Keywords

Keywording images is a time consuming part of the image processing. I use Pixvue to add the keywords to my photos.

After processing the images in photoshop, I usually log into one of the microstock agencies that I belong to, and I do a search for the subject in my images.

I get some good ideas for adding to the keywords that I have already come up with. It does take time to organize these lists, but once I have a list it makes it easier the next time I shoot the same subject.

I have always keyworded my images and that info goes along with the file when it is uploaded to my website. I have found that I also need to keyword the galleries that I have created. All of this keywording is necessary for the search engines to find my images - the search engines on each website and the search engines that crawl the web.

I like to have at least a dozen keywords per image, and I try to keep it keywords as opposed to key phrases. I have found that many sites separate each word with a comma when they are uploaded, and it takes the phrases apart which doubles the keywords.

Keywording really does work, and when looking at some of the many images available for sale on the web, I can't understand why some owners complain they are getting no views or traffic and they only have one or two keywords. It is monotonous work, but it does pay off and the only cost is the time invested to do it.