A Guide to Finding and Creating Free Website Images

24 Sites to Find Free Images You Would Actually Use for Your Marketing

Images are an integral part of websites. They illustrate content, create visual stimulation, help with branding, assist with page structure and keep the reader engaged as they move down the page. Without them, websites would be dull to look at and visitors would leave in search of more exciting content. However, getting great images is not as easy as it seems. In this post, we’ll look at some tips for finding and creating free images for your website.

Why can’t I use any image?

There are some fantastic images on the internet and life would be so much simpler if we could just copy and paste them into our content. Those images, however, are the property of the people who own the copyright, most of them being professional photographers whose livelihood depends on selling them. Using them without permission robs those highly creative people of an income and is illegal. It’s exactly the same as illegally downloading a movie or music track.

Are there any images I can use?

24 Sites to Find Free Images You Would Actually Use for Your Marketing

Luckily, there are lots of images available on the internet which are free to use. However, although they are free in a monetary sense, there may be restrictions on how you use them and conditions about what to do if you do use them.

Free images usually fall into two categories. These are public domain images and Create Commons images. Public domain images are completely free to use. You can use them for any purpose and you can make any alterations to them that you like.

Create Commons images are free to use but come with a license. There is a range of possible licenses, each stipulating the manner in which the image can be used. The main restrictions and conditions are these:

  • Attribution: Some licences stipulate that you must credit the image to the copyright holder on the web page. This is usually done underneath the picture, for example, ‘Image © Cam Raman’.
  • Commercial / Non-Commercial Use: Some photographs have been made available for non-commercial use only. This means you cannot use them for business purposes. So, if you have an e-commerce website, avoid using images that are labelled for non-commercial use only.
  • Derivatives / No Derivatives: Often people like to make changes to images before they put them on their website. Some photographers do not want this to happen, as it could result in an image causing offence, for example, someone may use it to create viciously If you use an image with a No Derivative licence, therefore, you cannot make changes to it without permission from the copyright holder.

Before using any free image, you should carefully check the licence and see what the conditions for use are. You should ensure that you follow those conditions as directed.

Where can I find free images?

Webflow: The no-code platform for web design and development

There are lots of free image websites on the internet. However, over the past few years, many have become little more than affiliate channels for ‘paid for’ stock image sites like iStock and Shutterstock. You’ll find a reasonable selection of average looking free images and lots of adverts for professional images.

That said, there are some decent ones out there. Here’s a list of them.

  • Unsplash
  • Pexels
  • Every Stock Photo
  • Pixabay
  • Totally Free Images
  • Public Domain Pictures

In addition to these, you should also try looking at Flickr which has billions of images, many of which are Creative Commons and most of those only require attribution.

Google is also a great resource as you can filter not only for free images but for specific licence types. Simply click on Images > Tools > Usage Rights and then select the licence type you need. See image below. 

Taking your own photographs

2.3 million+ Stunning Free Images to Use Anywhere - Pixabay

One way to avoid paying for images or dealing with Creative Commons licences is to use your own photographs. This way, you are the copyright holder and can do what you like. It also means the images on your website will be totally original, unlike stock photos which can turn up everywhere. With high-quality cameras in everyone’s pocket these days, it couldn’t be easier – especially with all the free to use editing apps available.

If you do consider using your own images, here are some things to consider:

  • Keep your image size to 72dpi for internet use. Anything bigger could slow your website down.
  • Remember the basics when taking images: keep still, get everything you need in frame and ensure the lighting is right.
  • If taking product photography, try using a cheap lightbox or a solid colour
  • Use the focus square on your phone screen to make sure faces or other focal points are sharp.
  • If possible, use a tripod.
  • Always take a selection of images. There’s always someone with their eyes shut!
  • Use editing software to create interesting effects, crop to size and add text.

Online image creation tools

Besides taking your own photographs, there is a range of excellent online tools you can use to create stunning images and infographics, using vectors, illustrations, clip art, photos and text. Some of these tools are completely free whereas others may offer free and premium services. Some of the most popular tools are Canva, Be Funky, Snappa and Piktochart. You can use some of these tools to create eye catching images for your website and for your social media posts too.

Conclusion

From reading this article, you’ll now have a better understanding of the different types of free images available and the conditions under which their licence allows you to use them. You’ll also have a better understanding of where you can find them, how you can use your own images and what graphic design tools you can use.

4 Essential Features a Website Must Have in 2020

42 Must-Have Features for Your Business Website

When it comes to running a website, you can’t afford to keep still while your competitors are making those all-important improvements. Advancements in hosting and web design, changing customer expectations and shifts in search engine algorithms are just some of the challenges that webmasters have to tackle to keep their sites fit for today’s marketplace. Here, we’ll look at what we consider to be the essential features of a website in 2020.

1. First-class hosting

First Class Web Hosting - Kajoe Projects

Your choice of hosting package underpins every aspect of your website’s performance on the internet. A modern solution, like VPS hosting, for example, can ensure your site is always online, loads quicker on users’ devices and that it can handle spikes in demand without performance being affected. At the same time, a good web host can also provide you with exceptional security and backup solutions, improved compliance with regulations, reliable business email and 24/7 technical support to help you quickly tackle any problems which may arise. It can also make it easier to manage your website and your business with the use of advanced control panels like cPanel or Plesk.

With a first-class host and hosting package in place, a website can rank better in search engine results and reduce the number of visitors abandoning the site, while improving its reputation for being a reliable and secure place for people to visit and shop.

2. Mobile first design

How is mobile-first web design different from adaptive and responsive design? - Pepper Square

Smartphones have become the most popular way to search the internet, with people browsing on them for twice as long as they do on laptops. Improved public wi-fi and 4G and 5G networks mean they are increasingly used when out and about to find local businesses or to search for information. At the same time, many more people are using mobiles to shop. According to analysts, GlobalData, mobile shopping is the fastest growing area in UK retail and will account for 40% of all UK online spending by 2024, with a value of over £33 billion.

With smartphones becoming such a key technology for consumers, website owners have little choice but to adapt. While responsive websites have been around for years, many earlier themes were geared up to create a desktop site and then simply repurposed this for display on mobile. This way of working, however, doesn’t always provide the mobile user with ease of use or best display. Today, it is important to develop a website where mobile use takes precedence; what Google calls the mobile first approach.

3. Personalisation

Why Personalisation Is the Future of B2C Content Marketing – Cope Sales & Marketing

Personalisation has become one of the most important features of contemporary websites and provides benefits for both the user and the business. The process begins when a user signs in and, once done, the website transforms into one which is unique for that person. What they are presented with are the products, offers and information they most likely want to see. This improves their user experience, makes them feel valued, encourages engagement and generally makes them more interested in what’s on offer.

For the company, not only does this mean you are far more likely to make a sale; it also gets customers coming back over and over. It’s a technique that Amazon has mastered and which virtually every other online business wants to emulate.

While major companies invest heavily in advanced technologies, such as AI and product recommendation engines, to implement personalisation, it is possible to do it on virtually any website. There are numerous WordPress plugins, for example, that can personalise the website’s content and product recommendations, many using AI recommendation engines that analyse users browsing histories, etc., to ensure that those recommendations are highly relevant.

4. Ease of use

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Customers expect every aspect of a website to be easy to use. This includes the fast-loading, mobile-friendliness and personalisation mentioned above, as well as a raft of other important features. Key here are simple navigation, so that whatever the user wants to find, they can do so quickly, and advanced product search, so that results can be filtered by size, colour, price or brand, etc. The checkout process should also be simple, without the need to fill in lots of information and with payment options to suit the user’s preferred payment methods.

Customers also expect finding information to be easy. This means providing FAQs or knowledgebases, while making it simple to get in touch and get speedy replies. Today, many websites feature chatbots, which have replaced live chat to customer service reps with interactions with AI-enabled software. Although the AI takes time to train, unlike a human, it can work around the clock and chat to multiple consumers simultaneously, answering the vast majority of queries that they ask of it. Importantly for generating sales, it can also initiate conversations and make product recommendations.

Conclusion

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the features a website should have, what we have included here are those four which we think are essential to help websites perform well in the modern marketplace. First-class hosting, mobile first design, personalisation and ease of use are vital to ensure your website meets modern user expectations and can compete with other sites.

7 Proven Methods for Boosting Website Traffic

How to Get More Traffic to Your Website - Webify Geeks

According to retail analyst, GlobalData, over 50% of UK consumers now shop online, with spending predicted to grow 30% by 2024. Indeed, by 2021, Statista forecasts 93% of internet users in the UK will be shopping online. While this is fantastic news for online businesses, it comes hand in hand with a growth in competition as more companies launch websites: 84% had them in 2018 compared to 70% in 2007. To be successful in such a competitive marketplace, companies will need to find ways of increasing website traffic and in this post, we’ll explain some of the main ways to achieve this.

1. Online advertising

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For companies with new websites or those which struggle to get listed in search engine results, online advertising is often the chief method of attracting customers to your website. The main way to advertise is with Google and Bing, using paid search ads that appear in search results or display ads that appear on other websites. Alternatively, you can also advertise on social media sites. All of these options allow you to target specific audiences and track the progress of your campaign, helping to ensure your advertising budget is spent effectively. It can, however, be an expensive strategy.

2. Content marketing

Content and Content Marketing Are Not the Same. Here's How to Frame the Top 11 Content Formats.

Internet users aren’t always looking for products or services; quite often what they are seeking is information or ideas to help them solve problems. Providing content on your website which solves those problems can massively boost the number of people who visit as it can be found in search results and shared on social media. If that content subtly mentions and links to a product or service that you supply, it increases the chances of a sale. Take, for example, someone with a small garden looking for ideas to spruce it up. They find a blog article from a garden centre called ’10 ideas for revamping a small garden’ in which they find a picture of a table and chair set they like, together with a link to the product page. From this article, the visitor solves their problem and the garden centre makes a sale. This technique is widely used by businesses in all sectors.

3. Social media marketing

15 Awesome Examples of Social Media Marketing

If businesses don’t want to pay for advertising on social media, they can always use these sites to promote their brand, their web content and their products or services. Social media is great for posting links to your website and with the ability to use eye-catching images and video, it can be a highly effective way to increase traffic, especially as other users can spread the word by liking and sharing your posts.

4. Improve SEO

Improve Your SEO Work by Unleashing Your Creativity

Search engines are the main way consumers find the things they are looking for online, so optimising your website for them is vital if you want to improve the chances of your web pages ranking well in search results.

While the crucial factor in SEO is providing high-quality, fresh and relevant content on your pages, you must not overlook all the other key ingredients. These include having a well-structured, easily navigable website and placing relevant keywords in the titles, subheadings, meta descriptions and content.

5. A mobile-friendly website

Why Having a Mobile-Friendly Website Matters | D Custom

A mobile-friendly or responsive website is a necessity in today’s online market. The main reason for this is the fact that users spend more time online on their phones than they do on laptops or other devices. Increasingly, users are also shopping more on mobiles too. According to Statista, at the end of 2018, smartphones generated the largest share of online retail revenue in the UK with many sources predicting the amount spent using mobile devices would double over the next few years to around £40 billion.

There are many reasons for this growth: there are more phone users, there is better internet access away from home, there are easier ways for people to pay using their phones and, importantly, more companies are providing mobile-friendly websites. For businesses, the last point is crucial, as without a mobile-friendly site, the growing market of smartphone shoppers won’t be able to fully access your store. That’s an issue which also makes search engines downrank sites which aren’t mobile-friendly.

6. Make use of email marketing

How To Make Use of Email Marketing To Successfully Communicate with Prospects and Clients - Tomo360

Email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing technique and is very inexpensive to implement. There are various ways to grow an email list, such as using a pop-up that offers an incentive to sign up (e.g. 10% off your first order) or asking customers to sign up during the checkout process (e.g. ‘Get updates of our new products and latest offers’).

Once visitors have signed up, you can send marketing emails to them for free with links to your website included. Today, many companies combine email marketing with the use of personalised product recommendation software which tracks what a visitor has been looking at on the website and sends out emails with links to relevant products. This personalised form of email marketing can significantly increase traffic to your site.

7. Security and speed

What Happens When You Sacrifice Security for Speed (And Common Ways Security Gets Sacrificed) | Threat Stack

Two other factors which can affect traffic numbers are security and speed. If your website is marked as ‘not secure’ on browsers, many users will not visit even if it appears in search results. Additionally, according to Google, 53% of visitors will abandon the site if it takes over three seconds to load on their devices. Solving these problems requires the installation of an SSL certificate on your website to make it secure and ensuring that the site is optimised to make it faster. Speed can also be increased by ensuring that your site is hosted on high-performance servers and that your hosting package provides all the resources to cater for the traffic your site needs.

Conclusion

The first step to increasing online sales is getting more people to visit your website. This has become increasingly difficult to achieve as growing numbers of businesses go online and compete for customers. That said, the internet market continues to grow, with more people spending more money online. Hopefully, the ideas presented here will help your business generate more online traffic.

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