Visuals are powerful! They bring your text to life, reflect your personality, and add style to your website. The right image shows off your professionalism and experience. Smart marketers incorporate a variety of images in all their content – websites, social media, and emails.  

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “can I use this photo for my website?”  It sounds like an easy question. But the answer can be complicated, depending on the source of the photo.  

While I’m not a copyright expert (and cannot give you any legal advice), I can give you my thoughts on the topic.  But if you’re concerned about the legalities of copyright infringement, I recommend you speak with an attorney.  

However, my experience in running an online business and building websites has given me an understanding of which photos are safe to use. So here are my thoughts on finding and using images on your websites.  

Thoughts about Downloading Images

I’ve blogged a lot about places to get stock photography – websites where you can get professional-looking photos. Some people think that it’s okay to go to Google, search on a topic, click on the ‘Images’ tab, and download any image that pops up. Nope. Legally, you can’t do that.  

In short, do not get your images off of a Google search. And, do not get images from social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc).  

No Googling for Images

When you buy a book, the author owns the copyright to that book. You can’t republish that book as your own, or create another book in their series. 

Similarly, the ‘author’ of an image normally owns the right to that image. Other people aren’t allowed to use that image without the creator’s permission. The image falls under copyright law. Copyright infringement occurs when someone uses an image without proper rights or consent. 

What Images Can You Use?

Fortunately, there are hundreds of images that you can use for your website and marketing materials. Keep in mind, I’m referring to images that you can use on your website. Not images that are safe for you to use in your product packaging or items that you will sell. That’s a whole different set of rules!

Photos YOU take 

There is no question that professionally-taken photos have great quality. However, depending on the use, the photos you take on your phone could work fine as well. They can actually be very effective, especially when used in blog posts and social media.

If you take a picture of someone in a public location, that is not private property then you have the right to use that photo of them. For example a park or a street or an airport.

Graphics YOU create

As well as teaching people how to create websites, I also teach people how to create their own graphics in my Graphics Creation Workshop.  You’ll learn how to use Canva and other tools to create your own graphics so you don’t have to worry about copyright issues. Just go here to find out more: https://www.graphicscreationworkshop.com/

Images you buy from royalty-free stock photo services

You can purchase the right to use photos from stock photo companies by paying a one-time licensing fee. For professional stock photos, I recommend you buy from a reputable company like:

Images from free stock photo sites

I get many images from free stock photo sites. Here are a few of my favorites:

I’ve written more about free stock photography in my blog post on my Top 7 Free Stock Photo sites. Always remember to check the terms of any website to see how they allow you to use the images provided.  

Images from Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/) is a great place to find free images with clear licensing requirements. After you’ve found an image you want to use, check the “License” section, and follow the instructions (ex. attribute the author). 

Common Mistakes

 Some things I often hear from people who may be having copyright infringement issues:

  • “I know I bought the image from a stock photo site, but I can’t find the proof.”
  • “The web designer who built my site years ago also took care of finding the images. I have no idea where they came from.”
  •  “I just used an image shared on a social media site. If it’s shared with others, I thought it was okay for me to use.”

None of these explanations are valid reasons for using an image without permission. It’s your business. You’re responsible. Please be mindful and cautious about any image you use.

Here’s a wonderful testimonial from one of our clients, Marg. When someone came knocking on her door about an image on her site, she was able to show them the proof and they immediately dropped the issue.

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Conclusion

Though some images are off-limits due to copyright law, there are hundreds of others that are perfectly fine to use on your website. My students in the Website Creation Workshop have designed beautiful sites using some of the image sources above.

Can’t find exactly what you’re looking for? Try taking your own picture or creating a graphic yourself. If you’d like to learn more about this, join my Graphics Creation Workshop. https://www.graphicscreationworkshop.com/

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