Using stock images - will hurt SEO?

[Gogol]

It’s not hurt at all. Many website having duplicate images. It is totally olay

Who is not hurt, also for using what? Olay??

 

[Purush]

but using a paid option like shutterstock does that guarantees that the images that you have used on your website will not be used by your competition.

any one having the shutterstock premium login, they could download the same image. or its going to be sold only one time.

 

[BuildMoreLinks]

any one having the shutterstock premium login, they could download the same image. or its going to be sold only one time.

I am sure, it can be used a number of times as long as it is licensed.

 

[bahus]

I use stock images all the time, in fact, 99% of my images are stock images, and I'm not talking sporadic images here and there, I have them on every post and never had an issue with a negative impact on my SEO. Some even show up on top of google image search even though I don't make an effort to optimize them for that. So the website saying that using stock images will hurt your SEO has no idea what they're talking about.

 

[HustleTong]

As long as it's royalty-free, won't be a problem.

 

[thepranksta]

In my view some of you are overthinking this. Major websites continually use stock images. Let's not forget the key is relevant and engaging content, not the origin of an image. If stock images were associated with spam, which they are not, then that would be a problem. Black hat marketers could easily shift to less popular images in a scenario of penalties.

 

[Deleted member 110025]

I would avoid using stock images as mush as possible - still, it is better to have few pics than none.

gl

 

[Sheolaj]

Instead of downloading and using the image, you should take a screenshot, paste into photoshop/paint, don't crop exact same area to vary the size and save it in different name and you will be good.

 

[yeahhub]

Here is a complete list of all free stock photos related websites list - https://theblondpost.com/top-10-websites-for-free-stock-photos/

 

[BigBoogie]

I have heard arguments for both.

I was told it is best to use unique images and have always tried to do so. Recently I heard a "seo" say using stock images is better because if everyone else in your niche is using it, Google knows what the image is about.

All that being said. Almost all of my unique images (featured images) show up when searching my keywords, often in the snippet box, even when I do not own the snippet. And always near the top when doing an image search. If I were using the same pic as everyone else, google could pull that pic from anywhere.

If you are in a niche where you think you can get clicks from images alone, definitely use unique images.

 

[crystalcelebi]

I have not seen it negatively affect SEO for me or my clients, you can use stock images, just follow best SEO practices such as putting a relevant name to your images and Alt text.

 

[thepranksta]

I have not seen it negatively affect SEO for me or my clients, you can use stock images, just follow best SEO practices such as putting a relevant name to your images and Alt text.

Yeah, I think some evidence should be presented by people saying it negatively affects SEO. Search engines are concerned about spam - as far as I can tell, stock images are used by even major corporations. It's just not possible for major media to use unique photos for every single story. There are very legitimate uses cases for stock photos.

 

[hidjet]

All the amazon review sites? Bs! Give my 5 examples of good ranking amazon review sites

This is a HUGE case of over-thinking.

I've never heard of anyone trying to make unique images. All the amazon review sites are just using amazon's images, but it doesn't stop them ranking. Google isn't expecting every webpage to come up with its own completely unique images. That would be madness. Content has to be unique, not images.

Using stock images, using images from another website or any other sort of image will have NO negative effect on your SEO.

 

[thepranksta]

All the amazon review sites? Bs! Give my 5 examples of good ranking amazon review sites

If people are saying stock images negatively affect SEO, evidence should be presented to support this. Otherwise this thread is just pointless conjecture. There are famous stock image companies like Getty Images that would be hit hard by this. All major media including the New York Times and Washington Post would be hit by this rule. So tell me, why should a nobody who takes an original picture of his cat rank above the NYT?

 

[thepranksta]

Any spammer could easily use software to create a new picture. Actually, a stock photo could in theory be a signal of legitimacy, as legitimate companies commonly use them.