Today, good imagery is key, and in a world where everything is visual, free stock images can be very helpful. It may as well make or break a marketing strategy. To deliver persuasive content marketing items, marketers may take advantage of a variety of tools.
We have compiled a list of free high-quality stock image sites for all of your personal and commercial imagery needs. It’s important to highlight the image types you are likely to come across:
- Copyright – All Rights Reserved – copyright holder reserves all the rights provided by copyright law.
- Creative Commons – allows free distribution of copyrighted work.
One rule of thumb is to always read carefully the rules before you use any images for your own projects.
Some free stock image websites
- Google image search
- Flickr
- Unsplash
- Pexels
- Pixabay
Google image search
Google Images is a search service owned by Google that allows users to search the World Wide Web for image content. Images may be subject to copyright. If you want an image to reuse, you can narrow your results by usage rights. Learn how to find images you can use and share.
Finding an image
- Go to images.google.com.
- Search for an image. You can also do a search on Google for the image you want to find, then at the top, select Images.
Flickr
Arguably the best online photo management and sharing tool on the planet, Flickr has two key objectives: To make it easier for people to share their pictures with the people who matter to them, and to make it possible to organize images and videos in new ways.
Flickr continues to improve in a variety of ways, all with the goal of making things simpler and better for its millions of users worldwide. Are you wondering how to get started? See how.
Unsplash
Unsplash is a website with over 2 billion images to help people around the world be more creative. It was born from the pain the founders had in finding great, usable imagery.
Under the Unsplash Licence, the photographs are free to use. You’ll see a message on the screen after you download a picture that says credit isn’t needed, but it’s a good thing to do because it lets photographers gain exposure. You’ll also be given some text to use with the picture if you want to give credit to the photographer.
Pexels
Pexels offers high-resolution, royalty-free stock images under the Pexels license. Images are well-tagged, searchable, and easy to find using the discover pages.
Hundreds of thousands of free stock images, and new high-resolution photos are added every day and most images are hand-picked from photos shared by users. They ensure that all images released are of high quality and are certified under the Pexels license.
Pixabay
Pixabay has over 2.2 million+ high-quality stock images, videos, and music shared by its talented community. The Pixabay license allows anyone to use the images for commercial purposes without giving credit to the original creator.
Still not found what matches your needs? Try these:
Now, you decide
The significance of imagery cannot be ignored in today’s digital world. It is our hope this blog has been useful in getting you started in the many creative projects you plan to undertake.
If you know of any other decent free stock image websites, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
