The 5-field portfolio metadata template
Title: a 40-60 character photo name ("Sunset over Marseille, August 2024" — not the filename). Description / Caption: 100-200 characters explaining the photo to a search engine. Artist / Creator: your full name + portfolio URL ("Jane Smith / janesmith.com"). Copyright: "© 2026 Jane Smith. All rights reserved." Keywords: 8-12 IPTC keywords mixing subject ("sunset, harbor"), location ("Marseille, France"), style ("golden hour, long exposure"), and use case ("editorial, travel photography").
Stock photo agencies want IPTC, not EXIF
Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Getty, and most other stock marketplaces read IPTC fields specifically — Caption-Abstract for description, Keywords for tags, By-line for creator, Copyright Notice for rights. EXIF is camera data, not editorial data. If you submit to stock, the IPTC fields are what get rejected or approved. MediaMeta writes IPTC + EXIF + XMP simultaneously, so the same input fills all three.
Bulk-tagging a whole shoot
After culling a shoot down to your portfolio selects (200-500 photos), the metadata workflow should take 5 minutes, not 5 hours. Set Default values: Copyright = "© 2026 Your Name", Artist = your name, base Keywords = location + shoot type + 5 evergreens. Drop the whole folder. Customize Title per file (the editor pre-fills it from the filename — already a decent starting point). Process and download a ZIP that's ready for your portfolio site, your Lightroom catalog, or stock agency upload.
Why this matters for portfolio SEO
Google Images reads embedded metadata as one signal among many (alt text, surrounding copy, schema). For a portfolio site where the photos are the content (minimal text), the metadata is disproportionately important. A photo of a wedding tagged with proper Title, Description, Keywords, and Copyright ranks better than the same photo with blank fields — and survives sharing to Pinterest, Tumblr, and image-aggregator sites that strip your HTML but preserve the file metadata.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Lightroom write the same IPTC fields?
- Yes. Lightroom's metadata panel writes EXIF + IPTC + XMP. MediaMeta does the same thing in a browser without Adobe subscription, and is faster for bulk batches that don't need cataloging.
- Should I include GPS coordinates in my portfolio metadata?
- For travel and landscape portfolios, GPS adds discoverability. For private commissions (weddings, portraits), strip GPS — clients may not want their venue coordinates public.
- What about RAW files?
- MediaMeta works on JPEG exports, not RAW. Tag your RAW files in Lightroom or Capture One, export to JPEG, then verify metadata with MediaMeta's viewer before uploading.
- How many keywords is too many?
- 8-12 well-chosen keywords is the sweet spot. Stock agencies penalize keyword stuffing (50+ keywords), and Google ignores spam.