A recent article from Entrepreneur.com, “3 Ways to Get Graphics for Your Website,” explains cost-effective options for developing your site’s appearance with artwork. It’s important to remember that people will judge your business based on the look of its website or any other materials, perhaps before they’ve ever stepped foot inside an actual location. Also, many people fail to recognize that taking graphics from somewhere on the Internet is not an acceptable, or legal, option. Instead pick one of these routes, or a combination thereof:

1. Creating website graphics yourself. Working with real pictures from your business is typically the way to go anyway. For logos and other animations, there are several programs that allow you to do it yourself, or with the help of a tech savvy employee or intern that can do it affordably. It’s easier than you think. For instance, you can easily use Photoshop to turn a photo into a drawing or painting.
2. Buying website graphics. You can purchase graphics individually, in bundles, or for a monthly fee from sites like Shutterstock.
3. Using free website graphics. There is away to acquire free graphics, but you will be “charged” in terms of free advertising for the site that provides the graphics. There is, however, an added benefit to this, as having another backlink on your site will improve your seatch engine optimization.

Click here for the entire article from Entrepreneur.com.