With how visual our world is now, high-quality images are crucial in order to create a trustworthy site and advertisements. Many people use stock images for marketing purposes, but it’s essential to be careful with these. Using stock images for marketing can be very beneficial when done correctly. However, many people don’t realize the different practices they need to utilize when using stock images.

Here is what you need to know about whether you even should be using stock images for marketing purposes, as well as what you need to do in order to ensure that they’re used effectively.

Should You Use Stock Images For Marketing?

This is a topic of some debate. Some people say that no, you should absolutely never ever use stock images. You should hire a professional photographer and ensure that all of the images you use are original. Others say that there’s nothing wrong with using stock images, so long as you follow the appropriate practices.

In truth, you can use both. Professional, original images of your team, your business, and your products add authenticity that customers love. However, hiring a professional photographer can be expensive, and you can find yourself needing more images than you currently have. You need a variety in order to avoid boring potential clients and causing them to click away from your site. 

Using stock images for marketing allows you to cut costs down on professional photography, but you need to ensure that the stock images you use suit your purposes. The more authentic they look, the better. You must also ensure that you follow all the licensing restrictions to avoid getting landed in hot water. There’s nothing wrong with using stock images for marketing purposes, so long as you utilize the following practices.

How To Use Stock Images Effectively

Stock images can be a lifesaver. However, they can also be incredibly easy to spot, which can lower the trustworthiness of your site. You need visual elements on your site in order to catch and maintain attention – no one likes blocks of texts, after all. But the wrong stock images can backfire, impacting how much time people spend on your site and how likely they are to contact you about your services.

Here’s what you need to know about using stock images for marketing effectively.

#1. Ensure That You Check Their Legality

You can end up getting sued if you use stock images incorrectly. There are many different sites that sell stock images you can use, such as Depositphotos. They will typically list any usage clauses, modification limitations, and image permissions. It’s essential that you understand the licensing and copyright before using an image.

For instance, one stock image may be fine to use on your site, but may have a clause saying that it cannot be used in print. Thus, you need to know the licensing rules of the stock images you want to use. If a stock image you like has restrictions that mean you can’t use it how you wanted to, you will need to find another. 

#2. Know What Type Of Licensing You Need

This goes hand-in-hand with the above point. There are two main types of stock image licensing: royalty-free and rights-maintained. 

• Royalty-free stock images are images that you can use repeatedly after a one-time purchase. They are not exclusive, so you may notice competitors using the same stock images you do. 
• Rights-maintained stock images come with exclusive rights that can expire. They allow you to use the image exclusively for a higher price.

Ensure that you understand the restrictions of each image you use to avoid violating its copyright or licensing. Know when you need to credit photos too.

#3. Select Images That Look Authentic

You know the infamous stock images that are so fake they’ve become memes? Unless you’re trying to take a humorous angle, it’s best to avoid such images. The more natural and authentic the stock image, the more trustworthy your site will be and the more professional it will appear.

The more obviously posed and staged and exaggerated the emotions of the models in the photo, the worse it looks on your site. Instead, opt for images that depict more natural poses and emotions to generate trust and give your site more authenticity. 

#4. Know When To Use Stock Images And When To Get Original Pictures

If you can easily get your own images, why use stock images for marketing? For instance, if you have a cooking site and you’re writing recipes, it would be better to get pictures of what you actually made, instead of using stock images. Consider when you can ask your team if you can take pictures of them while they are at work, for a more human element to your site.

#5. Optimize Your Images For SEO

Many people overlook images in their SEO practices. Regardless of whether you use stock images for marketing purposes or original photos, you need to ensure that the images are optimized. This means:

• Rename the file to include your keywords. Avoid underscores. The image name matters, so instead of a random string of numbers, use something like: gutter cleaning in autumn. 
• Be mindful of the file format. Generally, you will use JPEG for photos and PNG for illustrations and logos. 
• Use the alt text, as this helps both SEO and with accessibility.
• Use your image title tags.
• Compress images as needed, so pages load quickly.
• Caption accordingly. You don’t want to be spammy and jam keywords into the caption, but you can do a simple descriptive caption that fits with the content of the image and your page. 

These are but a few of the ways you can optimize your images for SEO. If you would like to learn more about using stock images for marketing or image optimization, the experts here at Performance Driven Marketing are here to help. We know how to use stock images for marketing in a way that benefits your site’s SEO and authenticity. Contact us today to learn more about how we can improve your site’s SEO. 

FAQ pages are an essential part of your business’s website. They make life easier both for you and for your clientele. However, many people don’t know just what their customers’ frequently asked questions are, which leads to wildly unhelpful FAQs that just leave both your customers and you frustrated. With Google’s recent Helpful Content Update, people-centered content is more important than ever before. Fortunately, the guidelines laid out in this update make formulating your site’s FAQs more straightforward, making life easier for you and your customers. 

Here is what you need to know about the importance of a well-put-together FAQ page and how you can use Google’s Helpful Content Update to put yours together. Let’s dive into it!

The Importance Of An FAQ Section

Picture this: you start a business. You’re thrilled to help people and to share your expertise. But… You and your staff find yourselves answering the same questions over and over and over again. Questions like: “Do you do payment plans?” and “What is – insert service here – ?” are far more prominent than you thought they’d be. 

This is where your FAQs come into play. An FAQ page makes life easier for both you and your customers by addressing these commonly asked questions in an easy-to-find, to-the-point manner. That way, your customers can quickly find the answers to their questions themselves and you and your employees can answer more personalized questions when the phone goes off. 

FAQ pages can also boost your site’s SEO ranking by providing relevant information and concise answers to common questions people ask about your business or industry.

How Can Google’s Helpful Content Update Help?

First off, you’ll want to know what Google’s Helpful Content Update is. We touched on this more in-depth in our previous blog post: Everything You Need To Know About Google’s Helpful Content Update. But essentially, this update means creating people-centered content, rather than content that’s made to rank on search engines. The goal of this update is to make the top results more helpful to people searching specific keywords or questions. 

It does this by marking content that is repetitive or that does not fit your site or realm of expertise as unhelpful. The goal of this update is to ensure that the information people are putting on their websites is designed to be helpful – as the name suggests – and to avoid issues like people feeling like your article or your FAQ didn’t answer their questions. 

As you can see, this is ideal for your site’s FAQ page! The entire point of your FAQ page is to be helpful and answer people’s questions. By utilizing Google’s Helpful Content Update, you can ensure that the questions you include and the answers you provide satisfy people’s needs, rather than giving potential customers the run-around. 

How To Make Your Site’s FAQs With This Update In Mind

This update addresses one of the most common problems with FAQ pages: unhelpful content. It’s unfortunately very common for business owners to think that they know what their clientele will want to know – only to completely miss the mark. It’s also very common for people to see a frequently asked question and to launch into a long-winded answer when your customers just want a simple yes or no with a basic why. 

FAQ pages are meant to be simple and straightforward. The more to the point, the better. One of the things that Google’s Helpful Content Update is targeting is content that leaves customers feeling unsatisfied. Your FAQ is the ideal page for this update to target, because if people go to it for an answer to a question only to have to go to another site for the information they need or to have to call you… This won’t reflect well on your site.

So! Let’s look into how you can use this update to make a stellar FAQ page.

#1. Answer People’s Frequently Asked Questions

As previously mentioned, business owners tend to assume that their customers’ frequently asked questions are different than what they actually are. If your business is already up and running, you can ask your employees what questions they get asked all the time to make this page for your site.

You can also use Google’s autofill feature. We’ll use SEO as an example. If you put SEO in Google’s search bar, the autofill brings up keywords that people usually search with it.

As you can see, some of these can work for your site’s FAQ page, such as the 4th result: what is seo and how it works. However, a lot of these aren’t the most helpful.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to find the questions people are asking. Simply scroll down after searching SEO, and then under the paid ads, you’ll see a section that looks like this.

Now, this is just what we’re looking for! Obviously, if you have an SEO company, you would want to change the wording and grammar to be accurate. Rather than “whats seo means?”, you would put “What does SEO mean?” 

This is an excellent way to find the common questions that people have about what you do.

#2. Actually Answer The Questions

It’s alarming how many FAQ pages there are where people try to redirect you to other pages or simply evade the question instead of just answering it. You don’t want your answers to be long-winded, as this will bore your clientele. But you do want to ensure that the questions actually get answered.

For instance, if you are a chiropractor, and one of the questions on your FAQ page is: “Is Chiropractic Care Safe?”, people don’t want to read an answer like: “Chiropractic was founded after….” They want to see an answer like: “Yes. Chiropractic care is safe when performed by licensed professionals.” 

#3. Update Your FAQ As Needed

One of the things that Google’s Helpful Content Update is watching out for is content that deviates from your site’s purpose. For instance, you wouldn’t look for medical information on a clothing website. As businesses can grow and change, so too do the services they provide. It’s important to keep your site’s FAQ page up to date to reflect these changes.

For instance, if you are a vet and you used to offer care for horses but you no longer do, you wouldn’t want to keep frequently asked questions about horses on your FAQ page. This would lead potential clients to assume that you still provide veterinary services for horses and can leave them feeling misled when they find that that isn’t the case anymore. 

You also want to go back and evaluate the questions and their answers from time to time. The world is ever-changing, and so can people’s questions about your services. You can also update your answers so that they are more concise and clear.

Do You Need Help Putting Together An FAQ Page?

Your FAQ page is one of the most helpful pages on your website – when done correctly. It can be challenging to know how to work with Google’s Helpful Content Update and how to put together a strong FAQ page, especially if you’re trying to meet the demands of your business. Performance Driven Marketing is here to help. We provide exceptional content writing and SEO services to make your website shine. 

To learn more about how we can help you with your website or to receive a free consultation, please do not hesitate to contact us today!