Stop Using Stock Photos On Your Site

A very obvious red flag

I get messages like this all the time:

“I’m doing everything right and my money posts aren’t ranking this isn’t fair why does Google hate me!!!111”

Then I look at their site and they’re using literal stock photos in their product reviews.

Why don’t you just put “I never tried this product” in your H1 tag while you’re at it.

Google can (easily) tell the images aren’t legit

Run a reverse image search on your pics. If they’re showing up on other sites (if they’re stock then they are) Google knows that you weren’t the first person to use them.

Meaning: G’s algorithm knows for a 100% fact that you didn’t actually try the product.

Think about the situation from Google’s perspective. WHY would they send traffic to an obviously fake review?

Especially when you’re making it so easy for them to ID that you’re BSing everyone.

It’s an algorithmic no-brainer.

You have to be legit: the old way of SEO is dying

You’re not going to like this if you’re stuck in the old-timey SEO mentality of a few years ago, but:

You need to actually try the products you’re reviewing.

You need original photos. You need high quality videos. You need to write from a user’s perspective and state actual opinions. You need to talk about the data you obtained from your performance tests.

Any affiliate site that doesn’t have obvious indicators that they actually tried the products they’re reviewing WILL get annihilated in the next couple years (if they haven’t lost all their traffic already).

If you currently have stock photos on your site: as a temporary measure go ahead and edit them to make them quote-unquote unique.

Follow this guide: