When selling a stock image to a stock agencies or other commercial stock photo site, it will need to be indexed. Keywording is how you choose to index your photo in their massive pool of stock images. While some of the high-end stock agencies such as Getty Images and Corbis will use a professional keywording service to do the work for you, you'll be on your own when working for most other services.

How Keywording Works

When prospective buyers are looking for a stock image that they can use on products, billboards or websites, advertising professionals will seek out images based upon keywords. Sometimes this is as simple as a subject and a color, but often times it can be more esoteric.

It's your job to come up with as many relevant keywords as possible. This is actually one of the time and energy intensive aspects of submitting images to stock sites. A good job with keywords is akin to an effective marketing campaign, since your work will then be likely to come up in a larger number of searches.

A Plan for Efficient Keywording

The first thing you'll want to concentrate on when coming up with keywords is all the physical properties of the stock image. You can describe the people, what they're wearing, where they are, all the objects in the frame and anything else that is a person, place or thing.

Action words are very commonly used descriptors in all types of media usage. Most successful stock images convey some sort of action, so try to describe it from every angle. A picture of someone on a phone can indicate "answering", "talking", "responding", "helping", "assisting", "ordering taking" ...etc. The list is almost endless when you really think about it.

Next, you'll want to use descriptive terms, whether they adjectives or adverbs (more commonly known as -ly words). Elaborate, one term at a time on everything in the picture. It can be everything from the sort of clothes the people are wearing to the time of day. It can describe the action already documented above. If your models look happy, say so.

Lastly, you'll want to incorporate words that describe the mood of the stock image or the feelings of the people in the picture. You have a bit of leeway in this, so be creative. You can describe what the picture is meant to remind the viewer of, or reference a bit of popular culture.

Some sites do have rules and regulations regarding the use of keywording, such as defining an accurate search term. Others simply give guidelines as to what seems to work best in their estimation. Corroborate these claims with a user forum, if you doubt their validity.

Though rather laborious, especially when you'd rather be out there taking pictures, good keywording is the key to actually getting people to consider buying your photos. It's an invaluable way to get the most out of your stock image.

Visit 7PhotographyQuestions.com to learn more about how to sell your stock image with a microstock site or a stock agency that offers rights managed listings.