Wouldn't we need to know what proportion of actual buyers search via Google (or Bing or ...)?

I understood that few sales are made via the search engines.
Most people who know paying for stock will probably look through a lot of agencies then make a choice or a couple of choices based on whether they seem likely to meet most of their needs, especially if they're likely to buy a subscription or package.

BTW, I noticed a surprisingly big difference in the results of a google search for 'stock video horse' and 'stock footage horse', so again we'd need to know which term is more likely to be searched on by genuine buyers.

Quote from: Level6 on December 26, 2021, 21:07

Quote from: ShadySue on December 26, 2021, 15:59

Wouldn't we need to know what proportion of actual buyers search via Google (or Bing or ...)?

I understood that few sales are made via the search engines.
Most people who know paying for stock will probably look through a lot of agencies then make a choice or a couple of choices based on whether they seem likely to meet most of their needs, especially if they're likely to buy a subscription or package.

BTW, I noticed a surprisingly big difference in the results of a google search for 'stock video horse' and 'stock footage horse', so again we'd need to know which term is more likely to be searched on by genuine buyers.

That would be a nice stat to have, I suspect its more than we think, professional long time buyers know who the main sites are, Pond5, Shutterstock, Adobe but others might very well at least start off with a Google search and click on stuff from there plus Google gives you a nice wide area view of what's out there, it's like looking at a paper map vs the small GPS screen.

YouTube is indexed by Google and I've seen some stuff come up that way as well when searching for stock.  Maybe it's time to promote our content on platforms that get easily indexed by Google.

The only way I see buyers using Google to look for images is by using Google Search Operators as an alternative for the agency's own search engine/ranking algorithm.
For instance: "site: shutterstock.com sunset flower"

I don't think many potential buyers just type in keywords for the content they want, and then buy that image/illustration/video from any random agency that ends up on top of the search results. Most agencies make it quite difficult (or completely impossible) to just buy one image without any further hassle regarding subscription or credit packs. I can be wrong, but if this would be a burning need for buyers, it would pop up in the analytics of the agencies shopping baskets (content in basket without conversion rate) and they would adjust by making it way easier to just buy one single image.

Now I know there's a lot of complaining and negative reviews on sites like Trustpilot too, specifically for this topic. Buyers just wanted to buy one image, went on carelessly and ended up with an expensive subscription package which seems hard to cancel. Agencies couldn't care less apparently, so I don't think they put much effort in this part of the "market". They have a very strong focus selling subscriptions or credit packs, so I guess that's where the money is for them. Not in selling single images (or other content).

As far as selling your content on platforms that end up high in the Google search results: that would probably be a self hosted site. And I think it only makes sense if you have a clearly designated niche, so you can strongly optimize your SEO for that niche, and outcompete agencies or other platforms who have to broaden their SEO strategy. Wouldn't work for me, as my port tends to be all over the place.

After paid placement, you can think of traffic numbers, backlinks and organic search results based on other factors. That will start to explain why site X comes up before site Z

Of course Pexels will come up on top or near the top, the most searched word on the Internet is "FREE".  That's why so many of the bait sites use Free Images to get anyone to see partner site images. The free sites live off of ad views and partner sales percentages.

Quote from: Level6 on December 27, 2021, 19:42

Quote from: ppdd on December 27, 2021, 19:25

Pexels is owned by Canva, FWIW

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Thanks! did not know that, searched their domain registry and last time I looked it came up in Iceland.  either way they have a ton of good video and photos both editorial and commercial and the site is so easy to use, just click, download and done, no sign up required.

So if they are owned by Canva then that's Canva's money losing busing which comes in handy at tax time, it's not abut luring customers to Canva, haven't come across a link yet that lures me to Canva, looks like they run the free site at a loss for tax purposes.

Canva owns Pixabay as well. Getty owns Unsplash. These were all recently acquired for millions of dollars, and not for tax purposes.

I think search results vary from person to person. When I googled "stock footage" pond5 came up as the 4th ad from the top. In the organic section shutterstock was just below pexels. Also on the first page was istock, envato, pixabay and vimeo

Adobe Stock's presence on Google search has been weak for me.

I often try searching for my best sellers on Google, using keywords I used with them. Alamy is the best (funny because I've never had a sale there). SS and iS are about as good as each other. AS is sadly not the third because they don't showed up at all.

Adobe Stock's presence on Google search has been weak for me.

I often try searching for my best sellers on Google, using keywords I used with them. Alamy is the best (funny because I've never had a sale there). SS and iS are about as good as each other. AS is sadly not the third because they don't showed up at all.