7 Free stock image sites to boost your business
Stop wasting your money on overpriced images and start using a free stock image website. We all know image quality is important. Whether you use a photo or video for your website, social media or a print campaign, choose your visuals wisely. They not only illustrate your message but will also attract attention, increase engagement and make your content look good.
However, you do not always have to buy expensive Shutterstock images or organise a photoshoot. While a professional photoshoot can really improve your company image, personalize your message or illustrate your product portfolio, there are many other free ways to obtain quality photos or visuals without worrying about copyright.
Free stock photo websites
Besides the quality of the image, you also want to use royalty free content. The last thing you want, is copyright claims. In this article, we show you seven of the best free stock photo websites, that guarantee high quality, royalty free visuals for personal or commercial use.
We are sure you will find your craving in one of these free high-resolution stock image websites to boost your business:
Canva
Canva offers a vast collection of high-resolution, royalty free photos and videos. You are guaranteed to find what you need via the easy search module. Also, Canva offers templates and designs for specific purposes such as social media, posters, logos, invitations, …
Unsplash
Unsplash offers a large collection of free high-resolution photos and has become one of the best sources for stock images. The Unsplash team combs through new submissions and features the very best photos on their homepage. All photos are released for free under the Unsplash license.
Pexels
Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. You can find all photos nicely tagged, searchable and easy to discover through their discover pages.
Pixabay
Pixabay offers a large collection of free stock photos, vectors and art illustrations. Good to know, all photos are released under Creative Commons CC0.
Picjumbo
Picjumbo is a collection of totally free photos for your commercial & personal works. In fact, every day they add new photos from a wide variety of categories such as business, snow & winter, technology and much more.
Stocksnap.io
StockSnap.io is one of many free stock image websites with large selection of beautiful photos and high-resolution images. The site also has a very handy search feature making it easy to browse through thousands of images. Moreover, as views and downloads are tracked, you can find the most popular photos available. They add hundreds of images daily and release all photos under creative commons public domain – no attribution required.
Picspree
Lastly, Picspree, supported by Getty Images, provides a large selection of high-quality stock photos completely copyright free. With easy searching and frictionless downloading Picspree is an excellent resource for small businesses and web professionals looking for high quality photos without the worry of licensing.
How to use stock photos
Finally, we would not be consultants, if we would not give you any advice on how to use stock images:
- Identify opportunities to use stock photos: blogpost, social media post, print campaign
- Make sure the images fit your brand and style, quality over quantity.
- Add alt text to improve your SEO.
- Keep in mind your context and purpose.
- Use images with real people to increase relation.
- Try searching and selecting new images.
- Align your images with your customer personas.
Ultimately, if you still want to give that extra personal touch to the stock image you have chosen and you are not a Photoshop wizard, try Canva of Pablo by Buffer. These are free, online editing tools to create a powerful visual. On Canva you can even start from a long list of pre-defined templates for Instagram Stories, YouTube thumbnails, e-mail headers, post cards or even your CV. Are you ready to use your high-quality visuals in your marketing strategy?
About the author
Pieter-Jan is a trilingual T-shaped Marketer and a dynamic, enthusiastic digital native with a creative, strategic, and analytical approach to marketing. Currently he is working as a Marketing Consultant at 4P square, a leading sales & marketing consulting company.
Want to know more about Pieter-Jan? Feel free to start a conversation with him on LinkedIn.
