This week on The Engaging Marketeer, I want to talk about something that’s happened to two of our clients in the last few weeks. It’s the kind of thing that happens to business owners all the time—unexpected, unpleasant, and completely avoidable.
Both of these clients received a demand from the same photo licensing company, asking them to pay $1,000 each for using an image on their website. Now, these were two different images, used by two different businesses, on two completely different websites. But the issue was exactly the same.
Initially, both clients weren’t sure whether the demands were genuine or some kind of scam or extortion attempt. That’s understandable—these things often look suspicious. But after we looked into it, it became clear what had happened.
The images they had used were not free. They were licensable stock photos. And the licensing company had found those images being used without a traceable license. Rather than contacting the business owners straight away, what these companies do is monitor and wait. They log the unauthorised usage and come back six months, a year, two years later, and then send a hefty invoice. They’ll say:
“This image has been on your website for X amount of time. It costs this much per day/week/month. You now owe us thousands of pounds—unless you can provide a license.”
Fortunately, both of these clients had used Engage Web to build their sites, and we do everything by the book. The images came from our licensed stock library, and we were able to log into our portal and instantly provide proof. The demands disappeared.
But if that hadn’t been the case? These clients—an electrician and a financial adviser—could have been in real trouble.
Here’s the crux of the issue. As a business owner, when you write a blog or add content to your site, you often want a photo to go with it. Most people’s first thought is to jump onto Google, search something like “UK fire engine” or “fireman”, go into Google Images, find something they like, save it, and upload it. Simple, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
Google Images is not a free image repository. Many of the images found there are from sites like Getty Images, iStock, or Shutterstock, and are legally protected. These image companies are very good at SEO, so their photos appear high up in Google search results.
And the thing is—they’re everywhere. These images appear on blogs, news sites like the BBC or Daily Mail, and even free-looking image sites. So, you might be fooled into thinking they’re safe to use. But they’re not.
The companies that own these images use tools like reverse image lookup to track who’s using them without permission. It’s incredibly easy for them. Drop a photo into Google, and it will find all the sites using that image—even if you’ve edited it, cropped it, changed the colours, or added text. It’s still a licensable image.
And again, they don’t ask nicely. They document the date they found it, wait for months or years, and then hit you with a huge bill. One client even asked me, “Is this a scam? It’s all in American spelling!” It wasn’t a scam—it was 100% real. But because we had used a properly licensed image, we could shut it down with no issue.
So here’s the advice I want you to take away today:
Do not, under any circumstances, use images from Google on your website.
I’ll say it again for those in the back:
Do. Not. Use. Images. From. Google.
If you do, there’s a very high chance you’ll be using a protected image and will get fined—not tens, not hundreds, but potentially thousands of pounds.
Why? Because photographers deserve to be paid. They’ve trained, invested in their equipment, and created these images as their livelihood. Even if they don’t get the lion’s share (often the image libraries do), the work still needs to be compensated.
So please, avoid the temptation. Use licensed images, or better yet, work with a professional agency that includes them as part of your service.
Summary
In today’s episode, we explored a hidden legal trap many business owners fall into: using images from Google without realising they’re copyrighted. Two of our clients were nearly stung with £1,000 fines each, but we resolved it because we use fully licensed imagery. Remember—if you want to protect your business, avoid unlicensed images and always check where your media comes from.
If you found this helpful, please leave a review on YouTube or your podcast platform of choice. And I’ll catch you on the next episode of The Engaging Marketeer.
About your host:
Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engaging-marketeer/id1612454837
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjamieson/
Engaging Marketeer: https://engagingmarketeer.com
Engage Web: https://www.engageweb.co.uk
