If there is copy space, I can't imagine what harm 'copy space' as a keyword could do. If it's spam, it's as bad as all the other spam. If a site limits the number of keywords and you have reached the maximum with more important keywords, leave it out.

Quote from: ShadySue on November 23, 2017, 04:03

If there is copy space, I can't imagine what harm 'copy space' as a keyword could do. If it's spam, it's as bad as all the other spam. If a site limits the number of keywords and you have reached the maximum with more important keywords, leave it out.

I think it's important to add but as you say if it's spam then like any other words, less important when buyers get tired of seeing copy space on images that don't really have copy space. Spam keywords are like putting smiling woman on a picture of a sliced tomato. Buyers aren't going to download and it just makes them angry. I don't like searching for something and finding unrelated results, neither do our buyers. I wish the agencies would crack down on this, but like reviews, it seems that no one cares.

I think they do care, a useful search is also beneficial to the agency itself. It's just hard to control, it takes time and resources to check each image, and if contributors add keywords after submitting, it's hard to keep in check.

Hi
How do you think the keyword Copy space affects the sale of images? A while ago almost every stock image that contain space for text had the keyword copy space. Even though it was just a tiny area with room for text etc.....Even images with absolutely no room for text had it.
I wonder....Is it useful to submit images with copy space keyword or can you just leave it out and add more descriptive keywords?
What do you guys think of this? Does this have any effect on sales?

For many years I always included the keywords copy space, copy, space, copyspace etc where an image had the appropriate space.  Lots of my images have space so I always thought it logical to include those words.  I believed (wrongly) that those words were important to buyers.

Then, in Oct 2012 (I think) iStock changed its search to only include the first six or seven most popular keywords.  I found that many of my files disappeared from searches that included the copyspace words.  Perplexed, I wrote to iStock and asked them about it - they replied and said that there is no evidence that buyers ever use those words for searching.  They were helpful in those days, so I wrote again and said I found that difficult to believe.  They then replied and said they'd carried out a small analysis of my sales and that the copyspace words were used in less than 5% of searches and sales.

When I went non-exclusive in Feb 2015 I naturally had to upload all my work to other agencies.  I refined my keywords but left the copyspace words intact.  Then, after a couple of years and a good volume of sales I had a look at various sites and found (again) that there was no evidence at all of those words being used to make sales.  I looked through my Shutterstock best sellers (where they list the top three keywords) and out of several hundred files the copyspace words didn't show once.

But perhaps the best source is the 'keyword cloud' at 123RF (look at your personal home page near the bottom).  The cloud shows the top fifty words used for downloads in your own portfolio.  Again, in my case, despite having probably thousands of files with the copyspace keywords, those words do not appear in my 123RF cloud.

So all the evidence suggests that istock were correct in their analysis - these words are hardly ever used by buyers.  And in fact because some agencies penalise images based on numbers of keywords, having these unnecessary words might actually result in fewer sales.

Nowadays I never include any of those words.