Sure...using free or low-cost stock generic images on your web site can be quite a cost effective means of adding content to your website, but like the old adage says, "You get what you pay for".
The New York Times published a recent study by Jakob Nielsen, a web site consultant and author of several books about web design and user interface. The research showed that most people that browse web sites ignore royalty-free or generic images that were purchased from stock agencies. Not only that, but the images only added clutter to the page and didn’t necessarily help from a business standpoint.
In his study, Nielson used eye-tracking software to gauge where a person's eye moved on various web pages. He found that most stock images were ignored, but if the viewer knew that the image was of a real person or a product being advertised on the site, the viewer lingered considerably longer on those images.
Mr. Nielsen concludes with some advice to those using the Web to hawk products or content: “Invest in good photo shoots: a great photographer can add a fortune to your Web site’s business value.” After all, he notes, most sites are full of “fluff — of which there’s too much already on the Web.”
To see the remainder of the article:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/study-shows-people-ignore-generic-photos-online/
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