Keyword Search And Advice I Have Been Given

If you'd sorted by 'Random', you might have seen a North American Red Squirrel on the first page!

You can get featured, if you upload to groups, and the group moderator likes your picture.

@Jane hehe must have been from the day Whitby was invaded by a squirrel horde!

@Colin Ahhh no, that is a different filter, if I set that I actually show on the front page! It is the default filter of Featured which is confusing as it suggest that the shots are being ordered into a rank that they are featured by FAA, but I can't see what criteria is being used for this

:-(

I have no idea about the featured sort so I have no comment.

As far as keywords go, if you use a single keyword and the other art also uses a single keyword then they are equal and other criteria will determine the placement. BUT, if you searched for Whitby beach then images with that exact phrase between the commas would have an advantage all other things being equal. More keywords will NOT help you in a search for any single keyword but WILL help you be seen in more searches. The title doesn’t matter at all IF you are searching FAA by keywords. It does if you search by titles.

More important than that is titles and descriptions help with Google and other search engines. That is why titles and descriptions are important.

All that said, sales of the image and sales by the artist weigh very heavily in the search so all the likes, comments, votes and group features in the world will likely not be enough to place your image above one from an artist with a track record of great sales.

Stay the course. Dont worry about single word search results and what else is in there. Dont worry about who is a featured artist . Probability theory favors those in the most searches as long as they are relevant. I sell more than some of the featured artists in my favorite keywords. In a default search i rank low. In a sort by sales i have many files at the top. One can only hope that this will change.
Each added relevant keyword added multiplies the number of multi word combinations. Be in those searches and you will be seen far more than the single word searches. Get sales there and you will move up in the search.

Go out in the world beyond FAA. Create a blog and speak to your audience. Describe your work in ways that will put it in context and be of value. Search engines want to see more than keywords, they want to see valuable information that will help their users and relevant keywords used in the proper context.

I was given the advice to "quit whining."

I would not tell you to not do any of these things. But... if you live by the search, you will die by the search. Unless you are one of the big sellers, you are not going to come up very high in the search, with the rare exception of course. That is just a fact of life.

I personally don't see any correlation what so ever between sales and belonging to groups and being in contests. None. I have sold images with zero likes, votes, features, contest wins, comments and with few keywords and no description.

Yesterday I sold two images. Neither one of them have ever been featured, been in a group or entered into a contest. Neither one has even one like or vote or comment. They have never been FBed or Twittered through FAA. I have advertised both directly on FB and Twitter.

If want to sell, you get your links seen OUTSIDE FAA. Promote specific items with links that take people to those items on your ArtistsWebsite.

Use any method you can to get seen outside FAA. The quick, easy and fee methods include Facebook, Twitter and the other Social Media. But I would pick one or two and concentrate there. I don't think you can use them all. I believe in then old adage of Tell'em, tell'em what you told'en and then tell'em again. If you try to use too many SB outlets, that will be come a lot of work real fast.

I would also consider email campaigns, banner ads, link exchanges, press releases, pay for clicks, and any other form of online advertising.

Some people use blogging but I have tried to stay away from that because then you have to promote your blog and try to get it seen. However, I would suggest you check into writing articles for the free article distribution sites that are out there. That way you don't have to find the readers, they do it for you. If you do write articles, then I would go ahead and start a blog but I would not spend a lot of time promoting it. Also remember that when you write articles, they will be picked up more often and stay in place longer if they are not time dated.

Then of course there is promoting to your local market through art shows, business cards, flyers etc, etc. Any where you can get your name seen. Make sure you promote your ArtistWebsite and not the FAA site. Once they enter your AW, you have a captive audience for only your images. Once they enter the FAA site they now have access to 7 million images.

But I see you have chosen not to take it Frank. lol

There is a difference between whinning and seeking guidance.