When you start creating your own website for your small business you are going to need some good quality photos and images. Do not underestimate the importance of images on your website to attract customers. And don’t forget the old saying of a picture is worth a thousands words!
So, where do you go to find good quality photos for your website?
The first place you DO NOT go to is Google! You can’t just do a search on Google and find some images and then copy them for your website. This violates copyright and could land you in a lot of trouble.
Listed below are some great sources of pictures and ones we have used ourselves on many websites.
Our two favourite sites for free photos are Pixabay and Pexels.
Pixabay
Like Pexels, Pixabay has a fantastic range of photos which are easily searchable. They have the same license policy as Pexels which just makes life easier when trying to find pictures for your website.
Pexels
Pexels is a website offering free photos. The quality of the photos is fantastic and the licensing of the photos is so great that you can just use them as you please. However, we still recommend you read their license policy.
For good value pictures you pay for we recommend Fotolia and istockphoto.
Fotolia
Fotolia is a stock photography website now owned by Adobe. They have millions of photos and images available at very reasonable prices. You could easily get some great photos for £1 or £2 each.
istockphoto
There’s no doubt that the quality of the photos on istockphoto are a step up from most stock photography websites. Obviously you will pay a premium for their photos but sometimes it’s worth it!
Others
The sites above should cover 95% of all your needs. Sometimes you do need to cast your net wider so here’s a brief list of some other sites you might find useful:
Picjumbo – Sign up and you will get 10 free photos sent to your inbox every week. The quality of the photos is great but you aren’t able to search for photos unless you subscribe.
flickr – Everyone knows of flickr but you do need to do a bit of homework before downloading the photos and using them on your website. You need to check the license on any photo you want. Look for Creative Commons licensed photos and preferably ones that don’t need attibution and can also be used for commercial purposes.
We hope this gives you enough information and inspiration to start building a great website with great images!