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How to Add Metadata to Images and Video
What is metadata and why is it important? There’s image metadata and video metadata. Both are important data features that will allow your image and video files to be more organized and better understood.
It’s true. You can change an image’s filename from IMG1234.jpg to OurAwesomeProduct.jpg, but doesn’t that feel limiting?
Do you ever wish you could add more information than a simple file name? What if you could attach all sorts of information to your media post, from your company name to your website URL?
Good news: you can. All you have to do is add metadata to your photos and videos.
Read more below for tips or get started with adding metadata to photos and videos, by watching our YouTube video:
What is metadata?
Metadata is essentially data about data. So, image metadata is data about an image file, while video metadata is data about a video file. Metadata can contain all sorts of information, including:
- The name of your file
- The data and time the image or video was produced
- Additional tags or keywords that describe your image or video
- A star rating
- Your company name
- Your website URL
- A blurb about your company
Metadata describes two different types of data: Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) and International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC).
EXIF data is automatically recorded by your camera. This type of metadata contains information that allows different devices to understand your media file, like resolution, date and time, and the make and model of the device it was captured on.
IPTC data can be entered by you, the creator of the file. It’s where you can add contextual information, like the company who produced the image or video. When people talk about adding metadata to an image or video, they’re talking about IPTC data.
Why is metadata important?
Metadata provides key details about image and video files that makes it easier for people and software to organize and understand them. Metadata gets embedded in the file. Wherever that image or video goes, the metadata goes with it.
As a copyright owner, this is especially valuable. It offers you a way to protect your images, and your copyright, in case anyone ever tries to use them without your permission.
For businesses with large libraries of images, metadata also helps with digital asset management, as you can more easily search for images based on keywords in the metadata.
Speaking of keywords, metadata also helps search engines like Google understand your images better. Just like adding alt text for SEO, the more data you can give Google about your image, the better.
How to add metadata to your image and video files
Adding metadata to photos and videos is useful for business owners who want to protect their media, streamline their internal workflow, and boost their SEO. Fortunately, it’s also easy to add metadata to your images. Here’s how to do it.
- Open up the folder on your computer that contains the image or video file.
- PC users: Right-click on the image, and select Properties. Mac users: Control-click, and select “Get Info” (or press command + i on your keyboard).
- In the window that appears, you can change the name, add tags, write a description, and more.
At Your Marketing People, here is an overview of the metadata we add to our own images and videos, as well as those of our clients:
- Keyword: This can be the same keyword you used in your filename, e.g. your marketing people logo. You’ll add it in the title and tag sections.
- Company Name: This is the name of your company, e.g. Your Marketing People. You’ll add it in the author and publisher sections.
- Company URL: This is your website, e.g. https://yourmarketingpeople.com/. You’ll add it in the URL section.
- Company boilerplate: This is the “about us” blurb you post on your website and press releases. It typically contains your company name, website, address, phone number, social media profiles, and a sentence or two that describes what you do. You’ll add this in the comments section. Here’s what ours looks like:
We collect those four pieces of information for every file we add metadata to. Then, we use it in these sections of the metadata:
- Title: Image/Video-specific keyword
- SubTitle: Image/Video-specific keyword – Company Name
- Rating: 5 Stars
- Tags: Image/Video-specific keyword; Company Name
- Comments: Company boilerplate
- Directors: Company Name
- Producers: Company Name
- Writers: Company Name
- Publisher: Company Name
- Content Provider: Company Name
- Year: Current Year
- Genre: Industry of the Company (ie. Automotive, Apparel, Fitness, etc)
- Author URL: Company URL
- Promotion URL: Company URL
When we’re all done, the metadata looks something like this:
Adding metadata for your image and videos
See? Adding metadata to photos and videos isn’t so hard. Plus, it provides some nice benefits for relatively little work.
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