Adobe Stock is known for having some of the strictest metadata requirements in the microstock industry. While great content is essential, poor metadata is the #1 reason for "Technical Issues" or "Non-Compliant Data" rejections.
This guide breaks down exactly what Adobe wants and how to use AI to generate it instantly.
1. Title Requirements
Your title is the first thing Adobe's search engine indexes. It must be a natural sentence, not a list of keywords.
✅ Do This
- Use 50-70 characters (ideal)
- Write a descriptive sentence
- Mention the main subject and action
- "A happy dog running in a park at sunset"
❌ Don't Do This
- Don't list keywords ("Dog, park, run, sunset")
- Don't include technical specs ("4K 60fps")
- Don't use camera filenames ("DSC_001.jpg")
- Don't mention brand names
2. Keyword Rules (The "Spam" Trap)
Adobe allows up to 49 keywords (Metadataly's recommended limit to prevent upload errors). Order matters—The first 7-10 keywords carry the most weight.
The Golden Rules of Adobe Keywording:
- Relevance is King: Only include what is visibly present or conceptually relevant.
- No Trademarked Names: Never use "Iphone", "Ferrari", or "Nike". Use "Smartphone", "Sports Car", or "Sneakers" instead.
- No Spamming: Don't repeat variations like "run", "running", "runner" excessively unless necessary.
- Plurals and Singulars: Adobe's search engine handles this automatically, so you don't need both "cat" and "cats".
3. Common Rejection Reasons to Avoid
If you've ever received a rejection for "Non-Compliant Metadata," it's usually one of these three things:
A. Title contains technical jargon
Avoid words like "4K", "HD", "Aerial", "Drone", "Slow Motion" in the title unless it describes the view (e.g., "Aerial view of..."). Keep technical specs out of titles.
B. Irrelevant Keywords
Don't add "business" to a picture of a cat unless the cat is literally wearing a tie. Keyword stuffing hurts your account standing.
C. Brand Issues
Even if the brand isn't in the image, putting "BMW" in the keywords of a generic car photo will trigger a rejection.
4. How Metadataly Automates This
Manually checking all these rules for hundreds of files is impossible. That's why we built Metadataly.
Our AI is trained specifically on Adobe Stock's successful portfolio data. When you upload a file, we:
- Analyze the visual content.
- Generate a title that fits the 50-70 character sweet spot.
- Create 49 hierarchical keywords, prioritizing the most relevant.
- Filter out forbidden words and trademarks automatically.
Stop Writing Metadata Manually
Generate Adobe-compliant metadata for 100 files in under 2 minutes.
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