Think about a website confined exclusively in walls and walls of paragraphs. Boredom immediately sets in, and an inexplicable urge to close your browser right away follows. Images, indeed, brighten up your website and articles. These can inspire awe and wonder that even a thousand words cannot describe. But, what if you don’t have any web design experience? How can you add compelling images that make your website stand out? Fortunately, there is a myriad of stock photo sites where you can source these images.
Take a look at our list of the top 10 best stock photo sites for your WordPress website. It’s never wrong to attempt at making your site more attractive to your audience.
What is a stock photo?
A stock photo is a supply of professional photographs of a person or people, place, landmark, animal, or nature that you can use on your personal or commercial website. Each of these images is licensed for specific uses. Use these images for free or with a fee, depending on where you found it. To further enhance reader engagement in your content, try using our suggested reading progress bar!
You can use a stock photo on your website with some of the conditions below, depending on the terms of use of the specific image:
- Public Domain – the image has no copyright or trademark, thus you can use it even without asking permission to the original creator.
- Personal vs Commercial – the image can be used for personal use only. If you use it for commercial use, you’re violating the license.
- Attribution – the image requires giving credit to the original creator.
So, before you use a stock photo, make sure that you understand its terms of use. You don’t want to get into trouble just by using someone’s photo, right?
I’m now going to share the top 10 websites where you can get exceptionally beautiful stock images that you can use for your website.
Warning: These sites are addictive. You might tirelessly scroll and stare at the images all day.
1. StockSnap.io
StockSnap.io has tons of beautiful, amazing stock photos that you can use for your website. They’re always updating their database so you can surely get new photos. You can filter their images by typing in a keyword on the search bar, or you can click on the popular search tags or categories.
Its license type is public domain which means you can use the images even without attribution.
2. Pixabay
Pixabay contains more than 1.6 million images that you can choose for your website needs. Not only images, you can also find video content on Pixabay. The user interface is very simple and pretty easy to use. Just filter the type of images (photographs, vectors, illustrations) and videos that you would need.
Its license type is also public domain.
3. Negative Space
Negative Space is another free stock photo website that you can go to if you need high-quality stock photos that you can use for personal or commercial purposes. You have nothing to worry about using their photos because all of their CCO (Creative Common) licensed images are completely free.
If you want to receive latest updates from them, you can sign up to their mailing list.
4. Pexels
Pexels contains hundreds of high quality stock photos that you can easily search through the search bar or using tags or discover pages. Also, hundreds of new photos are being added daily so you can definitely find what you’re looking for.
All photos that you get from Pexels are completely free for personal and commercial use and attribution is not required.
5. Unsplash
If you want unique images that are not easily found anywhere else, then check out Unsplash. Photos are categorized from wallpapers, nature, textures and patterns, business and work, fashion, food and drink, and many others so you can easily choose the best for you.
All photos on Unsplash can be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes for free. You don’t need to ask permission from the original creator.
6. Foodiesfeed
If your business is food-related such as a restaurant, food blog, or online store for kitchen appliances, then you can select photos from Foodiesfeed. All the photos here look very appealing and food images look very yummy.
You can easily search for the photo that you want through its search bar. You can also search by tags or categories.
All these photos from Foodiesfood can be copied, modified, and used for personal and commercial purposes, free of charge.
7. Burst by Shopify
Don’t be confused. Even if you don’t have Shopify, you can still use the stock photos from Burst. They have published different high-quality stock photos that you can use for your websites, marketing materials, products, and many more.
You can easily search for what you want using its categories such as business, fashion, food, background, and many more.
You can use these photos for free even without attribution to the original creator.
8. Kaboompics
With more than 10,000 photos to choose from, Kaboompics offers photos related to lifestyle and interior design. So, if your blog site is under these categories, then check out this stock photo site.
They also have photos for categories such as technology, food and drink, animals, and many others. You can easily search for them based on categories, colors, orientation, and mode.
All photos published in Kaboompics are free for personal and commercial use.
9. Reshot
Reshot is another place for high-quality stock photos. These photos came from individual contributors from different photography communities. You can filter your search based on different categories such as business, fashion, technology, people, baby, nature, food, and many more. They also have curated photo packs that you can download.
You’re free to use any photo that you like from Reshot, either for commercial or noncommercial purposes or both.
10. ISO Republic
If you are a blogger or a business owner looking for high-quality stock photos that you can use for your website or social media posts, then find what you need in ISO Republic. They have loads of photos, as well as video content, that you can use.
You can easily find the photo that you’re looking for by categories such as animals, art, city, fashion, food, sport, technology, travel, and many more. You can also search by tags or simply type in the search bar.
All photos in ISO Republic are free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
Conclusion
What are you waiting for? Check out these stock photo sites and grab all the photos and video content that you need to create that stunning website of yours. These images do not just serve for aesthetic purposes, but these can also improve your SEO. You could also further optimize your site using the best SEO tools in 2019.
Everything featured above is free. No need to worry of getting the ire of the original creator for using their photos or for not attributing them. Of course, giving a little credit as a courtesy will be appreciated.
Super list! We already use many of these photo pages.