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3 free stock image resources for small businesses

If you are a small to medium business running your own website or social media accounts, having access to a stock image library can help make your business look more professional, or at least make your social media postings more enticing.

According to Facebook, social posts that include an image increase engagement rates by 37%, and Twitter claims a tweet with an image attached, receive on average, a 35% boost in retweets.

Stock image libraries can be expensive and may have very restrictive licensing. Luckily there is a growing trend of photographers placing their work in the public domain and allowing others to download their works, for free, and with very little restrictions.

The sites below all have a large body of works supported by very large communities of photographers. By allowing their images to go in the public domain, they can help small businesses create more attractive social posts without the need for a larger social marketing budget.

1. Pixabay

Image by Adrian Kirby
Image by Adrian Kirby

Image by Adrian Kirby from Pixabay

Pixabay is a community of photographers that are willing to share their works in the Public Domain. All images are free to download and use in commercial projects. There is several advantages to Pixabay including access to high resolution images and a large library of works and styles from a variety of photographers. All the images are free to modify and adapt with no restrictions. Neither is there a requirement to credit the photographer, which is very generous of the photographer. Pixabay has provided an easy way to donate to the photographers listed on their site, and we highly recommend donating if you use their works.

Visit site: https://pixabay.com

2. Pexels

Image by Paweł L.
Image by Paweł L.

Image by Paweł L from Pexels

Pexels is similar to Pixabay with a community of photographers allowing their works to be used for commercial purposes with no restrictions on editing and modifying the images. One large difference between Pexels and Pixabay, is that it’s search facility crawls several other sites (including Pixabay) for royalty free photographs that you can use in your projects.

Visit site: https://pexels.com

3.  Unsplash

Photo by Markus Spiske
Photo by Markus Spiske

Image by Markus Spiske from Pexels

Unlike the previous two image library sites, Unsplash only gives you access to high resolution images, not that this is an issue for most projects. However this could be a slight drawback for those looking for a quick image to be displayed online

Visit site: https://unsplash.com

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