Search Off the Record - Googlers Discuss Stock Photography

Lizzi Sassman said that she generally prefers not to use stock photos, because they can look "staged" and "fake." John Mueller said that he sometimes uses them, because they can provide a good illustration of a concept. On a recent episode of Search Off the Record, two Googlers discussed the use of stock photography. Lizzi Sassman said that she generally prefers not to use stock photos because they can look staged and fake. John Mueller said that he sometimes uses them because they can provide a good illustration of a concept. The Googlers continue their discussion by talking about stock photography and how it relates to image search. Mueller says that if people are searching for Halloween photos, Google is unlikely to show up in the search results because there are so many other sites that have the same images. He says that it's fine to show the image, but being number one in the search results isn't the goal. Some people think that stock photos might make website visitors less interested, or make it seem like the website isn't real. But that would only happen if the stock photos were in a place where being real is important, like on a page that tells people about the website or the people who run it.

(source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-on-use-of-stock-photography/468849/)