This method is beginner-friendly and shows you how you can get Unique and non-stock photos for your website!
The trick is to simply find a photo of a used item on marketplace websites like eBay or Facebook's marketplace.
The owner likely won't know or care if you use it.
Do not download the image!
Use a built in screenshot tool like on default Firefox.
In firefox, find the image and right-click and choose "take screenshot."
Make only a partial screenshot of the image by removing the space on the left and right or top and bottom) and click on save.
The reason is to make it unique by having different metadata, size, and image name.
To go further in making this image unique for google, you can
Change the Hue/Saturation quickly
Change the Background with Canva.
Go to Canva and use the Background Remover Tool to cut out the photo with just one click. This will make it look good.
Add a beautiful background, or you can leave it white. Instead of leaving it white, you can add texture or an image to make the image even more interesting and unique.
You can also add real-looking shadows with just one click in Canva.
Now you have a picture that is both unique and pretty. If you put it on your website, Google and your website visitors will be super happy.
This is my quick workflow when I have many images to grab.
Google stated that they hate stock images on websites. The reason for this is that SEO spammers often use stock images to try and improve the ranking of their websites. It means that when Google sees a stock image, they are more likely to penalize the website.
Furthermore, stock images can often be low quality and/or irrelevant to the content on a website, which can also lead to Google penalizing the site. So if you're considering using stock images on your website, you might want to think twice - unless you're trying to get google to raise flags on your site!
Most readers are looking for something different when they visit a website. Often the first thing they see is the Title, and the image included. They want to see images that are unique and trustworthy.
As mentioned above, Search engines like Google prefer websites with original content and unique images. That's why it's important to include high-quality, unique images on your site.
Not only will this help to engage readers, but it will also give you a better chance of ranking high in search results. So if you're looking to attract more readers and build trust, include some unique images on your website.