Permalink1 May 2009 at 10:33 by Alan Capel - Head of Content
Posted under News
© flabCCWe are shortly going to be further demoting the significance of the 'description field' in our search engine. We had previously reduced its significance but feel now is the time to give it zero relevance. This means that words in the description field will not be searchable.
The reasons for this are as follows:-
- The description field was never intended to house 'search terms' it was provided to give editorial photographers a space where they could add background information about an image, possibly the 'story' behind the shot. If you want a word to be searchable it should be in one of the keyword fields.
- We have listened to our contributors who have asked us to do this.Having background info in the description field may help the sales potential of an image but if the words are searchable it can damage your AlamyRank as your image may constantly be returned for searches where it is not directly relevant.
- Our testing shows that this has a positive effect on the quality and relevance of the search results for our customers.
We have contacted a number of contributors who had a lot of keyword data in their description fields. If you still find yourself in this position the new Manage Images V2.0 tools with make it easier to clean up your data and ensure you have the correct fields populated with the relevant data. All contributors will have these tools within the next few weeks.
At the very least we recommend that you populate the 'essential keywords' field as this holds the highest weighting on our search engine.
The description field will remain and should be used for its original purpose, this background information is visible to the customer and can help them in their decison making process.
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