A consistent and well thought out keyword strategy is at the core of any successful digital asset management initiative. Your users' ability to quickly and easily find their assets is essential in ensuring both productivity and consistency remain high. Keywords give users the power to label assets in a way that’s relevant to their unique business needs. If used incorrectly, they can seriously hinder the effectiveness of a DAM.

Below, we share some of the most frequently asked questions, asked when creating a keyword strategy that is consistent, clear and has the end-user in mind.

1. If I buy a stock image online, do the pre-existing keywords automatically transfer over when uploaded into the DAM?
Yes, any pre-existing embedded keywords transfer over automatically and will become instantly searchable. Additionally, if you're working on a platform like Adobe Bridge or Adobe Illustrator, you can embed your own keywords within XMP, IPTC, and EXIF metadata fields, all of which will be automatically mapped into the DAM.

2. If a word is hyphenated or separated by a space, do I need to input the keywords as two separate words for it to be searchable?
No, anything separated by a space, underscore or hyphen will be treated as separate terms once searched. For example, you don't need to have ‘tour’ and ‘tour guide’ as separate keywords. If you search the word ‘tour’ it will also bring up any assets labelled as ‘tour guide’.

3. Can I map over keywords from embedded metadata?
Yes, values embedded within the XMP, IPTC, and EXIF “Keyword” field will be automatically mapped over by default, which means there's no manual work required to map over it.

4. What program would you suggest to set up keyword documentation?
At the beginning of mapping out your keyword strategy, a shared document can be quite useful as the whole team has access. However, for ease of reference and to ensure keyword continuity, the majority of people export the file and upload it into the DAM once everything is set up in terms of governance and policy.

5. Can special characters be used in keywords?
It's recommended to avoid using any special or Mac/PC-specific characters to ensure searchability remains high. That being said, simple characters, such as a dash or underscore are fine to use.

Ready to optimize your keyword strategy? Take a look at our 30-minute on-demand webinar, where we highlight six best practices to help you better manage your keywords and enhance discoverability.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.