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I will report back – but I think it’ll take a month or so to gather data – on the images I’m tracking of mine. I’ve added a few more today with enough green goodness for Yoast and I’ve also left a few similars unmodified but have tracked their position so I can see if it goes up or down.
It occurred to me that if, for whatever reason, my site became “better” in Google’s eyes in the time I’m measuring these files’ progress, perhaps any file from that site would see a boost. So it seemed important to track a few files that were not “improved” on purpose to see what happened to them.
@chromaco wrote:
I’m pretty much just guessing too. Educated guesses but guessing none the less. Here is my thinking. If your image shows up on the first page or so at least you have a chance to make a sale. Whether you do or not depends on the image itself, the competition, and the buyer. But at least you are in the contest. If your image is stuck on page 35 it doesn’t matter how good it is. I would say if your image is showing up as 3 on image search then who cares what “Yoast” or this other site says. In my mind what you are doing is working for that image. If it were me I would be looking at why that image is where it is and why the others aren’t as high. If it were as clear as Yoast would like to make it seem everyone would be on the first page. I think these systems are using general assumptions as well, but it’s better than nothing.
Part of the reason I started this thread is because I wanted to hear other opinions. You can learn a lot by stepping out of the box and other perspectives are very helpful in doing this.Dennis, I was just venting my confusion over this whole SEO thing. It was in no way meant to criticize what you are doing for SEO or otherwise. I have nothing but great admiration and respect for what you have achieved.
I think when it comes down to making sales one has to take into account the whole picture (no pun intended) and SEO is just one part of it. I imagine that your sports related illustrations have a great number of potential buyers that never even heard of (micro)stock and would never think of using Shutterstock or so for finding of what they want. So part of your success, in my eyes, is that you knew, or at least suspected, that and did very well in accommodating this market (niche). Of course, without decent SEO it wouldn’t have worked for you.
I believe for us less successful Symbiots it is important to remember that there is a lot more to it than just SEO. SEO gets us “in the contest”, as you said. But is it the “right contest”? Is it there where our potential buyers are? How can we learn about that? Unfortunately, there is no Yoast or online score test for that important part beyond SEO.No doubt my subject matter helps. There is also a lot of really bad imagery out there. So at least for me (assuming mine is better) getting into the battle is very important. Also you can’t just option click a vector file. This is one of the main reasons that illustrators are having more success. In your case it might be professional buyers who are most likely to buy your images. This puts you in direct competition with the micros and this is much, much harder. That is why it is even more important that the symbiostock network starts getting an almost flawless reputation. Leo is diligently working on the bugs and polishing the product and Michelle is doing a great job with the Social Networking. I think we as a collective are completely blowing it on MSG because we can’t stop arguing about ridiculous little issues and get pulled into stupid arguments with people who have no idea what Symbiostock really is about. We as site owners can do our part by avoiding the negativity that so easily creeps out and when we do get a sale make sure that the customer experience is top notch. If we start doing these things right the buyers will start to show up. Maybe two years from now these types of conversations will be so obsolete they don’t even exist any more.
Yes. I hope you are right. In any case, I am willing to keep up the effort for a prolonged period of time. Let’s see where we get in a year or two and how our discussions will go then. If I don’t die I will be around
.I was sold right from start when Leo began discussing his Symbiostock idea on MSG about a year ago. It’s quite amazing how far it all has developed. I had a Photoshelter site before for about 5 times the cost and with about 1/5 the traffic compared to my Symbiostock site today. Okay, with at least 10 times the effort as well. Even with too few sales so far I find Symbiostock rewarding and promising. And this community is a big part of it, too. I don’t think the negativity over at MSG can hurt Symbiostock in the long run. I agree that flawless buyes’ experience is one important factor that counts. I think the Symbiostock theme is up to this challenge, although there will be always room for improvements.
To put all these great tips in one place, I wrote a quick blog post about getting green with Yoast, networking and using promoted keywords:
Thanks for great tips everyone. I am not even half done with getting my images green .
but getting there.Back in the “high traffic” days when I used to dode on my site, I used to use spinner text to create unique content 😀
Thanks Michelle for blog information , to get yoast green and write up like blog words in Copy Box , was turning me down , after your blog , i saw contents in images Fair Trade and Fair Market Price . which can be common for all the images and can be useful information for users and most important it is very useful for me, achieved 300 words of milestone 🙂 . Thanks Lot
@chromaco wrote:
No doubt my subject matter helps. There is also a lot of really bad imagery out there. So at least for me (assuming mine is better) getting into the battle is very important. Also you can’t just option click a vector file. This is one of the main reasons that illustrators are having more success. In your case it might be professional buyers who are most likely to buy your images. This puts you in direct competition with the micros and this is much, much harder. That is why it is even more important that the symbiostock network starts getting an almost flawless reputation. Leo is diligently working on the bugs and polishing the product and Michelle is doing a great job with the Social Networking. I think we as a collective are completely blowing it on MSG because we can’t stop arguing about ridiculous little issues and get pulled into stupid arguments with people who have no idea what Symbiostock really is about. We as site owners can do our part by avoiding the negativity that so easily creeps out and when we do get a sale make sure that the customer experience is top notch. If we start doing these things right the buyers will start to show up. Maybe two years from now these types of conversations will be so obsolete they don’t even exist any more.
Thank you very much for your thread. I’ve been busy and largely away from SymbioStock for the last few months. I have personally found similar results to what you write about, but I’m still wrapping my head around the idea of the thumbnail. It seems like a good idea to me. One more thing on my back burner LOL!
On the 4th page of this thread I have little to offer but what has already been said. I will, however, say that it is not all just about photography/Artwork or SEO. It is about both and in proper ratios. Without one of them, neither is very effective with regards to the subject at hand. Artwork needs no SEO to be great but business does.
It really doesn’t matter how good your work is if no one sees it. Brand yourself and do it to the best of your ability and knowledge. Then go back to work and produce content. Sleepless nights about SEO is pointless. Sleepless nights DOING SEO is sometimes a good thing LOL!
Set yourself up for success and then expect it. If you are expecting strife and competition (with iAgencies) then that is what you will get. See this as a long-term project. You are branding and presenting YOURSELF and your talents to the world. It takes time and no amount of SEO will change that overnight. A little patience is called for at this time.
Jo
Thank you so much for this thread, I read it for the first time now and I found precious advices. I do some of these practices, others I don’t do well. I have two Symbio sites, one is for the food images and other for various subjects. I’m very concerned because of the fact that, until one month ago, almost all my images were easily found in the first pages of Google search using not only the focus keyword, but other related keywords. Searching today I have noticed that almost all dissapeared from the first pages and I don’t understand why, maybe I did something wrong? I wanted to ask you do you think I did wrong pubishing in the Home page the Categories menu and in the Header the Categories map? You said that you wouldn’t let your customers see what you have in the site without make at least one search. Can you tell me please if I have to remove the menu from my Home or at least the Categories SiteMap from the header?
Also, I’d like to know how many days are u waiting since you upload your images in other stock agencies after you uploaded them on your site?
Thank you so much.@ezeepics
Hi, I’m not sure if this was directed at me or more to everyone in general but I will respond as though it were directed towards me. Here is the answer… “I don’t know” I am not sure anyone does. Do categories help? I’m not sure but they are included in the theme so I use them. Do they hurt? I doubt it so why not assume they are good and use them.
Quote “You said that you wouldn’t let your customers see what you have in the site without make at least one search.”
I haven’t reread the entire thread but I don’t remember this and I am certain I didn’t say it. What I did say was that I try not to make my customers use the search bar for the obvious specialties on my site. I put links to those images in the center of my homepage and imbedded in the images and slider so they are one click away from finding my images without having to guess at keywords. I have images all over the first page of Google images but very few of them are from my own sites (most are from the micros and their PP’s). Nevertheless, I still get a good number of direct sales. I really don’t think there is a magic formula. Give yourself as many opportunities for customers to find you as you can and trust that a few of those opportunities will work.
Quote “Also, I’d like to know how many days are u waiting since you upload your images in other stock agencies after you uploaded them on your site?”
I haven’t uploaded an image to the agencies that sell subs in over a year. I really dislike the subscription model and feel like it is a better long term plan to avoid these sites. I want to be selling my images 20 years from now and I don’t think that can happen if my images are downloaded hundred of times a year. For every sale on my symbio site it is worth 38 sub sales. That is 1/38th the amount of people who have my images for virtually free and 1/38th the amount of people who are likely to upload my images to a free site.
Is this good advice for other artists?- probably not! – You should make money in the smartest way that you can for your particular circumstances. I also believe that for most contributors IS and SS are a major part of that equation. Here is part two to your question. I track all of my sales and after a year or so I will upload the images that don’t sell well on my own sites. If my circumstances changed and I needed the agencies again I would wait around 60-90 days before uploading.Hope that helped a bit – perhaps others can engage this discussion with their own impressions. I would really like to hear some other perspectives.
@chromaco wrote:
@ezeepics
Hi, I’m not sure if this was directed at me or more to everyone in general but I will respond as though it were directed towards me. Here is the answer… “I don’t know” I am not sure anyone does. Do categories help? I’m not sure but they are included in the theme so I use them. Do they hurt? I doubt it so why not assume they are good and use them.
Quote “You said that you wouldn’t let your customers see what you have in the site without make at least one search.”
I haven’t reread the entire thread but I don’t remember this and I am certain I didn’t say it. What I did say was that I try not to make my customers use the search bar for the obvious specialties on my site. I put links to those images in the center of my homepage and imbedded in the images and slider so they are one click away from finding my images without having to guess at keywords. I have images all over the first page of Google images but very few of them are from my own sites (most are from the micros and their PP’s). Nevertheless, I still get a good number of direct sales. I really don’t think there is a magic formula. Give yourself as many opportunities for customers to find you as you can and trust that a few of those opportunities will work.
Quote “Also, I’d like to know how many days are u waiting since you upload your images in other stock agencies after you uploaded them on your site?”
I haven’t uploaded an image to the agencies that sell subs in over a year. I really dislike the subscription model and feel like it is a better long term plan to avoid these sites. I want to be selling my images 20 years from now and I don’t think that can happen if my images are downloaded hundred of times a year. For every sale on my symbio site it is worth 38 sub sales. That is 1/38th the amount of people who have my images for virtually free and 1/38th the amount of people who are likely to upload my images to a free site.
Is this good advice for other artists?- probably not! – You should make money in the smartest way that you can for your particular circumstances. I also believe that for most contributors IS and SS are a major part of that equation. Here is part two to your question. I track all of my sales and after a year or so I will upload the images that don’t sell well on my own sites. If my circumstances changed and I needed the agencies again I would wait around 60-90 days before uploading.Hope that helped a bit – perhaps others can engage this discussion with their own impressions. I would really like to hear some other perspectives.
Thank you so much, I was refering at the rule no. 9, you wrote “I don’t make my customers look through categories or use pull down menus and they can see what my site has to offer without ever having to use the search bar.” Your advices are precious to me, like I already said I do a lot of these things on my sites and I do few hours a day of SEO. I have to think serious to the time to wait before submit my images to agencies. Thanks again!
Nice words, Thanks!
One last thought. I am fully aware that certain types of images lend themselves to the subscription model. I have learned which types of my images should stay exclusive to me and which types probably will only sell on subscription sites. I am now creating images specifically for the sub sites. (I haven’t actually uploaded any yet though). They will go to my sites first and then to the agencies 3-6 months later. Unless they sell well on my own sites. If they are selling for me personally I will keep them for myself and perhaps send them to a few of the higher paying agencies. Illustrators have it much easier in this respect. Clipartof and Toonvectors have an average RPD of $8.00 and $14.00 respectively and GLstock for me is above $4.00. It is much easier to be picky when you have good options.I will try to create some images for selling only on my personal sites and I will see what’s happening during 3-6 months. Thanks again!
It’s been a few months since anyone’s posted and am curious as to what you’ve found out with getting the images to green? Has it increased traffic and/or sales?
At least 95% of mine are in the okay (yellow) range I’ve got 6 poor (orange) and 1 good (green) out of 1,126 images. Has it actually been worth it to go back and get all of your images to green?
I’m also wondering if using the mini pic in the post could serve as a comp image for prospective buyers to test it out in a mock up to see if it’ll work for their designs or not.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
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