Choose your words wisely- Keywording Help

Why do we say that at Cutcaster ;-)

So, you’ve got that shot. Everything is perfect. You’ve nailed the exposure and focus. The composition couldn’t be better and you burned the midnight oil at your computer in your digital “darkroom,” preening and fluffing that shot or your clip to perfection. The only thing that is left before you send it out to the world of buyers and viewers is to make sure your keywording correctly describes your hard work so it doesn't fall into the content abyss.

Keywording your content is important for many reasons due to the technological impairments we encounter when identifying and trying to search for content online. No great solutions have popped up to help us with this and we must rely on human input of keywords/metadata to make it easier for us to search for what we are looking for. We have talked at lengths about this search and cataloguing problem.

All too often clips and photos which are poorly keyworded are lost into this content abyss and out of site for interested parties. It does you no good if you have that great shot and no one can find it. For selling content, keywording is one of the most important steps towards making sure you content is found.

Here are a few ethical tips to help you with keywording your valuable content either to sell it or make it easier to find on other sites. If you know any others please add them in the comments.

1. Know the point or concept behind the clip or photo you have shot. You should always be thinking about your target audience and what they would be interested in or how they would search for it.

2. All your keywords have to be relevant. We have had countless conversations or seen many community threads started by angry searchers who say they find many irrelevant keywords and content in their searches because uploaders spam the keyword section. This may help your contents chances of being seen but can irritate and completely turn off a buyer or viewer if it is totally off base.

3. You should not turn keywording into a word association game. Don't try to take your concept six steps down the road and turn it into something it isn't. I.E. mouse --> hole --> cheese --> cat --> pet. This doesn't help anyone.

4. Don't include keywords that are not in the shot. Some common repeat offenders are sex, sexy, woman, babe. We can only guess what they are looking for.

5. A thesaurus can be great if you run out of ideas or if English is your second language. You can find help online or in your Microsoft Word.

6. Using antonyms are useful but only when describing certain clips or images. A good example is "go" and then using the opposite "stop" for a traffic light. Or "hot" and "cold" when describing a thermometer.

7. When English is your first language, one must always be aware that their can be different meanings to the same words. There are some subtle differences between American English which you would learn in Japan, the Philippines and Russia and British English which is taught in India, Pakistan, Australia and much of Africa. Our advice is to cater to both forms of English when keywording as buyers and viewers are able to find it from all over the world.

These little tips should help you with your keywording. When all else fails it may be time to call your 7th grade English teacher for a little help.

There are keywording programs available. Here are a few below.

http://www.keywording.com
http://www.abouttheimage.com
http://www.a2zkeywording.com
http://www.jaincotech.com
http://www.keywordcompiler.com
http://www.keedup.com
http://www.africamediaonline.com
http://www.keywordingindia.com
http://www.onasiadigital.com
http://www.careydam.com
http://www.adnetinfosystems.com/
http://www.keywords-to-go.com/
http://www.keywordcompiler.com/