How I Keyword Images? By a Cutcaster Contributor

As you know we have been going over some of your files and helping people with their keywording. We still need everyone to go back in and do this themselves. However when I was going through one contributors work, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well he keyworded his images. He was great at adding in singular words and compound phrases that really describe both the image and to a smaller degree concepts surrounding the image. I emailed him to ask about his keywording workflow and this is what he said. It's simple and I hope it helps.

"As is well known, keywording is just as important as having a good image and without effective keywords an image will never be found and thus will never be sold. I keep a searchable database with all of the keyword combinations that I use. When I shoot a new image I first go to the database to find keywords that are good matches. I always ask myself the same questions about every image; who, what, when, where and why. I try to think of the best keywords that answer those questions and then search the Internet for things relating to those keywords. I carefully filter out anything that I don't think is relative to the image and the good results go straight to the IPTC of the image and in to my database. It used to take me a considerable amount of time to use this method but after using it for several years, it now takes me less than 5 minutes to effectively create keywords for an image. Practice makes perfect."

Everyone has their own workflow and process for adding keywords. We would like to hear yours. Add it to the comments below.

Keywording is going to be so important going forward so I need everyones help in dealing with this issue.

The 12 Commandments of Keywording success according to Cutcaster

The 12 Commandments of Keywording success according to Cutcaster ;-)

1. You only need between five to fifteen (5-15) keywords. Twenty (20) is the highest. Better tagging means better search results, bringing in more users, which means more sales for your images at higher prices then other sites. We would rather have fewer files that have better keywords than more files with plenty of irrelevant keywords

2. Keywords need to be separated by a comma. Compound phrases need to be separated by a space and then surround by commas. You can remove any quotation marks.

3. You can add ONE SET of location tags. Avoid using locations as tags unless there is something in the photo that makes its location recognizable. Not a seagull in the blue sky.

4. Remove all the keywords that are obviously not in the images

5. Remove tags that could be tangentially related, but aren’t really illustrated well by the photo. i.e. picture of cat, adding in “mouse”

6. Remove tags that are related to the photo, but so vague that no one would ever use them to search.

7. Take a few of the choice words and make them far better by turning them into a phrase

8. Don’t “stretch” your tags into irrelevancy, in order to generate more hits for an image. This can be very frustrating for our users, who tend to search literally.

9. Figures of speech, nicknames, slang, metaphors and metonyms can create a ton of problems in a search engine. Please don’t use them. The reviewers will add them in if necessary.

10. Proper Names and Catch Phrases — Don't Break Them Up. If you have a keyword that is either a very common set of two words, or is a proper name, enter it as is. The search engine has the ability to recognize many phrases that operate as a common term but contain more than one word, such as "hard drive," "hot dog," or "White House." It also recognizes the names of many public and historical figures.

11. You do not need to type in ‘car, cars’ to cover the singular and plural versions of a noun. Type in only the one that is more accurate for your photo. If there is only one car, type in “car.” Your image will come up in a search for both car and cars, but it will be ranked higher if the plurality matches what the buyer searched for.

12. Be as literal as possible. Describe just what is in the images.

Read Dan Heller's blog article on the reasons why keywording your images correctly is so important.

How to Report Keyword Spamming……

How do you report keyword spamming? It’s easy.

In an effort to make our search results the most relevant to what a buyer is looking for we have a "flag this media" button. On every media detail page there is this icon with a flag on it above the photo on the right hand side. All you need to do is click the flag and a pop-up box will appear where you can choose to report the image for Keyword Spamming or Copyright Alert. There is also a “Reason:” box where you can put your concern in if you would like to further explain the flag.

When flagging any media – you as the flagger, remain COMPLETELY ANNONOMOUS! - so you will never have to worry about inappropriate revenge flagging.

By flagging media for Keyword Spamming or even Copyright Alert, you are not only helping Cutcaster weed through the rubble, but you are helping Cutcaster remain buyer friendly by providing the best relevant search results available on the market today.

Thanks for all the help so far from people who have flagged media files and also those who have gone back and re-keyworded. I am going to be putting out a keyword guide for everyone's benefit later on!

Update to Cutcaster Search coming

Hey Guys,

I wanted to share with you a BIG update as a contributor to Cutcaster.

Our search algorithm and the way we will organize search is being completely re-vamped and introduced in the next week after a month of tireless work. For such a young site, we are going to have an awesome search engine and will help us attract buyers who are sick of irrelevant search results and looking for fresh, unique content.

At this time, I do not have the man-power to go through each image and revise the keywords ourselves, which I wish I could do. I have reviewed some of your images and if you were to tailor your keywords and titles more specifically to each image you will greatly maximize your profitability and where you will show up in search result. It’s not about quantity but quality keywords. I understand it is time consuming to go your keywords for each image, and I am not doing this to enrage anyone or pick on anyone but this is the best way for us to attract buyers with the most relevant search. This will lead to contributors having more sales. It is a missed opportunity for everyone if the images are not keyworded properly and this is an area where we can compete and beat the big boys in but only with your help.

This weekend and next week, we are going to do a major keyword and title edit to most of your files so they conform more with what we will be searching for on the site. If you have identified your files off the site by title or some other metadata which lets you know which files are on which site please let us know so we can work together. We will be making some changes and edits to your files metadata but we still need your help mostly. Also some of your keywords are not separated by commas. If they are not can you please add a comma into the spaces where it should belong, followed by a space i.e. dog, animal, family pet, pet etc.

Secondly, I want to personally thank you for uploading your photos and vectors to the site. Cutcaster has been a longtime dream in the making and your contribution is invaluable to the site’s continued growth and success! Cutcaster has grown exponentially since we launch it just 8 months ago. I promise to continue to work tirelessly to improve and grow the site which is happening. We are here for the long haul and need your help.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions about keywording. I really appreciate you taking the time and wish you the best of luck selling your images on Cutcaster.

Best Regards,

John

P.S. Here are some resources to help you with keywording and titling.


Image titles-How important are they?

Image keywording and describing content.

How much your image and vector description matters at Cutcaster?