What is metadata?
Metadata is a pretty broad term when it comes to web design but for todays post we are going to talk about how it applies to images and/or photographs that we post on websites or a blog.
It's descriptive information (data) in an image file that will identify what its about, who took it, copyright & contact information, camera & exposure information, and descriptive information like keywords.
Why is metadata important? It makes the image readable by Google (and other search engines) which in turns makes the image searchable on the internet and will help improve search engine rankings.
As photographers this is extremely important as our sites are a more image intense environment, so image metadata really is mission critical information.
But image metadata only gets there because we put it there, which is the purpose of this post, to give you the information that will make the process easier.
A very useful free tool (that I use) is ProStockMaster. ProStockMaster is designed to both simplify and optimize the metadata process for folks who sell stock photography and if it helps them to standout in the highly competitive field of stock photography it will certainly help us on on our websites.
ProStockMaster is available for both MAC's and PC's and you can download it right here.
Another option for adding metadata to images is through Lightroom, and you can find a written tutorial here or if you prefer, a video tutorial here and here.
These aren't the only two ways to ad metadata to your images, you can use other (free) programs like FastStone Image Viewer, IrfanView, or "pay" programs like ACDSee and Paintshp Pro (to name a few).
Below is the best video I've seen that explains what image keywords are and why they are important (here is the second best, ironically by the very same person), it's only 3 minutes long and worth every second.
And it comes directly from the horses mouth, Google, so if you don't see the video in your subscription PLEASE return to the blog to watch it.
Metadata is a pretty broad term when it comes to web design but for todays post we are going to talk about how it applies to images and/or photographs that we post on websites or a blog.
It's descriptive information (data) in an image file that will identify what its about, who took it, copyright & contact information, camera & exposure information, and descriptive information like keywords.
Why is metadata important? It makes the image readable by Google (and other search engines) which in turns makes the image searchable on the internet and will help improve search engine rankings.
As photographers this is extremely important as our sites are a more image intense environment, so image metadata really is mission critical information.
But image metadata only gets there because we put it there, which is the purpose of this post, to give you the information that will make the process easier.
A very useful free tool (that I use) is ProStockMaster. ProStockMaster is designed to both simplify and optimize the metadata process for folks who sell stock photography and if it helps them to standout in the highly competitive field of stock photography it will certainly help us on on our websites.
ProStockMaster is available for both MAC's and PC's and you can download it right here.
Another option for adding metadata to images is through Lightroom, and you can find a written tutorial here or if you prefer, a video tutorial here and here.
These aren't the only two ways to ad metadata to your images, you can use other (free) programs like FastStone Image Viewer, IrfanView, or "pay" programs like ACDSee and Paintshp Pro (to name a few).
Below is the best video I've seen that explains what image keywords are and why they are important (here is the second best, ironically by the very same person), it's only 3 minutes long and worth every second.
And it comes directly from the horses mouth, Google, so if you don't see the video in your subscription PLEASE return to the blog to watch it.
2 comments:
Thanks for all the useful info over the last few posts, Scott!
One thing I've noticed about Blogger is that it appears to strip the metadata. I've saved my posted images to my desktop, then checked the metadata from the image and found that only the title of that image remains intact. Many other sites do this.... Perhaps it's a good idea to add your name to a proper title to name each image?
Any chance you've found a better work-around for this???
shayne gray learns photography
Shayne,
You are correct, but it strips the metadata only when you download (and save) it, if you right click on the image still on the blog and select "image info" you will see all of the metadata still in place.
Give it a try and let me know how you make out.
Scott
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