Does Shutterstock images affect SEO?

[ahenic]

Where you get your images from, doesn’t affect SEO at all (unless you want to rank the image in Google Images).

But keep in mind that stockphoto’s can look unnatural, especially when used for business websites. Visitors prefer real images so they can see the company, people etc. So using stockphoto’s on your website may effect user experience.

[mirvelashvili]

what **Shutterstock images are?**

[notalwaysthis]

Ever heard of original content? Stockphotos are the worst for SEO as you dont own them and are not the first using them. Its usage vary depending on kw’s difficulty, if you want to be first take your own photo or edit the stock ones enough to not be recognizable by algorithm

[extracheeseytoasty]

In an ideal situation you should still use your own original image, but of course that’s not always possible. I went on an SEO course at the end of last year with a leading UK marketing agency that work with some of the world’s largest brands and they said that using stock imagery can impact negatively on SEO, however, I’m guessing not that much as you still get major websites using images from Shutterstock.

[bigsexualscandal]

I keep seeing this question every week.

How is Google going to penalize a website for buying a license of a photo?

What is the logic for people having doubts about this? Just curious

[DheerajDani]

Shutterstock or any other free or paid images will not drive any seo impacts.. its all about user experience. How attracted users feels seeing those images.. more user stays on site better it is.. images add better user experience thats helps users to stay on website.
Those kind of images also creates your blogs attractive and gives better user experience.

[Lukinzz]

no.