Good keywords make searching for a file easier.
Keywords are single words, or very short phrases, which are attributes of an image or file.
Tips for thinking about keywords:
1. Aim for between five and ten keywords.
2. Add keywords first by concept and subject, starting broad and becoming more specific. For example: "sport, cricket, england, ashes".
3. Include plural words where possible (ie. cats, chairs, beaches). This increases the chance of a match in a search where a user is searching for “beach” or “beaches”.
4. Consider adding synonyms (different words with similar meanings) that might apply to a file. For example: “happy”, “joyful”, “elated” and “smiling” are synonyms.
5. Don’t repeat the same information that is in a file’s caption. This is a common mistake!
6. Don’t use prepositions or conjunctions like at, from, to, with. These do not add information to your picture and will normally be discarded by databases during searches. If you only include concepts, you will save yourself time.
7. Don’t add long lists of keywords which are for concepts that the picture does not contain. It degrades the quality of all search results and wastes time and money.
