Comments on: Five Ways to Make Money in a Popular Photography Niche

By: Andrew Ptak

Andrew Ptak — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:52:59 +0000

Thanks for coming in on this Allen - you give me hope!

By: Allen Murabayashi

Allen Murabayashi — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:27:00 +0000

We are still in the process of learning what exactly triggers the Google Image Indexing. It's important to note that the team that does the "universal" search is different from the image search, and we're also finding that things like backlinks to deep content have a positive effect on image indexing. We've also seen a recent, significant increase in the number of images indexed in Google. I personally think Google is very interested in indexing licensable content -- their shopping search, integration of creative commons, and other indicators suggest they are always interested in enabling better searches. The fact that image libraries have security controls on the images is clearly affecting indexing, but these issues are very surmountable by both parties. It's only a matter of time, and I think you'll see significant improvements in the next 12 months.

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:21:37 +0000

Thanks. I'm not sure you want to stuff your keywords on your site like you would in the image meta data unless it fits the context of what you do for the most part but I agree that some descriptive text is necessary both for spiders and for potential photo buyers that are browsing your site.

By: Denver Fashion Photographer

Denver Fashion Photographer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:33:13 +0000

It's all about keywords, and coming up with relevant and also off the wall keywords. You want your images to show in niche searches as well.

By: Dean Oros

Dean Oros — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:55:46 +0000

Good article. Thanks for sharing.

By: Damien Franco

Damien Franco — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:08:02 +0000

Keywording your images was very appropriately at the top of this list.

I'm often baffled at how many people simply neglect to tag and keyword images in every little nook and cranny that your website allows. This is simply a must for organic discovery amongst the search engines.

By: Arena Creative Stock

Arena Creative Stock — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:10:01 +0000

Great post - I'd have to agree with all 5 points. I'd definitely pursue the artist or company that commissioned that mural. That's messed up, dude.

By: jimdavis

jimdavis — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:22:53 +0000

Using PS isn't that bad. It has also some applications that others don't have.

jimdavis
http://www.kaberx.com/?aff_id=3

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:31:19 +0000

From the sites I have seen, the Lightbox template has a similar site architecture as Photoshelter's which clearly is not that effective for spiders to crawl images. If you want, email me and we can talk more in private.

Thanks.

By: Andrew Ptak

Andrew Ptak — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:45:41 +0000

@Richard - you know a lot more than I do I'm sure, so can you tell me why there would still be an indexing issue with something like Lightbox? Thanks.

By: Gwyn Headley

Gwyn Headley — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:18:37 +0000

Firstly, congratulations on your emphasis on keywords. We have 18,000 photographers on fotoLibra.com and every month we tell them that the big message on key words is that professional picture buyers search for WORDS; they don't search for pictures.
Secondly, Andrew Ptak's comment on SEO and Google Images. This is a continual source of concern for us and our photographers. The unique images we sell seldom appear on Google Image Search. We assumed it was our fault, but then it happens to picture libraries the size of Getty. I had a meeting with a senior Google executive at the Frankfurt Book Fair last month and he promised to look into it. Google's reply to me (in full):
"Hi Gwyn
I checked w/ the images team. We don't any guidance here but I did receive one suggestion for you -- namely, to make sure all of these pages are in your web sitemap."
Well of course they are. This doesn't really help. Has anyone got any smart ideas? Why can't Google tell us what their image search parameters require?

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:35:45 +0000

I think a custom designed CMS system is probably the best option if you are looking into hosting your own stuff that way you can have it made exactly the way you want it constructed. They have out of the box solutions like Lightbox Photo but you will have the same indexing issues as you cited with Photoshelter.

By: Andrew Ptak

Andrew Ptak — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:32:09 +0000

I can still see a reason to use PS, but not with the expectation that photo buyers can use Google Image search and find my images. Too bad. Ah well.

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:10:03 +0000

Hi Andrew. I agree with you. The only pages that have SEO value in my experience are the gallery pages and the bio page. I use Photoshelter for other reasons though - the archive, lightboxes, convenience, etc... so those are more valid reasons to continue using it in my opinion. I don't want to deal with the hassle of hosting my own stuff.

By: Andrew Ptak

Andrew Ptak — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:58:26 +0000

Regarding your mention of Photoshelter. I have about 1000 images on my site there and before I uploaded any more I gave it a few months for Google to find and index me and produce some meaningful numbers on my Analytics report. The only traffic I get comes from my own website or blog - my PS images are invisible to Google still. After asking around I find that there is an issue with the way PS handles the images - a security issue I believe - and that means Google can't/won't index them. It's not just my work that can't be found on a Google Image search, I haven't found one example of a PS hosted image being returned in a Google search result.I understand it's a similar issue with Getty and Corbis. I've made sure that I have incorporated all of the SEO suggestions that have been made, but what's the point if the site is invisible? I'm mulling over putting my work on my own web server where at least all of the efort in keywording, captioning and SEO might actually pay off.

By: Jason Collin Photography

Jason Collin Photography — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:42:37 +0000

Thank you Richard. You have inspired me to go out and shoot the best collection of scenic locations in the area that I live that I can. I live in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and we have a much photographed bridge and pier here, but I will use your keyword suggestions.

Good luck with the grocery store! I know I'd be pretty angry if that happened to me.

By: kalem

kalem — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:12:57 +0000

Outstanding article! You take the "mystery" out of selling your work. Sometimes, we photographers feel that marketing our work and marketing ourselves is 'beneath' us. Your article offers great tips to "rescue" ourselves from the limitations that we impose on our work. Photography is supposed to be fun! Selling your work is another fun component of photography. Great post!