Vecteezy Keyword Guide

The Add Data section of the Content Manager workflow has a helpful keywords box for contributors to keyword multiple resources at the same time, reorder keywords, and add or adjust keywords on their resources.

The reason keywords are so important is simple - keywords equal discoverability. Contributors can increase the chances of your resources being downloaded and discovered exponentially by adding relevant keywords (also known as tags or terms) to their resources. 

We encourage contributors to add 20-30 keywords per resource. The most relevant keywords should be listed first, with the first 5 keywords being the most important. The minimum is 5 and the maximum number of keywords is 50. 

This simple task will maximize your resource’s discoverability, and provide your content with the exposure it deserves. Keep in mind, we ask that you use English keywords whenever possible and try to choose commonly searched keywords that genuinely describe your resource.

You can help customers find your resource by using keywords from the following categories or themes:

Animals and Plants:   

• Common name - e.g. Nightingale, Kapok tree
• Scientific name - e.g. Wolf Luscinia megarhynchos, Ceiba pentandra, Canis lupus
• Organism type - e.g. songbird, tree, carnivore
• Lifestyle information - e.g. nest, habitat, predator
• Collective nouns - e.g. flock, pack, forest

Activity and Events:

• The act of doing something - e.g. walking, nesting, smiling, blooming, hatching, resting, lying down
• The specific event - e.g. party, graduation, Chinese New Year

Composition:  

• For photos and video, where the photo/clip is taken from, and how the subject is shown - 

e.g. high angle, close up, front view, portrait, aerial view, copy space

Food and Drink: 

• Origin - e.g. Cantonese, Italian
• Type - e.g. dim sum, feijoada, tea, cocktail
• Ingredients - e.g. shrimp, beans, cumin
• Meals - e.g. lunch, tapas, pub crawl

Location:   

• specific places such as city, state/province, and country (and continent, if you’re feeling generous) - e.g. Al-Azhar University, Islamic Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, Africa.

Objects and Colors:    

• Objects - e.g. mobile phone, x-ray, scanner, roller skates, test tube, flame
• Buildings - e.g. skyscraper, hospital, minaret
• Colors - e.g. blue, purple

People:    

• Age - e.g. 70s, 10 years old, middle-aged
• Gender, family or other relationships - e.g. boy, young woman, sister, grandparents
• Role / Occupation - e.g. actor, tailor, hiker, couple
• Appearance - e.g. handsome, overweight, elegant
• Number of people - e.g. three women, one person, nobody
• Clothing - e.g. suit, shorts, casual, loafers
• Ethnicity - e.g. Asian, Hispanic, Black, African American

In photos and videos, even if you know the age range and ethnicity of a person, you do not always want to add that information to the keywords. It’s a good idea to review when you should omit information about ethnicity, age/gender and age range. Here are two examples:

1. When the model or subject is very far away or covered up in such a way that their ethnicity, gender and age is neither visible nor relevant in the resource, leave those details out of the keywords. 
2. When the resource is cropped or focuses on a particular body part such as hands, and the person’s ethnicity and age are neither obvious nor relevant, feel free to omit keywords related to age range, age/gender or ethnicity. 

Phrasal Keywords: 

• Two-word keywords - e.g. black and white, big dog, yellow shoes, tall man

Setting:    

• Time of year/day - e.g. autumn, daytime
• Climate - e.g. tropical, sunny
• What kind of setting - e.g. indoor, underwater, street, mountain, rainforest, city, living room

Technical Aspects:

• Especially for photos and video - e.g. long exposure, digitally generated
• Device captured on - e.g. DSLR, mobile phone

Themes and Emotions: 

• The concept - e.g. travel, history, healthy eating, ambition, surveillance, refugees, food
• The emotion conveyed - e.g. love, cheerful, confident

Lastly, here are some quick Do’s and Don'ts to review before you complete your submission to Vecteezy:

Do:

1. Retain common phrases (but don’t separate names or create uncommon phrases):

Correct: rubber chicken

Incorrect: rubber, chicken

Correct: red, dress

Incorrect: red dress

Correct: New York City

Incorrect: New, York, City

Correct: Justin Bieber

Incorrect: Justin, Bieber

Incorrect: Bieber, Justin

2. Submit only one form of each keyword. Our system covers synonyms and variations (if you submit child, don’t submit children)
3. Use English keywords only
4. Be specific. Each keyword should be essential to the interpretation of the resource

Don’t:

1. Combine ethnicity with age and gender

Correct: Caucasian ethnicity, senior man

Incorrect: Caucasian senior man

2. Include synonyms or spelling variations - our system is smart enough to include these automatically

Correct: kitten

Incorrect: kitten, kitty, kitties, cat, cats, baby cat

3. Use diacritics (example: the “é” in “café”) - our system won’t know what to do with these
4. Submit plurals – submit the singular form of the keywords, only

Prohibited Terms:

1. Do not include the content type of the files you are submitting like photo, vector, video, etc. Our system already recognizes the file type and surfaces it appropriately.
2.  Do not include the term AI or any versions of the term AI Generated as our system will already mark the file as AI if you have clicked the AI Generated checkbox.
3. Keyword spamming is not allowed. The overuse of repeated words or phrases in your keywords is not permitted. (example: seamless pattern argyle, seamless pattern green, seamless pattern blue, seamless pattern traditional, seamless pattern natural, seamless pattern geometric).