Creating original images for every page of your website takes time, effort and money.
That is why so many businesses use stock photography and AI-generated images.
They’re fast, affordable and make getting a website or blog post live easier.
Stock photos and AI images aren't automatically bad for SEO. What matters much more is whether your images are appropriate, useful, properly optimised and actually improve the experience of the person visiting your website
It’s also important to make sure the images you are generating are aligned with your brand, otherwise there could be mismatch with your audience You can also lose trust if the image is not aligned with a customers expectations.
So, before you start deleting every stock image from your website, here's what you need to know.
We will first look at the advantages of using stock images.
Using a stock photograph doesn't automatically hurt your Google rankings simply because someone else has used the same image.
Google's John Mueller has previously explained that stock photography doesn't directly matter for normal web search.
So no, Google isn't looking at your website and thinking "I've seen that woman holding a coffee cup before”. Page two for you."
But there is an important difference between your page ranking in Google Search and an image ranking in Google Images. A popular stock image might be used across hundreds or even thousands of websites.
That doesn't mean Google is going to penalise every website using it. But if you're hoping for that particular image to stand out in Google Image Search, you're suddenly competing against every other website using the exact same image.
Google's own Image SEO guidance recommends using images that are relevant and representative of the page so, the issue isn't really stock photo is for bad SEO. It's whether that stock image is actually adding anything useful or extraordinary to your page.
Source:Google Search Central
The same stock image can appear across multiple websites, making it harder for your visual content to stand out in image search.
There’s also the question of whether your brand actually gets chosen in search. If you’re using the same stock images as hundreds of other businesses, there’s nothing particularly unique helping you stand out. This can matter in places like Google Images, AI Overviews and even the Shopping tab, where there may be many similar options for Google to choose from. Original imagery gives your business something that actually belongs to you, rather than another image people may have already seen ten times before.
This doesn't mean every small business now needs to book a professional photographer before publishing another blog. Stock photography has its place. If you need a supporting image for a blog, something visual to break up a long page or an image that illustrates a general idea, a relevant, high-quality stock image can work perfectly well.
But there are areas where we'd nearly always lean towards original photography.
Your “About”’ page is an obvious one.
If we're trying to build trust in your business, showing your actual team is going to be significantly more convincing than five suspiciously photogenic strangers pretending to have a meeting.
The same applies to your products, projects, offices, customer experiences and portfolio.
Original photography gives customers something stock imagery can't, that’s your business.
So when you're comparing stock photos vs custom photography, don't only ask "Which one does Google prefer?" Instead, ask, "Which one is going to help my customer understand or trust this page?" That's a better question.
This is an example of stock photography that can support a page, but original images can be much stronger when you're trying to build trust around your people, products or work.
Now for the newer question.
Businesses can create illustrations, graphics and realistic images in seconds now, so naturally there's concern about AI images and SEO.
Based on the Google Image SEO guidance we're looking at, there isn't evidence of a blanket ranking penalty simply because an image was generated using AI. Instead, Google's guidance repeatedly focuses on things like significance, context, quality, accessibility and technical implementation.
Which means we'd be asking a different question.
If you're generating an AI image because it explains an idea, illustrates something difficult to photograph or makes your content easier to understand, great.
If you're generating 15 random images because somebody told you that "Google likes images", that's a different story.
There's also the trust element.
If you're using AI-generated people, products, offices or results in a way that could make customers think they're real, you could create a credibility problem even if you haven't created an SEO problem. Saving ten minutes on an image isn't particularly helpful if your potential customer looks at it and immediately thinks something feels off.
Whether you're uploading professional photography, stock images or AI-generated visuals, there are some image SEO best practices that matter far more than where the image came from.
Your image should support the content around it.
If you’re a restaurant, for example, a photo of your actual food, venue or team is going to be far more useful than a generic stock photo of a perfectly styled dinner table that could belong to any restaurant.
The same goes for a psychologist. A genuine photo of your practice or consultation space can help potential clients get a feel for your business before they even walk through the door.
Choose images that are relevant to your business, rather than something that simply looks nice but doesn’t really represent your brand.
Think is the image adding any value, it is relevant, before just adding it in because it looks pretty or to fill gaps.
Alt text describes an image for people who can't see it and also provides search engines with additional context.
Google's own documentation shows descriptive alt text being used within standard HTML image elements.
Keep it natural.
Describe what's actually in the image rather than turning the alt-text box into somewhere to squeeze another six keywords.
Source: Google Search Central
Google recommends using standard HTML image elements with descriptive alt text to help provide context around an image.
We see this one all the time.
A beautiful image isn't much help if it's so large that your website takes forever to load.
Compress your images and make sure they're responsive across different devices.
Google's Image SEO documentation specifically covers responsive images and using different image versions for different screen sizes.
Your mobile visitor doesn't need to download an enormous desktop image just to see a tiny thumbnail.
Images don't exist in isolation.
Google explains that the content and metadata of the page where an image is embedded can influence how and where that image appears in search.
Your surrounding content, page topic, image metadata and technical setup all help search engines understand what they're looking at.
Google recommends choosing images that are relevant and representative of the page, avoiding extreme aspect ratios and using high-resolution imagery where possible.
The important bit is balance.
You want a clear, high-quality image without uploading a gigantic file that slows the whole page down.
Source: Google Search Central
Google recommends relevant, representative and high-resolution images when selecting preferred images for search.
If you've used AI deeply to create an image, consider adding a citation under it, particularly when the image is being used in more formal or published content.
Keep it simple. Add a caption below the image, start with a Note, followed by the AI tool you used.
For example:
Note: Image created using ChatGPT.
Citations are used to give credit to the original source and provide transparency around where an image was created.
There are also situations where using AI-generated images can be harmful and potentially impact how people see and trust your brand in search.
Fake news: Using AI to create false news images or show events that never actually happened can mislead people.
False advertising: AI can make a product look better or different from the real item. If the image doesn't represent the product a customer will receive, it can rapidly damage trust.
Deepfakes: AI can be used to create fake, harmful or explicit images of real people without their knowledge or permission.
Stolen art: There are concerns around using AI to copy the work, styles or prints of human artists without giving them credit or paying them for their work.
Planet harm: Generating large AI images, mainly in bulk, also has an environmental effect. The data centres behind AI need important amounts of electricity and water, so it's considering whether you actually need to make that image in the first place.
No. Stock photography can be useful.
AI-generated images can be useful and original photography can be brilliant.
The problem starts when businesses treat images as something they need to add to a website simply because they think they're supposed to.
A stock photo won't automatically destroy your rankings.
An AI-generated image won't automatically destroy them either.
But adding dozens of irrelevant, poorly optimised or obviously artificial images isn't going to magically improve your SEO.
Our advice is to be intentional. Use original photography when authenticity matters, use stock photography when it supports the page and use AI when it helps you create something useful that you couldn't reasonably create otherwise.
And whichever option you choose, follow proper image SEO best practices.
Because good SEO isn't about finding the latest thing Google might "penalise" you for.
It's about creating a website that's useful, trustworthy and easy for both your customers and search engines to understand. And yes, your images are part of that too.
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