So, you need a photo or graphic to make your new blog post really stand out. You do like millions of others do and head over to Google, click on the Images link and look for the perfect image for your blog post.

Stop. Right. There.

Just because Google displays all those wonderful images doesn’t mean you can use them. In fact, you can get into BIG trouble and pay hefty fines if you grab the wrong images. There are big companies with high paid lawyers watching their image property like a hawk. And they have ways of tracking their images that you can’t see, so just be careful.

Fortunately, Google provides a way to search for resources you can use for free. It’s not easy to find out how to do that, so here’s the three simple steps:

1) Go to Google.com and look for the Images link in the top right corner of the page. Then search Google Images for the image you want.

2) Click on “Tools” to the far right under the search field.

3) That will reveal more options. Click on the Usage Rights drop down, then select “Labeled for Reuse”