Posted on May 12, 2016

Beginner’s Guide to Building a Website, Part II: Where to Get Images and Which to Choose (Without a camera!)

Welcome to Part II of our Beginner’s Guide to Building a Website!

If you’re just joining us, be sure to check out Part I before reading on where we walk you through how to choose your template, determine your website’s layout, and choose the best colors for it. Once you’ve got that nailed down, the next biggest challenge for many small business owners is finding professional images and photos to make it shine — especially for those who aren’t photographers or don’t have pictures of their product to put on display.

There’s no doubt that images have become a crucial part of a successful website that people want to explore — aside from being easier on the eyes, photos make a website more relevant and can even increase conversion rates. That said, it’s just as crucial that you’re using the right images. And therein likes the challenge, right? How do you find those images? Is it possible to find them for free? How do you choose the best ones?

Those are the questions we’re answering in Part II of this series. So without further ado, please read on:

First Things First: Licenses

The most important rule about selecting images for your business’s website is make sure you are doing it legally. It can be tempting to Google the kind of image you’re looking for, save one from the search results, and upload it as your own. Do NOT do this. The trouble you will find yourself in with the FTC or other compliance organizations if you’re caught “stealing” images will never be worth the ease of going about it that way. And, we promise, there are simple and easy ways to find quality images for your site that are both legal and affordable.

On that note, one thing you should always do before adding any image to your website is double-check the license information on it, particularly if you are getting it for free. The sites listed below that offer free images usually use a license under the creative commons public domain dedication. That means you can use them for free, although sometimes you will have to include an attribution to the source, or sometimes it will include information about when the free-use capability expires. If this process intimidates you, don’t worry, it is less complicated when you pay for an image. And there are very affordable options for that, too…

Where To Find Them For Free

There are a bunch of places that allow you to find site images for free. There are pros and cons to this option, the greatest benefit, of course, being that they don’t cost anything! So while we totally support using free images, just make sure you’re paying even closer to attention to whether it is the “right” image for your site (more tips on that below).

  • Pixabay – Pixabay features a large, ever-expanding, and easy to search collection of free images, most of which require no attribution
  • Unsplash – Unsplash doesn’t have the same number and variety of images as Pixabay, but the images it features are stunning
  • Picjumbo – Picjumbo is similar to Pixabay with a large and searchable collection of images. It is particularly good for food-related shots.
  • Gratisography – Gratisography is a brilliant collection of unique and free images from the photographer Ryan McGuire
  • StockSnap.io – StockSnap.io is an easy-to-search collection of images in a range of categories, with hundreds of new images added every week

Where to Find Them Cheap

  • PhotoDune – a wide selection of photos, with small, web-friendly sizes starting as low as $1 per image
  • Canva – this is an image editing tool but there is also a library of stock images, most of which cost only $1 per image
  • CanStockPhoto – tens of thousands of stock images available for as little as $1.50 per image

The Big Guys

If you can’t find what you are looking for in the free or cheap options you can try iStock or Getty Images. They are among the largest providers of images online. It’s priced higher but in this case, you get what you pay for.

How To Pick The Right Ones

All of the examples above from – free to the most expensive – feature thousands of images. How do you choose the right ones for your website? Here are some tips:

1. Pick an image based on where you will use it

The size and shape of your image is important so think about orientation (landscape or portrait), and the rough size. You can change the size of your image (scaling your image) so you don’t need to get the exact size. But there are some things you should remember when scaling, for example:

  • You should never scale an image up in size as you will lose quality. Nothing says unprofessional like a blurry or pixelated image on a professional business site
  • Scaling down in size is usually okay, but you might lose detail on complex images

If you are adding text to an image make sure it is text-friendly, both in color and in space. In most cases that means having large areas of the image where there is not much going on.

2. Use natural images rather than staged

Be careful using images that are trygoodtexting to be funny. This often looks tacky. In this example, the second image is more authentic because the woman in the photo is more naturally posed.

 

 

nature3. Know your audience

For example, if your audience is young, fashion-conscious, ambitious women, you will not appeal to them with images of men in dark suits. And you will not appeal to them with images of women who aren’t fashionably dressed, even if they’re in the right environment.

 

4. Be relevant

A good example is an image of a person talking on a phone. If the image you choose has someone talking on an old flip phone (gulp!), you’re risking being perceived as irrelevant and out of date. Show that you’re keeping up with the times by knowing basic technology, and other current themes.

5. Use smiling faces

Studies show that it increases conversions. And who doesn’t like looking at a bright smile?

girlinpink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
We hope these tips help you fill your site with beautiful images that best reflect you, your business and your brand — all without breaking the bank. Have any questions about how to pick the best photos for your website? Feel free to leave us a comment below and we’ll get back to you!

Say cheese!

 

 

 

 

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