This is an article about the importance of keywords (and a few related things) for your deviations, in regards to making it easier for others to find your work on DA, especially when such people are trying to find your work because it has been stolen.

Recently I began to donate some of my time to , for my own reasons. I have started to investigate a site that in one gallery has about 950 images. After subtracting artwork from artist such as Frank Frazetta and Luis Royo, stupid flashing glitter crap, animated .gifs, and the like, it still leaves about 850 images, 150 of which I have already found the original file of on DeviantArt. I have become fairly familiar with searching on DA, and learned a few things.

I should point out the I am using the Crystal Ball ( [link] ) search extension, but it just makes searching faster, or easier, not better (it is a great thing- go get it!)

So what can you search? From FAQ #577: How do I use the main Search?

we see that searches look at titles, descriptions, and keywords. You can also search by a deviant's name. And there are more refinements, such as category searches, exclusions, etc. Which means, if you type it in the title, description, or keyword area, a search will hit upon it.

Some things may not be obvious, though. If there are razor blades in your image, and you type "razor" in the keyword, and search is done for "razors", your image will not turn up. You should type both of them, the singular and the plural.

Keywords can be tricky, because what you see in your image as the important elements can be very different from what someone else sees. The best thing you can do is to just try and describe everything. Write a short story about it in the keyword section. Is there a dominating color? Put it in there. Is there an address or sign or the like in the background? Put it in there. Did you spell everything correctly? Searching for "pitchfork" and "pitch fork" brings up two separate sets of results. Is there a pitchfork in your image, or pitch and a fork? If you cannot be bothered to spell correctly, well then, um, stop reading this.

What you really need to try and do is to look at your image objectively, and see what stands out. Also think about deciding upon keywords before you post the deviation. Give it some thought.

Phrases are also good, as searches can be done for exact phrases. If there is something that would make an obvious phrase, put it in there. Is there a moon in your image, or is there a full moon in your image?

What about the text that is part of your image? That is a great help, because often it is an important part of the image, and will not be edited out by the thief. Which means if you have words or phrases in your image, then put them into the description or keywords!

Sometimes the thieves change the file names, sometimes they don't. If you have the title of your image at the bottom in a border, that helps. Sometimes it will be cropped off, but often it won't be. Having the title to an image makes it wonderfully easy to find.

How about your name? Or your cute little icon? Icons suck. They mean nothing to me and are of no help whatsoever. Maybe your fans can identify it, but are they searching for your ripped art? Your name in your image, whether as a watermark or signature, is great...if I can read it. Sure, it is a tradeoff between having your name so small as to not be distracting to the image, but if it is too small, it cannot be read once the stolen image has been uploaded at a smaller size and resolution. If you have a fancy signature (also known as the squiggly line with a few random dots and slashes)...well, that's no help. Put it in there if you must, but also type your name. Also, if you put your real name on your image, and it has nothing to do with your DA name, then it doesn't help. Put your real name in the keywords or description if it is in your image.

One other thing that will help people looking for your work is if it is original. I am searching a “gothic” section on the site I am investigating, and if there is anything I can say about all the work, it is that, say, 65% of it looks the same. Your spooky little photo manipulation of a female face, either with the exposure blown out, sections of rotten flesh, stitches, or a mud crack texture looks just like the other three million deviations of the same thing. If you are original or have a distinctive style, then it is better for many reasons.

For example, I found an image that I could identify the original file of on DA, and in looking at the deviant’s gallery, it became obvious that he had a very distinctive style. In going back to the rip site, I was able to identify another eight or nine of his works easily, without checking the file names or looking closely at the image to see if there was a watermark, or doing a search on DA. This is far from the first reason you should strive for originality, but it is a reason nonetheless.

But what does all this mean? It means that the more information you put in these areas, the easier it is for people like me to find your work, and eventually notify you that your artwork has been stolen. I usually will look through maybe 1,200-2,000 thumbnails, using a few different search parameters, before I give up on something. Maybe I’ll come back to it later, but if it is taking too long, then I’m switching to something else that I can find.

Maybe you cannot keep your posted art from being stolen, but you can help yourself by making it easier for other people to find and identify.

Also take a look at this news article from about keywords: [link]