(Newswire.net — May 7, 2022) —
When it comes to improving the user experience on your blog, making it SEO friendly and engaging your audience, the use of high quality images is critical. Images can be used to break up text, to excite readers and to add context to what you are covering. It is important that if you do plan to use images, that you optimize them so that the page loads fast, and so that they look their best on all devices. When it comes to using images however, you must be very careful where you get them from, and here are the only images which you should be looking to use.
The Issue
The reason why this is so important is that you are not allowed to just grab images from the internet and then use them on your own site. The large majority of images have copyright and you can really land yourself in hot water if you are found out. In some cases we have see image giants like Getty take people to court and demand huge fees for the use of their images.
Self Taken
Any images which you have taken yourself are absolutely fine to use and do not harm SEO or brand mentions. In fact if you are able to create your own images then you are going to save yourself a lot of time, effort and money. These images cannot be contested by anyone and they will look great when you upload them to your blog.
Allowed With Credit
There are a number of photo libraries online which you can find online that will provide you with a huge array of images which you can use on your site. Often however these are paid libraries, so they are a good idea for those who plan to use a large number of images on their website. Be careful however because there are a number of images which you will be allowed to use, but you must ensure that you have credited the owner of the photo when you share it. Failure to credit the image owner can land you in just as much hot water as stealing an image can.
Free For Use
There are also many websites where you can find royalty-free images that you will be able to use for your blog or website. These images do not require you to credit anyone, and they are free for use. What you may find however is that these stock images are relatively plain and simple, and that they have already been used by multiple businesses and blogs. There is nothing wrong with this of course, it is just worth bearing in mind in case you are looking for something a little more exciting.
If you have found an image online that you would like to use, but you have no idea who took it or who owns the image, you should always err on the side of caution and not use it. Only paid for, credited, free to use or self-taken images are allowed for your use online.