When buyers browse Adobe Stock they rarely venture beyond the first few rows of results, which means ranking is everything. At the center of Adobe’s ranking logic is metadata—and nothing matters more than the keywords you attach to each file. Unlike many agencies that treat every keyword equally, Adobe Stock actually reads your list in order. The first ten words carry the greatest influence, so every slot you fill in those prime positions should justify its place.
How Adobe’s Search Sees Your Keywords
When a customer types a query, Adobe’s search engine matches the words against the metadata of millions of files. Because the system automatically translates keywords behind the scenes, you can keyword in your own language, but you must set the correct language in the Contributor portal; otherwise the terms may never be indexed properly.
Once the language is established, the engine weighs relevance, beginning with keyword one, then two, and so on. If a buyer searches “arctic fox” and that phrase appears within your first few keywords—alongside the separate words arctic and fox—your file enjoys a significant boost.
After basic relevance, the algorithm looks at factors you can’t easily control (freshness, historical performance, buyer behavior).
Adobe also tries to keep its results fresh. If you upload twenty near‑identical images with cloned metadata, the system will usually show one or two and rotate or suppress the rest to prevent monotony. Metadata that is obviously spammy—or that mention irrelevant buzzwords—can do more harm than good, sometimes burying an otherwise great photo.
Creating a High‑Impact Keyword List
Think of keywording as telling the search engine a short, perfectly ordered story about the file:
- Begin with the single most important noun or phrase.
A solo picture of a violin should simply start with violin. A family portrait starts with family. - Add the unique specifics.
Species, product model, landmark, relationship, or number of people—whatever sets the image apart from other files that share that first keyword. - Fold in actions and context.
Buyers look for running, cooking, or remote working shots as often as they look for objects. State the action in its base verb form and mention the setting (office, beach, forest). - Layer descriptive attributes.
Colour, mood, season, lighting style, composition cues such as copy space or top down. - Finish with broader categories.
Only after you have nailed the specifics should you add wider umbrellas like animal, nature, or technology. One or two of these catch‑all terms are enough.
You will notice that following this structure organically delivers about twenty keywords—often the sweet spot where you cover every search angle without drifting into irrelevance. Remember that Adobe’s pluralisation and synonym technology means you do not need car and cars or half a dozen variations of sunset; choose the clearest term and move on.
Mistakes that Kill Visibility
The most common keyword missteps are surprisingly easy to avoid:
- Alphabetising or random ordering. Software like Lightroom often exports keywords alphabetically. If you forget to rearrange them in the portal, you can mess up the order advantage.
- Stuffing brand names, celebrity names, or generic trends. Adobe rejects outright brand usage and quietly down‑ranks trends that are being spammed by lots of contributors.
- Cloning identical metadata across similars. This practice invites result rotation; diversify your keywords, or better yet, curate your similars tightly.
- Typos and wrong language settings. An extra letter can hide your image from every buyer, and tagging Spanish words while the portal expects English leaves you invisible in both languages.
Before you hit submit, read your keywords top to bottom. Does the list feel like a clear description of the image, starting broad to specific? Could any buyer feel misled? Is anything misspelled? Are the first ten keywords the most important? Take your time to check, its well worth it.
Automating the Keywording Process
If you have lots of images this keywording process can take up quite a lot of time from your creative process. Luckily you can automate the keywording by using the StockPhotoKeywords.com analysis tool. Our tool is trained to provide optimal keywords and keyword ordering to give your images the best change on ranking high in the Adobe Stock algorithm. The metadata is written into your file so when you upload your image the fields are instantly filled with the right keywords and title.