Know How Visual Content Has Become Important for SEO Strategy

It only takes approximately 50 milliseconds for people to form their first impression of your website. This is the reason why you need to spend hours brainstorming on what visual content to put out there. One wrong move and your website visitors will be clicking the close button before you even get the chance to show them what you have to offer.

According to research, people base around 94% of their first impressions on how the website is designed. Are the colors too bright? Are the fonts too fancy? Do the elements on the page work together? Is it easy for them to navigate around the website? The answers to these questions affect how website visitors behave. If they like what they see, they will allot enough time to click through the links, check out the infographics that you have designed, and explore all pages. If they’re not pleased with the appearance, they leave immediately.

The Importance of SEO with Visuals

In the recent years, more and more content creators have acknowledged the value SEO with visuals brings to the table. Brands that have dabbled into customizing visual content have seen huge improvements with their conversion rates. The reason behind this being, visuals allow brands to communicate more effectively with their target audience. Uploading content that appeals to emotions like infographics, photos, and videos, boost engagement and visitor stays for a longer time.

Companies and organizations are expected to upload more visual content in the years to come. Those who wish to follow suit should spend more time on understanding how images and videos factor in when it comes to creating online marketing strategies. 

Tell a Story

The quote, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” still rings true today. Visuals are an effective way to tell stories because they give information that’s easy for us to comprehend. It fuels our imagination, thus allowing us to develop a deeper understanding of the stories. That said, visual storytelling makes for successful social media marketing. It improves brand recall and boosts online presence, provided of course that the visuals used are consistent with the brand.

Visuals are also an excellent way to convey information without overwhelming your audience. People respond better to visuals than to insanely long essays. Infographics, charts, graphs, videos, slideshows, and photos are just some of the many ways one can share information that’s reader-friendly and attractive. While it is true that there is power in words, visual content is of more value as far as engagement and conversions are concerned.

How to Incorporate Visuals in Your Content

Now, before you go dumping all visuals you can think of on your website, read our guidelines first. Visuals are only effective when the execution and placement is perfect. There would not be that much of a change if images or videos are placed on random spots on the website. If you want to maximize your visual content, you need to:

• Add a featured image before each article.
• Place an image after 200 words to give your audience a break from all the reading.
• Play with different types of visuals.
• Make your logos visible and be sure to add them as watermarks on the visuals you upload.
• Be visible on social media platforms frequently used by your target audience.

The Power of Image SEO

There is a plethora of tools that you can use to monitor the progress of your SEO efforts and optimization. This will show you insights on click counts and queries you’re getting for searches that are image-related. You can also tweak the data so you can have a look at the number of positions and impressions your website’s getting. The information you acquire from these tools will help you work on your company or organization’s best practices for images.

The visual content we find online is increasing each year. It’s crucial for companies and organizations to keep up with this momentum. They should by add more visuals on their websites and making sure these are optimized for SEO. By doing so, Google can help companies track their progress, see how valuable their visual content are, and realize how much their website traffic is attracting.