Proper Keyword Usage (Part 1)

In the field of stock photography keywords are what determine if your image is lost or found. Aside from the image itself keywords are the most important part of an image that determines how your image will sell. You could literally have taken the best photograph in the world but, If your keywords are not optimized no one will ever be able to find it and the sales will not come.
There are many common rules when key wording your images. The first and most obvious is the more keywords the better. This is true to an extent. Images with more keywords pop up in more searches obviously but images with too many keywords can start popping up in searches where they don't really belong. This is because when people try to add a lot of keywords they tend to stray from what the image is really selling. There is no correct amount of keywords for any image but there is a range. You want to try to get keywords up to the 20 mark but not go higher than the 40 mark. Once most people get past 40 or so the keywords tend to stray.
In this article I am going to show you how to correctly keyword your images for NewDarkRoom search optimization.

Plurals

Our first example deals with singular and plural keywords. In the first image we have a man and a woman. Since they are both single sex's the keywords would be Man and Woman NOT Women and Men. In the second photo we have two women standing together. This should have the keywords for both singular and plural forms. Women and Woman should both be present in the keyword list. It is very important to point out pluralizations in words. If there is more than one hand make sure hands gets a keyword as well. If there is more than one cloud you should also have clouds, and so on giving the items displayed.

Proper Verbs

The use of correct verbs is important in keywording images. You only want to mention actions visibly taking place. In the first example we have a kangaroo. Yes we all know the main thing kangaroos do is jump. That doesn't mean it is the best keyword for that image. Lets say you did put jump as a keyword. Now when someone is looking for an image by searching for jump a lying kangaroo would show up. The second photo shows what should come up with the "jump" search.

WYSIWYG

Another key aspect for correct keywording is What You See Is What You Get. In this example we have a person working at her desk on her computer. We see a computer in this image so that would make a good keyword. We know computers have monitors so monitor would be a good keyword right? Wrong! If it is not in the image don't key word it as such. If this was keyworded with monitor the buyer would get frustrated because there is no monitor to be found. Just because an item is directly relative to the action in the shot does not make it a good idea for keywords.

Location, Location, Location
As with any business model location suits the same here. It is very important to understand relative locations with keywords. Locations can be used in many forms but can be easily mistaken on how to use them.

In this example we have two images that are relative to location. The first image is of some spices. The next is a woman on the phone. Here the correct common keyword is "Indian". Even though the first image is just of some spices the keyword Indian is still usable because some of those spices are directly relative to India. It also suits the second image because this models nationality is from Indian descent.

In the above examples we have a building that shows Indian architecture. The word "Indian" is usable here. In the second image we have a sunset that might have been taken in India. However, even though the location of that sunset might have been in India, the keyword Indian would be wrong. There is nothing in this image that shows off any Indian culture or reference. This sunset could have taken place in California.

Conceptualize

Image concepts are another drastically important factor in good optimization. A concept is giving keywords to ideas or emotions. For example:

In the image on the left we have someone holding a bunch of one hundred dollar bills. One conceptual keyword that could be used would be power. Yes there is no electricity or cooling towers in this image, just a bunch of bills. This goes with the saying Money is Power. To many people being wealthy is having a lot of power as well. So, the keyword Power is suiting and acceptable.

The concept keyword in the image on the right would be "Happy". The emotions on the childrens faces show happiness so, "happy" and "Happiness" would make suitable keywords to reflect the given emotion of the image.

Colorful Keywords
Every aspect of an image should play a part in correctly keywording images. The color of an image also plays a large part to a perspective buyer. The buyer might be developing a webpage where there dominant color is blue. So now the buyer adds blue to a search.

With using color as a keyword you want to only keyword the dominant color scheme. The rich blue sky and the vivid green grass are important colors because they take up a good portion of the image and really stand out. Yes, the clouds are white but they are not dominant so leaving the keyword white out is a good idea. You do not have to keyword every color in an image just the ones that pop out at you.

The end result is that keywords make or break your image and your career as a stock photographer. Your future sales are directly dependant on your ability to visualize, pick apart and describe all important objects, people, emotions, and ideas in every image you take. The stock photography market is a large one. If you do not have the proper keywords it is very easy to get lost in the mix.