Alamy Rank: what it is and why it matters
photo credit: Buster Butterfield McLeod
Another common cry and cause of much angst and grumbling is Alamy Rank. Just what is it about search positions on Alamy that get contributors so hot under the collar? Is it weighted against photographers and for Agencies or vice-versa? Is it possible to work out your Alamy Rank? What do you need to do to get a good one? PP explores…..
What is Alamy Rank?
Put simply, Alamy Rank is a way for the Alamy stock photography library to rate contributors and return the most popular (some would say the best) images in any given search. It’s a key feature to understand because with 12m images you need to be in the first few pages of a popular search (i.e. one that returns thousands of hits) to stand a chance of being seen at all.
Alamy currently has a little over 12 million images. A lot of popular subjects can have thousands of images that match search terms. So how does Alamy go about sorting the plethora of images into some semblance of order? What makes Joe’s image return at position 1 but Fred’s at position 1,000.
Easy, it lets the customer decide.
The customer does not vote. But the customer (in the course of looking for a specific image to suit their needs) searches then clicks on interesting images to take a closer look and then, hopefully, buys. It’s this customer interaction with the database of 12m images that Alamy uses to decide who comes where in searches.
The formula:
According to Alamy:
AlamyRank records all the images that are seen in search results by customers – called ‘views’. The system also records when customers click on, and purchase, images they are interested in. Images that are seen but seldom clicked move down the results. Images with a greater proportion of clicks to views are moved further up the results.
The three major elements views, zooms & sales are used to calculate your Alamy Rank.
Sounds simple huh?! So what is the unit of Rank? I mean if speed is measured in miles per hour (mph) and weight is measured in pounds or kilos, what unit of measurement applies to rank?
Nobody really knows. A few like minded Alamy contributors have discovered a way to compare their rank to each other though. That gives a sort of measurement. I’ll cover that next post so as it’s important in tracking your efforts with keywording etc. to improve your position.
Is my alamy Rank the same as my CTR% figure shown in Alamy Measures?
No, its a different indicator. Your Alamy rank takes your CTR into consideration (we think it does - else why show it?) but the actual weighting of the formula above including CTR and sales is a closely guarded (and soon to be patented) secret. Colonel Sanders wouldn’t give you his recipe now would he…?!!
What if I have more than one pseudonym?
You get an Alamy Rank for each pseudonym.
The “Diversity Algorithm” also plays a part here though that is more concerned with spreading similar images returned by a search through the returned search pages i.e. so one person cannot totally dominate the top of the search. As far as I can tell the diversity Algorithm is not a factor in Alamy Rank save for weighting the spread of search results as described previously.
Where do new pseudonyms start?
A brand new pseudonym is given a median rank i.e. in the middle of the pack. Remember its the pseudonym and not the individual images that are ranked.
Why are my images higher up in some searches than others?
This is because you are competing against all other contributors, not a static measure. e.g.
A search for “honey bee” may return 5,000 images. Your top image may be on page 5.
A search for “horse” may return 141,000 images. your top image may be on page 85!
Why? Because there is more competition for the “horse” search and you have more people in front of you with a better Alamy Rank.
Next post will deal with how to compare your Alamy Rank to other contributors.
PP
Hi,
Thanks for the informative blog site. In their patent applications, EP1865428A1, GB2438882A, and GB2424091A Alamy does indeed disclose a good bit about how their algorithms work. These documents can be viewed for free by going to the European Patent Office’s Espacenet site: http://ep.espacenet.com and doing a “Number Search”.
Best Regards,
Jason
Thanks Jason,
I have bookmarked that for a good read up when time allows!
PP