Micha91

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