Why You Need Reverse Image Search As A Blogger
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When you’re a blogger, there is a lot to learn and it can feel as though every day presents a new challenge.
You may be wondering why you might need to use reverse image search as a blogger but it can be a very useful tool in detminign whether something unwelcome has happened to your blog: Image theft.
Why Would People Steal Blogger’s Images?
There are a few reasons as to why you may find your images have been stolen as a blogger.
Often, people (and yes some other bloggers too!) don’t even realise that they can’t just take any old image they find when searching online.
It could be that they’ve searched royalty free image sites and not found what they’re looking for so have opted for stealing an image instead..
There are even cases where bloggers end up in a dispute with a brand they’ve worked with where the blogger correctly believes they retain the rights to their own images and the brand has gone on to use them in advertising without the bloggers permission.
Creating a successful blog and brand takes a lot of work and no blogger deserves to have their images stolen or reused without their permission.
This is where reverse image search can help.
How To Use Reverse Image Search
You might think that reverse image search sounds like something complicated, but it’s absolutely not.
Using a reverse image search tool, such as copyseeker.net is easy.
Simply upload your image from your PC, copy and paste the image URL or choose your image from Instagram (although not every image search has this last feature)
Results can take a few moments to come in, the word wide web is pretty big after all!
You will then have a list of everywhere online your image has been used. If it’ just your own website or social media then that’s great.
If you’re not sure where to start with reverse image searching, you might want to try images from your best ranking posts, as these are the ones that come up most in search and are more likely to have had images stolen.
Someone Is Using My Image – What Happens Next?
If your images are being used elsewhere, there are a few things you can do.
First, you’ll need to find an email address for the website that’s using your image.
Next, you need to think about the outcome you would like.
Would you like the image to be removed?
Would like attribution and a link to your website?
Do you want to charge a usage fee for the time your image has been used illegally?
The type of result you’d like might depend on the type of website where your image has been used.
If it’s another blogger or small business then a gentle reminder about image copyright and asking for a link to your website might be the easiest way to proceed.
For a multi-million pound corporation, you should definitely be asking for removal and compensation for use of your image.
When emailing, don’t forget to set a clear time frame for the image to be atrributted or removed and you could also threaten lega action if you feel it’s warranted.
With Images that have been stolen and reused on social media, most of the big social media platforms have channels for reporting this.
For example, on Facebook if your report an image and choose ‘other’ there is a button for ‘This is unauthorised use of my intellectual property’
If by using a reverse image searcht tool you’ve found that your image has been used thousands and thousands of times, it could be that it’s been uploaded to a royalty free image website without your permission, and many of the people using it think that are doing so lawfully.
This is something that you would need to take up directly with the royalty-free-image website. Many bloggers will source and link to any royalty-free images they use so this should make it easy to figure out which one your image is currently on.
Other Ways Bloggers Can Protect Their Images
While reverse image search is one way to protect your images as a blogger, there are a few other things you could try too.
Watermarking – Watermarking your images is one way to protect them, however, it can affect the overall aesthetic of your blog or Instagram feed and could easily be cropped out if it doesn’t cover the whole image.
Disable Right Click – Disabling right-click on your blog should help stop your images from being saved.
Copyright Notice – Having a clear copyright notice on your blog shows that you have ownership of the images being used there.
While some bloggers may have been lucky enough never to have their images stolen, it is definitely something to be aware of, especially if you have amazing photography skills. Using reverse image search from time to time should help you ensure that no one is using your images illegally and give you peace of mind that your amazing content and images are remaining uniquely yours.
