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alhamd studio
alhamd studio
Participant
March 29, 2026
Question

Adobe Stock: No People Tag, Keyword Strategy & Sales Drop After Approval?

  • March 29, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 86 views

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions regarding Adobe Stock submissions and performance, and I’d really appreciate guidance from experienced contributors.

  1. When submitting images or vectors that do not contain any people is it necessary to always select the “No People” tag? Does it impact search visibility or ranking if this is missed?
  2. What are the best practices for writing titles and keywords to improve search ranking? My content quality is strong (especially handmade vectors, icon packs and graphic resource packs) which I believe are in demand across stock platforms, but my sales are still quite low.
  3. I’ve noticed an unusual pattern: whenever my vectors get approved, my sales drop to almost zero for 1–2 days and then return to normal. However some of my friends experience the opposite their sales increase after approvals. Is this normal behavior or could it be related to the Adobe Stock algorithm?

I’d really appreciate any insights, tips, or experiences you can share. Thank you!

    5 replies

    Jill_C
    Community Expert
    Jill_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 1, 2026

    Read about titles and keywords in the Adobe stock Learn and Support help pages.

    Jill C., Forum Volunteer
      Nancy OShea
      Community Expert
      Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 29, 2026
      1. Either your images contain people requiring a signed model release, or they don’t. Do not lie to bolster search results.
         
      2. You’re competing with 148 Million icons and icon packs. 
        https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=icon 
        https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=icon+packs 

        No matter which keywords you use, it will be a struggle to get page 1 views in such a competitive category.  See tips below.
        https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/titles-and-keyword.html
         
      3. Coincidence, not tea leaves. Fluctuations in sales are influenced by many factors. Don’t read too much into imaginary patterns.
      Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
      daniellei4510
      Community Expert
      daniellei4510Community Expert
      Community Expert
      March 29, 2026

      “I’ve noticed an unusual pattern: whenever my vectors get approved, my sales drop to almost zero for 1–2 days and then return to normal. However some of my friends experience the opposite their sales increase after approvals. Is this normal behavior or could it be related to the Adobe Stock algorithm?”

       

      Coincidence. It seems like in every Adobe Stock related forum, someone is seeing a pattern in the way of sales, lack of sales, what does and doesn’t get accepted, when sales spike, slow down, etc. Even in the unlikely case that you are doing something different than what your friends are doing, no one here has the answer on how to fix it short of offering an endless number of theories.

      Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.
        O
        Community Expert
        Oh.N8Community Expert
        March 29, 2026

        Regarding no people: 
        If your content doesn’t have people, I see no point in selecting people.
        Keywords: strongest 1st. I mean if you are targeting men doing yoga.

        Put man doing yoga. there is no point in putting in white background, blue shirt, man doing yoga. When I am targeting, men doing yoga.
        I might even target man wearing a blue shirt doing yoga (very niche and very low competition.

        Short about finding Keywords


        Or 
        I am targeting bees on/ in flowers.
        I would put bee sleeping in a tulip or bee in a tulip. If this is the image I have.

        Cheers

        Nate

        RALPH_L
        Community Expert
        RALPH_LCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        March 29, 2026
        1. I see no advantage in the “no people” as a keyword. This only helps if a searcher enters that as a search term. It is however, recommended by Adobe. 
        2. There is plenty of information in the contributor’s help files in Adobe, in this forum and in Youtube.
        3. Approved images does not affect your overall portfolio.
        alhamd studio
        alhamd studioAuthor
        Participant
        March 29, 2026

        Thank you for your response.

        I would like to clarify my observation more clearly. Over the past 2 months I have consistently noticed a pattern in my account whenever my files get approved my sales drop to zero for around 1–2 days. After that sales return to normal especially when I stop uploading.

        For example my latest files were approved on March 27, 2026 and since then I haven’t received any sales. This same pattern has repeated multiple times which is why I’m trying to understand if there is any possible explanation behind it.

        At the same time I’ve observed that some of my friends experience the opposite when their files are approved their sales increase. That’s why this behavior seems unusual to me.

        Also as I am relatively new and still learning I would really appreciate guidance on improving my results. Could you please share best practices for writing effective titles and keywords? Specifically, I would like to understand which approach works better on Adobe Stock: single-word keywords, multi-word keywords (phrases), or a mix of both.

        If possible, sharing just one example (one title with its keywords) would be extremely helpful for my understanding.

        Thank you for your time and guidance.

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