Will customers notice if I use stock photos on my website?

Usually within seconds, even if they can't say exactly why. A kitchen that is too spotless, a worker in a hard hat who is too polished, a truck that is too clean - these read as generic rather than real. Most homeowners cannot name the tell, but they feel the mismatch between the photo and the business asking them to trust it with their home, and that doubt tends to spread to everything else on the page.

Can I use AI-generated images instead of real photos of my work?

You can for generic decoration, but not as a stand-in for a finished job. AI image tools can produce a convincing 'remodeled kitchen' or 'crew on a roof' in seconds, which is tempting when you have no portfolio yet - but the images often carry the same tells as stock photography (slightly wrong shadows, impossible tool details) plus a sharper problem: presenting one as a completed job implies you performed specific work you did not, which is a different and riskier claim than a generic smiling-worker stock photo in an 'about us' section.

Is it illegal to use stock or AI photos on a contractor website?

Not by itself. The FTC's standard for advertising is that it must be truthful and not misleading - a generic stock or AI image used as plain illustration (an icon-style photo of a phone, a stylized hero banner) is normally fine because it does not claim to show a specific result. The risk appears when an image is captioned or positioned so a reasonable customer would believe it shows the business's own completed work when it does not - that turns decoration into a factual claim, and a false one. The safe rule: never caption a stock or AI photo as if it were a job you did.

How much does RunCabin cost?

Starting at $499 one time to build, then $39.99 a month for hosting (or $479.88 a year). You answer our questionnaire, we build the site with AI, a web developer finishes every page, and you'll see your first version within 24 hours. Your own domain, hosting, and a quote form that emails you are included; optional tools and add-ons are priced in the questionnaire, and you see the total before you pay. No long contract, cancel the hosting anytime, no lead fees, and your domain stays yours.

RunCabin Blog · Getting chosen

Should I use stock photos on my website?

October 16, 2026 · 8 min read

Short answer: no, not as a substitute for photos of your own work - customers spot a stock photo almost instantly, and the doubt it creates spreads to everything else on the page. That goes for the generic contractor-smiling-at-a-clipboard photo you'd license from a stock library, and it goes just as much for an AI-generated image of a "finished job" you never actually did. A blank spot on your site is neutral. A fake one is a tell.

Why a stock photo breaks trust faster than no photo at all

Nobody can point to a single giveaway. It's usually a combination of small things: a kitchen that's a little too spotless for a job in progress, a guy in a hard hat who looks like he stepped off a casting call, a truck with not one speck of dirt on it, lighting that's a touch too even for an actual job site. None of that registers consciously to most visitors. What registers is a vague sense that something doesn't match - this doesn't look like your van, in your town, doing your work.

That gap matters more for a local service business than almost any other kind of site. A homeowner deciding whether to let a stranger into their house or onto their roof is looking for proof that you are a real, specific business, not a template. A photo that could only have been taken at your job - your deck, last month, with your ladder leaning against the fence - carries weight precisely because nobody can fake it without actually doing the work. A stock photo carries the opposite signal: anyone could have put that image on a website, including a business with no crew, no license, and no intention of showing up.

The part that catches owners off guard is how fast the doubt spreads once it starts. A visitor who notices one obviously generic photo doesn't just shrug and move on - they start reading the rest of the page a little more skeptically. The years-in-business claim, the "fully licensed and insured" line, the five-star reviews - all of it gets a second look it wouldn't have gotten if the photos felt real. One fake-looking image can quietly undermine everything true on the rest of the page.

AI-generated images have the same tells, plus a sharper problem

Image generators have made it trivially easy to produce a "remodeled bathroom" or a "crew re-shingling a roof" in a few seconds, and that's a real temptation for a brand-new owner with no portfolio yet. The surface-level problem is the same one stock photography has always had: generated images often carry their own small wrongnesses - a shadow that falls at an impossible angle, a tool brand that doesn't exist, a texture that's slightly too smooth to be real material. Customers who can't name the tell in a stock photo often can't name it in an AI image either, but the uneasy feeling is the same.

What's different, and worse, is the claim being made. A generic stock photo of a smiling worker in an "about us" section is understood by most readers as decoration - nobody assumes that specific man is your specific employee. A photo presented as "a kitchen we remodeled" or "a roof we replaced," when the business generated it rather than photographed it, is a factual claim about a job that didn't happen. That's a different category of problem than using slightly-too-polished stock art, and it's the one worth being careful about.

Where the line actually sits

The FTC's underlying standard for advertising is simple and old: ads have to be truthful, not misleading, and businesses need to be able to back up what they claim. That standard doesn't ban illustration. A generic hero image, a stylized icon, a background texture - none of that claims to show a specific result, so none of it is a deceptive claim, stock or AI-generated or otherwise.

The risk shows up when an image is positioned so a reasonable visitor would believe it shows your own completed work when it doesn't - a stock bathroom captioned "recent remodel in [your town]," an AI-generated "before and after" slider, a generated crew photo on your "meet the team" page. At that point the image has stopped being decoration and started being a claim, and it's a false one. The practical rule is easy to hold onto even without memorizing advertising law: never caption a stock or AI photo as if it were a job you did, a crew you employ, or a result you produced. Use it as plain background art if you use it at all, and keep anything that claims to show your work limited to things that actually happened.

What to use instead, starting from zero

If you're a brand-new owner with no job photos yet, the honest options are better than they sound, and we've written a full breakdown of exactly what photos to put on your website when you have none - your truck and gear, one good photo of you in work clothes, your license or insurance card, a recognizable spot in your own town, even honestly-labeled work you did as an employee before you went out on your own. None of it is glamorous, and all of it is real, which is the one thing a stock or AI image can never be.

Then set a simple rule going forward: photograph every job for the next three months. A before shot when you arrive, one mid-job, a wide and a close-up when you finish - a minute of effort per job. Ten jobs in, you'll have a better gallery than most established competitors in your town, because most of them never got in the habit either.

Where RunCabin sits

RunCabin builds your site with AI, then a web developer finishes every page, for $499 to build, then $39.99 a month. When a brand-new owner has no job photos yet, we fill empty sections with plainly generic placeholder art rather than a fake portfolio, and the gallery is built so your own phone photos drop straight in the moment you have them - you just ask, and it's swapped. The goal isn't to paper over an empty portfolio with something that looks like one; it's to get your site live now and let it fill in with the real thing as you shoot it.

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