Glossary
What is Stock Photography?
Stock Photography refers to images from licensed libraries (like Unsplash, Pexels, Shutterstock, Getty Images) that can be used on websites, marketing materials, and publications. Stock photos provide affordable, professional-quality imagery without requiring expensive photoshoots.
While stock photography is affordable and convenient, overuse of generic stock photos damages brand identity and credibility.
- Copyright & Licensing: Stock photos are licensed for specific uses (personal, commercial, etc.). Using a photo beyond its license scope is copyright infringement. Always verify usage rights before using stock photos.
- Brand Authenticity: Overusing generic stock photos (smiling business people, handshakes, offices) makes a website look less credible and authentic. Combining stock photos with custom photography and unique brand imagery is best.
- SEO Impact: Stock photos rarely have unique, high-value metadata. Using custom photography with relevant alt text and metadata is better for SEO.
Example from Flowtrix Projects
For an enterprise SaaS website using only generic stock photos, visitors perceived the company as less credible ("They couldn't afford real brand photography"). We replaced 60% of stock photos with custom brand photography and customer photos. This improved brand perception scores by 25% and increased conversion rates by 12%.
Categories:
Development
Technical
Related Terms:
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