Keywording Guidelines
Keywords - Why your income from myLoupe depends on them
As important as the quality of your images is the quality of your keywording. Improper keywording can loose potential buyers by destroying the relevancy of our search function. We each have to take responsibility for accuracy and relevancy in our keywords.
Your approach to keywording must anticipate how a buyer will use keywords to search. This is different from using keywords to try to get your image to come up on as many searches as possible. The first approach serves the buyer's interests by keeping search results relevant. Using keywords to try to get more exposure for your images at the expense of relevancy, will cost buyers time and cost all of us buyers and income.
If you are unable to keyword your own images according to the guidelines below ask us about having it done for you.
Bad keywording that costs us search relevancy can result in your image(s) being unpublished until they are fixed. Extensive bad keywording could result in your entire library of images being unpublished and your contributor status changed from "Publisher" to "Newbie" until your keywording fits these guidelines. Location Generic Images
Do NOT use location specific keywords in a location generic image.
Location Specific Images
If the subject of the image is specific to a location (it's a picture of a place) don't forget to include the name of the town or city, the state, country, continent or region.
- EXAMPLE : A photo of a church and church yard in Romania
Because this image tells something about what that location looks like, it should include in its keywords the name of the town, and "romania,eastern,europe". Otherwise it may be missed by a photo researcher looking for images of Romania.
Less can be more - don't over do it
Remember, the goal of your keywording must be to produce relevant search results that help the buyers find appropriate images, NOT to have your images showing up in searches where they don't fit. To that end determine what the subject of your image is and keyword for the subject of the image and not every single incidental element of a scene.
- EXAMPLE : You have a cityscape shot of a major city. There is a park in the background with a few trees. Is this shot going to fit a buyer searching for "trees" - Not if there are only a few barely visible in the in the background. So keyword it [cityscape,Chicago,Illinois,USA,U.S.A., United States,morning,city,urban,downtown] but NOT "trees"
If it's in the shot and it's an important part of the subject - keyword it. If it's in the shot and not - best not to.
Potrait and Landscape
Do NOT use the terms Potrait or Landscape in your keywords to mean Vertical or Horizontal. You may use Vertical or Horizontal as keywords if you like, but it's probably best to designate an image's orientation be checking the Vertical or Horizontal category.
Abstract, Concept, Background
Use caution in adding these keywords or checking the category. We all know that almost any image can be used as a background. The "background" category, or adding it as a keyword should indicate that the image is exceptionally well suited or primarily suited to be used as a background. Being too free with this designation will erode the value of our site to buyers. The same goes for "abstracts" and "concepts".
Photographic Terms
Avoid using terms that refer to photographic specialties like "interior" "exterior" "tabletop" "still life" unless they are applicable. Not all shots taken indoors are architectural "interior" shots, so "indoors" is a better choice for your keywords if it is an indoor shot, but not an "interior" shot.
How the myLoupe search uses, keywords, captions, etc.
The main search at the top of each page on myLoupe.com searches only the keywords field. It can search multiple words, and will ignore common words "with, and, in, on, at, the" so that the search phrase "beach at sunset" will search for keywords "beach, sunset". In the Advanced Search the buyer can extend the search to also search the Title and Description fields. Be aware that your Admin Section where you manage your image library works in this "extended search" mode. Therefore if you want to test how your images are being found by buyers, use the "buyers home" link and search. You can return to your admin page with the "admin" link at the bottom of the page.
The search logic will automatically add or subtract common English plural endings like "s" and "es" so it is not always necessary to have these endings in your keywords. An image with the keyword "boat" will be found when a search is made for the keywords "boats". Likewise a search for "churches" will find an image with the keyword "church".
Entering Captions, Keywords and Descriptions
DO NOT start new lines in the keywords field by hitting the RETURN/ENTER key on your keyboard. Doing so places an invisible character in the field, and may block the search engine from reading keywords that follow it. Avoid using non alpha-numeric characters such as &,!,?,/,{,(,\, etc.
Use spaces** to separate keywords ( keywords with commas or semi-colons will be automatically converted) . CAUTION: If embed your keywords in the file using Photoshop you must use commas or semi-colons or your entire block of keyword will be read percieved as a single keyword phrase and subject to a limited number of characters. This is a limitaion in Photoshop through version CS2 we have not tested later versions.
The main buyer's search searches only the keywords field. So if you have important keywords in the description or title, be sure they are also entered as keywords. In the Advanced Search, buyers will have the option to also search the title and caption fields, but this feature is used far less often.
It is unacceptable to use keywords NOT legitimately related to the subject matter. This will be considered SPAMMING the search engine and will not be tolerated. It is also unacceptable to use profanity, obscenity or anything meant to be offensive to any ethnic or religious group.
Plagiarism
Looking at other images of the same or similar subject and how they are keyworded may help spark ideas of how you want to keyword your image, but be careful if you do this that you respect the intellectual property rights of your colleages. Verbatim cut and paste copying of another's hard work is wrong and will not be tolerated.
Enforcement
Bad keywording can jeopardize the relevancy of our search which will directly effect the success of myLoupe and the income of our contributors. Therefore it cannot be permitted. Any contributor whose keywording practices regularly includes inappropriate keywords risks being reverted to "Newbie" status with publishing privileges revoked and all images reverted to an unpublished state.
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