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Author Topic: Keywording to fit ALL agencies?  (Read 2831 times)

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« on: July 21, 2020, 09:17 »
0
I used to be an iStock exclusive, so I knew exactly how to keyword for them, now however I am not sure anymore as vocabularies are not controlled like on Getty. I am submitting to top 9 agencies.

I'm finding myself using synonyms and different forms of the same word a lot, which sometimes gets me over the allowed number of keywords. Is this necessary? I'll give you a few examples:

laugh, laughter, laughing
disinfection, disinfectant, disinfecting
happy, happiness
radiation, radioactive
virus, viral
joy, joyful
cut-out, cut out
protection, protective
emotion, emotional

Are these considered as different keywords, or does searching for one give you results for the other as well, whether you have it in your keywords or not?

Thanks!
« Last Edit: July 21, 2020, 10:02 by notaslave »


« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2020, 10:04 »
+2
These are perfectly acceptable keywords in my book. I think they're considered different keywords, although some agencies may have 'smarter' search engines that automatically take corresponding adjectives into account.

I know that Shutterstock considers 'laugh' and 'laughing' as the same (in other words, the second one would be redundant), but most agencies accept both versions.

Snow

« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2020, 13:34 »
+1
Another vote for different keywords.

If there is a person actually laughing in the image I would only use "laughing" and not laugh or laughter because those are more conceptual keywords.

I think a buyer searches for "woman laughing" and not "woman laugh" or "woman laughter"

I would use "disinfecting" when someone is actually performing the action. I would use "disinfectant" and "disinfection" to describe the product being used (without people in the image)

Don't forget about "cutout"  ;D

"closeup", "close up" or "close-up"  ::)

I think buyers with a deadline use "closeup" or "cutout" more often.

I hope that makes sense Notaslave! I'm not a top seller nor a keyword guru so this is only my 2c!

To all the buyers out there please enlighten us! ;)

« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2020, 16:08 »
0
Another vote for different keywords.

If there is a person actually laughing in the image I would only use "laughing" and not laugh or laughter because those are more conceptual keywords.

I think a buyer searches for "woman laughing" and not "woman laugh" or "woman laughter"

....
we want to find all sorts of buyers, not a subset, even if it 'most' buyers


this has come up many times before - why wouldn't a buyer use a conceptual keyword? a person laughing does also is described by laugh & laughter


 better to anticipate all buyers (w/o spamming) by using general AND specific keywords
« Last Edit: July 21, 2020, 16:10 by cascoly »

« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2020, 19:26 »
0
Another vote for different keywords.

If there is a person actually laughing in the image I would only use "laughing" and not laugh or laughter because those are more conceptual keywords.

I think a buyer searches for "woman laughing" and not "woman laugh" or "woman laughter"

I would use "disinfecting" when someone is actually performing the action. I would use "disinfectant" and "disinfection" to describe the product being used (without people in the image)

Don't forget about "cutout"  ;D

"closeup", "close up" or "close-up"  ::)

I think buyers with a deadline use "closeup" or "cutout" more often.

I hope that makes sense Notaslave! I'm not a top seller nor a keyword guru so this is only my 2c!

To all the buyers out there please enlighten us! ;)
Person doing disinfection is most likely using some kind of a disinfectant to get the job done, in which case both keywords should apply. As far as laugh goes, I agree, what you propose makes the most sense, but who's to say people always search using full and proper sentences. I think if a person is laughing, laughter is still on point, even if the photo is not meant as a conceptual art depicting laughter per se. And yeah, all the different forms of cut outs and closeups take like 10 keywords on their own lol... Vocabs should def be smarter at least for the technical descriptions of the images, so we wouldn't have to spend so many keywords on them.

"I think buyers with a deadline use "closeup" or "cutout" more often." To save on time typing it? lol

Thanks, appreciate your input.

« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2020, 19:29 »
0
These are perfectly acceptable keywords in my book. I think they're considered different keywords, although some agencies may have 'smarter' search engines that automatically take corresponding adjectives into account.

I know that Shutterstock considers 'laugh' and 'laughing' as the same (in other words, the second one would be redundant), but most agencies accept both versions.
So these "non-smart" vocabularies can seriously inflate my keyword count if I want to get it done properly :o

Another vote for different keywords.

If there is a person actually laughing in the image I would only use "laughing" and not laugh or laughter because those are more conceptual keywords.

I think a buyer searches for "woman laughing" and not "woman laugh" or "woman laughter"

....
we want to find all sorts of buyers, not a subset, even if it 'most' buyers


this has come up many times before - why wouldn't a buyer use a conceptual keyword? a person laughing does also is described by laugh & laughter


 better to anticipate all buyers (w/o spamming) by using general AND specific keywords
My thoughts yes, although I can see points in both. Somebody might prefer more "curated" search results, but at the same time might miss out on some great images if we are too strict with our keywording and overthink it...

Snow

« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2020, 03:07 »
0
We need buyers input on this. Im sure there are some around here, even contributors that are also buyers so hopefully some will chime in.

I dont know how specific a buyer goes with their search but according to Shutterstock content manager (or how they call it) the keywords they use are the opposite of specific.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2020, 11:56 »
0
We need buyers input on this. Im sure there are some around here, even contributors that are also buyers so hopefully some will chime in.

I dont know how specific a buyer goes with their search but according to Shutterstock content manager (or how they call it) the keywords they use are the opposite of specific.

Not all searchers are the same. Some search terms I see on Alamy Measures are bizarre to me (e.g. Margaret - unless they're writing a book about Margarets and want to see the whole range, but some even weirder). Also, sometimes when I see images in use and try to report them on the 'images found' thread, I can't find them on Alamy (where they were said to have been bought from) by looking at the photo and choosing keywords (e.g location, something specific in the photo), yet the buyer found them. WDIK?

It looks like I sold an image at the w/e by unwittingly spelling a public person's name wrongly.  :-[ The search hasn't come through yet, but there are plenty of images of the person on Alamy and my pic (with the wrongly spelled surname) was taken in such a specific context (irrelevant to the newspaper article it was illustrating) they had to crop it awkwardly - so I guess the searcher used the same wrong spelling as mine and thought it was the only pic there.

The 'disinfectant' keyword is interesting. I'd use it if there was some way in the pic you could see that the person was using a disinfectant rather than just an ordinary cleaning fluid; which would either be editorial or you could make up a label for a generic bottle.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2020, 11:18 »
0
Simple, what words would you use to describe the image to someone else? Specific words, what's actually in the image or happening, not just trying to find as many words as possible.

What words would someone use to search for that image? Be realistic, does anyone search for many of the words that some people include on their images, just because, more must be better?

There's no tricking the buyers or gaming the system if you are honest and use plain and simple words that buyers actually will be using.

I'll return to this: What words would you use, if you were searching for the following image?

Would you look for "Red Apple on White Background"?

or

food,isolated,object,half,natural,bio,green,product,single,biologic,bright,closeup,color,delicious,diet,diet plan,fresh,freshness,fruit,healthy,ingredient,juice,macro,mix,nature,nobody,one,organic,plant,raw,sweet,vegetarian,vitamin,wallpapers,wood,yellow,object,splash,agriculture,summer,juice,juicy,Malus domestica,crimson...

Plus a funny thing happens, when people use the word suggestion tools, they nearly always end up with all the same words as anyone else who uses the suggestion tools.  :) How to stand out in a crowd, look and act exactly like everyone around you? Maybe that seems odd, but if the search is the same and the words are the same, what makes anything better just because there are more of the same words or variations of the same words?

I think my point is,  I'd say, invest time in making better images instead of worrying and spending a lot of time on search word nuances, variations or counts.


 

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