Using high-quality images is one way to raise the quality and visual appeal of blogs. Research shows that blogs with images get 94% more views than those without visuals. Also, 71% of bloggers add visuals to their content as part of their marketing strategy. So adding images is more than just an aesthetic choice. It’s a data-driven surety to provide a boost to web traffic.
Beautiful Images Make Your Blog More Appealing
Beautiful images don’t just spice up the blog post you’re writing or the web content you create. They’re not just a visual add-on. Instead, images and visuals support the content you write by adding further meaning to it. If you’re a business selling housing insurance, adding images of beautiful houses and apartment buildings makes sense.
Images also help to explain complex points to the reader. For example, if you’re writing a technical blog about data analytics or lead generation, images will help readers understand. Other complex topics like physics, computer programming, quantum computers, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, etc., aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Images will help them make sense of what they’re reading.
Finally, images also help bump your blog post’s Search Engine Optimization. SEO-optimizing images can make your blog searchable on Google. Anything that helps your SEO will inevitably translate into a better rank in search results.
However, you need to add images to your blog or site that are royalty-free. Copyright infringement and strikes are now the norm and damage credibility. To help you get started, here are some of the best websites for royalty-free images.
Best Image Sites for Technical Blog Posts
Technical blog posts on dry topics require images most of all. They contain topics that are tailored towards niche audiences. When you want more readers to stay on your pages longer, visuals are the way to go.
This helps when you’re offering technical services to companies or individual clients. Images help to convey what you’re actually offering.
Yayimages
Yayimages offers royalty-free images that cover any topic, from SEO to lead generation. You are required to sign up to the site before you start downloading images.
StockVault
StockVault is a great site for vibrant technical images. It even beats out Yayimages when it comes to richness and quality.
Best Sites for Beautiful Images
Sometimes, all you need to make a blog post stand out is a beautiful image. Not all blog posts are about lead generation and data analytics. Some of them can be about beautiful spots to vacation or obscure historical landmarks. For those blog posts, you need an eye-catching image that can knock your readers’ socks off. For that, these websites offer excellent options.
Unsplash
If you’re looking for images that really pop and are extremely rich and bright, Unsplash is for you. You don’t need to make an account, and you can just download from the get-go.
Pixabay
Pixabay has a really good mix of beautiful images and technical images. You can search images for technical blog posts and also for a beautiful landscape.
Little Visuals
Little Visuals features some of the most hi-resolution images on the internet. And it’s free. You can set these images as wallpapers as they’re so pixel-dense. However, this should be your last choice for your website since very heavy images take a long time to load. They can slow down your page-loading speed, which means your SEO will take a hit.
Pexels
This is a general all-purpose site for any image you might want. It’s doesn’t have many technical images though. It will always give you a rich image and there’s no requirement for an account.
PicJumbo
PicJumbo is another great site for beautiful stock photos. Just search and download. No account needed.
RGBStock
RGBStock is another site that provides images for any and all purposes. You can download without any account requirement.
Best Sites for Food Images
Food blogs are amongst the most popular because people are always looking to cook. It’s a must to feature beautiful and succulent pictures of food in every post. Here are a few sources for the best food pictures.
Foodiesfeed
Foodiesfeed has a homepage with categories already set out for foods like pizza and cakes. You don’t even need to search for the most common foods we love to eat. This should be your first choice for food pictures.
FreeImages
This is a general all-purpose image site, but the food pictures on here are amazing. No account required for downloads.
Kaboom Pics
Kaboom Pics has a very minimalist layout, which is why there’s so much room for pictures to be displayed.
Best Sites for Historical Photos
If you have a niche audience for historical literature or events, you can use these sources for photos.
Pond5
The public domain project of Pond5 features tens of thousands of free images pertaining to historical events. You can find photos of old soccer teams, old baby pictures, pictures of war, etc.
New Old Stock
This is a Tumblr page that features old black and white photographs. There’s not really a search option, but it’s good enough for generic photos of eras gone by.
Wikimedia Commons: The Best Free Site for General Images
Wikimedia Commons stores all the images that are available on Wikipedia. Just like the free encyclopedia, it makes all the images it has free to download for anyone who is interested.
With these great sources for your blog post images, you’ll never come up short, no matter the topic.
Author Bio: Dave Brown is the head of web copywriters at Content Development Pros. He supervises all the web copywriting material handled by the company. He enjoys reading Neil Gaiman, watching Netflix, and painting to relax.
