In a recent video via Google’s head of spam, Matt Cutts, he said that using stock images from a stock site has no impact on rankings. He added that using stock images over original imagery doesn’t effect any differently either or negative for that matter either.
Now personally, I think original photography is always a win situation for the client, as you don’t run the chance of utilizing an over saturated image online and you own rights to your photography 100%. But, I have to stress that when in a crunch, stock photography is a wonderful tool to get some vibrant and high quality imagery.
Below you check out the full video of Matt Cutts answering the question, “Does using stock photos on your pages have a negative effect on rankings? Do original photos help you in this regard?
Does your company, brand or service utilize stock photography? Or do you take all original photography for your website and marketing collateral?
I wish original photos could have a positive, people would use more original work then
Totally agree!
everybody has a camera in their pocket now too
take everything this guy says with a grain of salt
His advice on T-shirts is always direct and to the point!
No matter what Cutts says, the images add value to the user experience, which in turn increases the value of your site. If your users have a good experience and stay on your site longer – your SEO value increases. If your users like your images and share them – your SEO value increases. So, no matter how you look at it – images, stock or not – DO in fact increase your SEO value.
Yep, it’s not difficult these days to take some decent quality pictures. Just hve to get into the habit of making the effort.
That’s so true! My new smartphone has a 13.5 megapixel camera and it is really no effort at all to get a good picture
Yep, I’ve used the camera built into my laptop as it will countdown 3 seconds before taking a pic. It’s not perfect, but its a pretty decent photo.
we will have cameras on our toothbrushes before this decade is out, they’re everywhere!
lol…taking it to the next level!
Agreed. “Time is Money” is the reasoning and excuse I hear a lot for a lot of slacked photography… But even a cell picture can do wonders with how high quality some of their photos turn out.