Top 20 Google tips #15 - Do NOT use Google Images!
In his 15th tip, Clive Loseby from Access by Design explains the importance of only using licensed images and how not doing so cost one of his customers a lot of money!
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Hi I'm Clive Loseby from Access by Design and I'm here today to talk to you about 20 things you need to know about Google and your website in 2017 (and 2018!)
Number 15 - do not use Google images for your website. Do not use Google images for anything!
The reason I say this is that Google images, a lot of the images on there and I mean a lot, are owned by companies like Getty. Getty Images have little bits of code in inserted into their images so that they can track them and if you use images from Getty, from Google images if you like, and you use them on your website you will get in trouble.
We've got a license with Getty, so people who buy them through us actually buy them licensed. One of our clients had a holiday or has got a holiday property website and they have all their Google images through us, so they're all quite legitimate.
They also advertise other people's properties and they didn't think anything of it. The person sent across some images for their page and a lot of information that they just put it up.
Unfortunately two of the images were taken from Getty and they weren't authorised. What Getty did is they sat and they watched and about ten months later they dropped him a nice little email and they said
"You've been using two of our images and they're not authorised so we'd like £945 just to pay for the license used up until this moment and then we can talk about using it in the future."
Now because they own the website, because it was their website, even though the images were given to them, because they put them up, they are legally responsible for them.
This doesn't just apply to websites, it applies to social media Another person I know has used Getty Images on a Facebook page. Same issue.
It's really simple. Only use images that you have taken yourself or you have got licensed.
If you are going to use them in any kind of public forum, such as a website, it is really important because it could be really expensive otherwise.
Hopefully that will save you some money!
If you'd like to have a free review of your own website, please do get in touch.
Thank you
Clive Loseby
Access by Desigm. Award-winning web design, Chichester.
