So you took some nice photos or maybe even a thousand. You have now submitted your images to stock photography agencies, such as Shutter Stock or some other micro-stock photography agency. The question on your mind now is what keywords do you use? What keywords are going to attract the audience that you want to buy the photo you are selling?
Keywords are critically important when submitting stock photos to micro stock agencies. They are the ones that allow your customers to find your images. If you don’t use keywords, you won’t get people to see your photos and you won’t make money.
When searching for keywords, it should be more than simple. Having an image of a flower and using keywords like the words flower and whatever species it is will not give the most favorable results. Think of how many other photographers are doing the exact same thing! You must be different.
The first step to finding keywords that are right for your stock photography is to look at your stock photo. Watch it and ask yourself the very important question of who is going for this. Who is this photo best suited for? Is it a publicity photo or an editorial stock photo? The more you know who your photo is for, the more you can choose keywords that target this customer.
If your photo is a very dramatic looking photo that expresses a lot of meaning, then you’ll want to target people who want photos with a lot of impact. These people are not going to look for the words flower. They’re going to be looking for the emotional impact that they’re trying to get. Words like happy, sad, depressed, full of energy are much better than just the keywords of the subject of the photograph.
Personally, I recommend not submitting keywords that have the name of your theme. It’s not that they don’t produce the results you want, but it’s because of the competition. Submitting a photo of a dog with the keyword dog will not help you get a sale. You will be competing with hundreds of other dog photos. Rather, submit keywords that describe what the dog looks like and the message you are trying to convey with your photo.