50 (less possible junk)

no idea, there are many theories around that but I don't think there is a proper study to guarantee success using less or more keywords (also can change in each agency), my advice is making them relevant, 50 is usual my aim but some I have only 30 or even less

the only fact I believe we have is using short titles in DT (interview with Tyler/Carmen) which can be no longer valid, oh agencies

Every site has its own search, so that question is almost impossible to answer, at least for me.

I use as many keywords as I need to describe the images. Less then 50, so be it, more than 50, delete all that are the least related to the image

I dont spam, but I am flexible on conceptual images.

since ss provided a keyword tool, i have used that, and it comes up with the most relevant.
i have not seen any change in download numbers, whatever keyword tool I used, yuris, dusegard or now ss.
my guess is that it is teh first 20 keywords that are important, not the strange ones, such as floral and, environment.
keywords should be concrete i think.

I use Shutterstock keyword suggestion page to select around 30. I used to have 50 but I learned that on average image got 30 on Shutterstock.

DT certainly have said that fewer keywords are treated as more relevant than more keywords.  I think that makes sense - the greater the number the likelier that relevancy is being stretched.

I'm amazed at some of the words that are used all the time that I don't think are relevant. What is the difference between a healthy red apple and a red apple? Do you think someone really searches for healthy fruit or do they have their own idea of what fruit they are looking for? What is an unhealthy fruit? Even beautiful with woman is odd. Ugly might work if someone is really searching for a special concept but how many searches are really done on beautiful woman and how many results will appear? Millions. A wedding bouquet with the word celebration? What combination of terms would include celebration when searching for a wedding bouquet. Celebration with flowers? Many use the word nutrition with every image of food. Huh? Junk for food if it is, that makes sense. Child playing with toy has hobby, leisure, serene as keywords? Will a buyer search for a serene child with leisure toy? Nouns and verbs are more powerful. Conceptual words are not always a good idea because what may look fun to someone might be dangerous to others. Give the buyers some credit, they have an idea of what subjects are fun or dangerous, you don't have to do their thinking for them. Friend for a pet dog? Who searches using friend and expects to find a dog? They would search for dog. I could go on and on (maybe I'm a keymaster somewhere, maybe not but I've seen it all). Too many words on most images, IMHO.

I wish we could have a list of agencies with their keyword/search placement preferences. For example; first 7 keywords are important in fotolia or title is important in this site, caption is important in that site etc.  It is as important as the quality of your image if you want to make money.

I can't be bothered by adhering to sites' individual rules regarding keywording images. I just keyword with what I consider relevant and appropriate for a certain images. Sure, the most important keywords first, but other than that, I follow my own methods. I keep it below 50, but at least 20 or so, without being spammy.

And I consider 'nutrition' for food images a relevant keyword. Plenty of buyers using that word to find food images, so why not? Same goes for healthy (for fruit) and beautiful (for woman). If a buyer doesn't know what kind of health-conveying image he's looking for, he might notice my 'healthy apple' image and think: "yeah, THAT'S the one!"

In the example of dog, there is a significant difference between dog and a mans best friend. A dog can be an isolation but a mans best friend is a conceptual image of a man and his dog. So I do see why I would keyword certain images of a dog with 'friend'

As for giving the buyer credit, its not about that, its about helping my sales, if I come up with a concept and keyword it as such a buyer might run into my image and think, 'hey, I didnt think of that, thats great'

You should see the keywords used to buy some of my images.

^^ You are using the keyword cute and pretty yourself. In fact you keyworded and image of a girl holding an apple with cute healthy and fruit.

Quote from: Ron on September 28, 2013, 16:05

^^ You are using the keyword cute and pretty yourself. In fact you keyworded and image of a girl holding an apple with cute healthy and fruit.

Fruit is factually correct for apple.

Of course!! But cuppacoffee was mentioning healthy fruit is pleonasm and Gillian agrees with cuppacoffee.