The vast majority of Shutterstock customers never scroll beyond the opening pages of a search, which means your images live or die on search rank. While the algorithm looks at many signals like download history, buyer engagement, even seasonal demand the only thing you fully control is the metadata you upload. Shutterstock requires between seven and fifty keywords for every file and invites contributors to flag up to ten of them as essential; those ten carry the most weight, while the remaining tags have more of a supporting role. So the most essential thing is to decide on which keywords to prioritize.
Which Keywords to Prioritize
Start by naming the unmistakable core of the image. Like a mother and toddler, the skyline of Rotterdam or a chef in the kitchen. Immediately layer in the qualifiers that separate your file from every other family, skyline or work photo. Next, describe the action or abstract concept the picture communicates like “remote working” or “sustainable living”. Only after that foundation is in place should you mention stylistic or technical descriptors such as colour palette, mood, season, copy space, flat-lay angle, or drone view. If there is still room before you hit fifty, round things off with a couple of broad umbrellas like “music”, “business”, or “nature”, but stop as soon as you feel the edge of relevance; extra keywords that are barely relevant just water down the impact of your earlier more important keywords.
Shutterstock’s search engine reads every keyword in English, then auto-translates for buyers who search in other languages, so there is no advantage in uploading duplicate tags in Spanish, French, or Dutch. It also penalises spam: repeating plurals like cat and cats, adding trademarked brand names, or wedging in trendy buzzwords that the image does not actually depict can lower your relevance score or trigger manual review from the Shutterstock team. Keep in mind that the company actively suppresses near-identical uploads. So twenty similar images with same metadata will usually result in only one or two images being shown to buyers.
Because Shutterstock re-ranks the library daily, freshness matters. The platform’s Creative Insights series publishes a rolling list of trending search phrases; adding or reshuffling keywords on older images to match genuine trends can lift them back into the spotlight without a single new upload. Our analyses of the site’s top customer queries show that demand shifts constantly so your older images do sometimes resurface when buyer interrest changes over time.
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 chance on ranking high in the Shutterstock 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.