How to keyword stock footage

How to keyword stock footage, layer by layer

A buyer types a need into a search box: a subject, something happening, a place, a look. Your metadata has to contain those words. Play the clip, then work through these layers in order and write down every word that is true for it.

Camera movement is the layer photos do not have, and Shutterstock writes it into its rules: its guidance on camera movement asks you to use descriptions and keywords to convey your camera moves, with zooms, pans and POV as examples. Adobe’s keyword examples cover camera angle, number of people, setting and location.

Concepts are where lists drift. A concept belongs only if an editor could plausibly cut the clip into a piece about it. A sunset over the sea can stand for calm or the end of a day. It cannot stand for finance, and a keyword like that is the irrelevant term both Shutterstock and Adobe refuse.

When people are in the frame, describe what is visible and useful: how many, roughly what age, what they are doing. Shutterstock asks that content about race, ethnicity, disability, age, religion, gender or sexual orientation represent identities accurately and respectfully. Never add a name or personal information: Adobe bans real people’s names from titles, and Shutterstock bans personally identifiable information.

Titles and descriptions for each agency

Each agency has its own text field, with its own length and style.

One title, one longer sentence

The quickest way to cover all three: write one title of 40 to 70 characters, without commas. It fits Adobe and Pond5 as it is. Then write a longer sentence for Shutterstock that adds the place, the light and the mood, and keep it under 150 characters: Shutterstock's metadata standards allow 2,048, but its submission editor stops at 150. Shutterstock refuses titles that repeat a word or word stem, so read the sentence once for repetitions.

For a vertical clip, Adobe asks for the words “vertical” and “video” in both the title and the keywords.

In depth: titles and descriptions, with worked examples.

Choosing and ordering keywords

• Count. 7 to 50 on Shutterstock. On Adobe, 5 to 49: its own pages say 49, 50 and 5 to 50, and that range satisfies all three. Up to 50 on Pond5, where one section of the metadata page sets the minimum at 5 and another at 7, so use at least 7; Pond5 recommends 10 to 20. The details are in keyword limits by agency.
• Order. Adobe gives the most weight to the first 10. Put subject, action, place and camera view there, then time, mood and concepts. Shutterstock has no published rule on order, so the same list works.
• Form. Single words or short compound terms. Shutterstock accepts “individual or compound words”; Adobe asks for relevant nouns, adjectives and concepts.
• Each keyword once. Adobe says so directly. Shutterstock refuses repeated words, such as seven keywords that all start with “car”.
• Spelling and language. English on Shutterstock, and an English title on Pond5. Adobe expects the language of your contributor account, one language per submission, and accepts local spelling such as color or colour.
• Agency suggestions. Adobe can suggest keywords at upload, and you can review and adjust them. Pond5 offers auto-tagging. Check every suggested word against the clip before you keep it.

In depth: Adobe Stock keyword order.

What agencies refuse in titles and keywords

Editorial or commercial: what changes in the metadata

A commercial clip can be used in advertising, so it needs releases and metadata free of brands. An editorial clip documents something real and needs no release, but it cannot be used commercially. The metadata follows that choice.

Decide the use before you write. Shutterstock gives two options for a clip with a visible trademark: edit the trademark out and submit it as commercial, or submit it as editorial if it meets the editorial standards. A wrong or missing year or place in an editorial description is itself a rejection reason on Shutterstock.

In depth: editorial stock footage rules and captions.

Worked example: a drone shot of a coast at sunset

The clip: 15 seconds, 3840x2160, 25 fps, no audio. A drone flies slowly forward over rocky cliffs and a small sandy cove on the Algarve coast of Portugal at sunset. Waves break on the shore. No people, no boats, no signs.

Title for Adobe Stock and Pond5 (65 characters)

Aerial view of rocky cliffs and ocean waves at sunset in Portugal

Description for Shutterstock (148 characters)

Aerial view flying forward over rocky cliffs and a small sandy cove as Atlantic waves break on the shore at sunset on the Algarve coast of Portugal.

Keywords, in order (30)

aerial view, coastline, sunset, cliffs, ocean, waves, drone footage, Algarve, Portugal, cove, beach, golden hour, Atlantic, sea, rocks, flying forward, evening, dusk, warm light, nature, travel, vacation, tourism, destination, Europe, scenic, calm, peaceful, nobody, horizon

The first 10 cover the view, the subject, the light and the place, which is what Adobe weighs most. Thirty keywords fit every limit: 7 to 50 on Shutterstock, 49 on Adobe. For Pond5, which recommends 10 to 20, keep the first 20. No word appears twice in the list.

What was left out, and why

• 4K, the drone model, the color profile: camera information, banned by Shutterstock and discouraged by Adobe. A drone model is also a brand name.
• summer: the clip does not show the season. Shutterstock rejects metadata that does not match the content.
• people, surfing, swimming: not in the frame.
• success, business: concepts the shot does not carry.
• A named cliff or beach: only if you are certain of it. Shutterstock asks for locations to be as specific as possible when you give one, and rejects inaccurate ones.

Drone clips have more rules than the metadata: resolutions, releases and flying rules are covered in how to sell drone footage. To check a title and keyword list like this one against each agency’s limits, paste it into the title and keyword checker. The full agency rules are on the Shutterstock and Adobe Stock requirements pages.