This method is beginner-friendly and shows you how you can get Unique and non-stock photos for your website!
Why you need real and unique looking Product images?
- Adding Product stock images makes you look spammy in the eyes of google.
- Readers can also smell it if you use stock images and show that you put no effort into your page or site.
- Readers will likely read through your article and trust your page with real-looking images.
STEP 1: Find the Image
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.
STEP 2: Screenshot the Image
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.
STEP 3: Quick Edit to make it more Unique
To go further in making this image unique for google, you can
Change the Hue/Saturation quickly
- Go to this free editor https://www.photopea.com/ (no registration)
- Click on File -> Open -> Choose your image
- Press CTRL+ U and adjust saturation and Lightness abit to make it unique
- Click on File -> Export as -> choose JPG or PNG
Additional ways would be to
- mirror the product image (If no text is involved)
- rotate the product image a few degrees
Beautify the image (Optional)
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.
My quick workflow (Less than 1 minute)
This is my quick workflow when I have many images to grab.
- Make a screenshot in firefox and then press ctrl+c to copy the image
- Open photopea in a new tab press ctrl+alt+n for new
- Press ctrl+v to paste the image
- Press CTRL+ U and adjust saturation and Lightness abit to make it unique
- File-> Export as JPG
- Done (Not even a minute)
It does the job of making it unique for google in a quick way.
Why Google hates stock images
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!
The Key for Google to love your website is to have unique images!
Why Readers love Unique Images
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.
