Problem · iStock & Getty Images

“iStock & Getty Images (ESP) won’t accept my keywords.” Why it happens and how to fix it

ESP is Getty Images’ upload portal, used for both iStock and Getty Images. You typed good keywords, and ESP still asks you to pick a meaning for many of them or does not recognise them.

Short answer

iStock and Getty Images work from a controlled vocabulary of about 20,600 terms (20,632). PhotoTager matches your keywords to those terms before you upload, and gives you a CSV for ESP, qHero or DeepMeta.

Why it happens

01 Words outside the vocabulary iStock and Getty Images use a fixed list of 20,632 terms. A keyword that is not on the list has to be replaced by a term that is.
02 Words with two meanings A word like “jaguar” can be the animal or the car, so you are asked to pick a meaning for each keyword like it.
03 Generic AI keywords AI tools and chatbots write natural phrases, not vocabulary terms, so many of their keywords do not match anything on the list.

How PhotoTager fixes it

  1. 1
    The AI writes keywords from your photo and your context notesNames, places and events you add go into every keyword list in the project.
  2. 2
    Keywords are matched to the iStock vocabularyAfter every title run, a free match checks your keywords against the 20,632 iStock terms. The optional iStock keyword step uses a model trained for this vocabulary and suggests the 20 nearest terms for each word.
  3. 3
    You export the CSV for your upload toolCSVs for ESP, qHero and DeepMeta, with up to 50 iStock keywords per file.

Check your keywords now, free

See which of your keywords are in the iStock vocabulary, with similar terms to add. No signup.

Open the ESP checkerGenerate iStock keywords

Questions

Do I still have to pick meanings in ESP?

There should be fewer, because matched keywords are already vocabulary terms. Check anything ESP still asks about before you submit.

How many keywords can I send to iStock?

Up to 50 per file. PhotoTager’s iStock exports stop at 50.

Can I check keywords I already wrote?

Yes. The free ESP checker shows which keywords are in the iStock vocabulary and suggests similar terms. No signup.

Which upload tools does PhotoTager make CSVs for?

ESP, qHero and DeepMeta for iStock and Getty Images.