SEO practices aren’t all about keyword research and writing articles. They also involve including visual content on your website. In this article, you’ll see how visual content can boost & improve your website SEO and page rank.
Visual content like infographics, featured images, explainer videos, or checklists significantly boost your SEO efforts. The reports even said visual content is better than long or short-form plain text-based content.
Internet users retain 65% of the visual content they see almost three days later. Meanwhile, they can only retain 10% of the information when they simultaneously absorb it through text-based content.
From there, you know that when you provide your audiences with what they want, Google will value your site and raise your rank.
The Power of Visual Content
Visual content is inherently more engaging than text alone. It captures the viewer’s attention, conveys information quickly, and can evoke emotions more effectively. Here are some key reasons why visual content is so powerful:
- Increased Engagement: Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, making them more likely to grab attention and keep visitors on your site longer.
- Better Retention: People remember 80% of what they see and do, compared to just 20% of what they read and 10% of what they hear.
- Social Media Appeal: Visual content is more likely to be shared on social media, increasing your reach and driving more traffic to your site.
Not convinced yet? The reasons below will show you how exactly visual content can impact your SEO practices:
#1. Most Visitors are Visual Learners: Visual Content To Boost SEO
Psychologically, human brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than bulky text paragraphs. As most information sent to the brain is visual, it makes sense that at least 65% of the population are visual learners.
Not to mention that today’s generation consumes a lot of visual information through social media like Instagram or YouTube. SEO practices aren’t all about keyword research & writing articles, Learn how visual content can boost & improve your website SEO & page rank.
Including visual content on your website can help visitors quickly find the answer they’re looking for. This, in turn, will signal to Google that your website is relatable and relevant, so it deserves to appear at the top of the search results.
#2. Google Process Content Visually
Guess who else processes things visually other than humans? Google itself. Google algorithm can’t see the visual content, but it learns to match visual content with different images.
As you might‘ve already noticed, there are billions of images of all sizes and shapes out there. In this case, Google will search images by matching shapes, metadata, embed code, and other elements in other images and linking them together.
So, ensure you also optimize all your visual content by adding the alt tag and giving related titles. This will make it much easier for Google to crawl your website and show your visual content at the top of the search results.
#3. Makes Visitors Stay Longer on Your Site
Not only does visual content grab visitors’ attention quickly, but it also holds it. Since visual content gets your message across more captivatingly and is easier on the eyes, visitors will spend more time exploring more information.
Thus, it will increase dwell time and reduce bounce rates. The higher your dwell time, the higher your chances of appearing on the front page of search results. SEO practices aren’t all about keyword research & writing articles, Learn how visual content can boost & improve your website SEO & page rank.
The reason is that the longer visitors spend time on your website, the more likely they are to find your content useful. Thus, search engines can sense this by considering dwell time to determine your rank.
#4. Improves Readability
We talked about how most of us are visual learners. So, it should not be surprising that 91% of people like visual content more than written content. What’s more, visuals increase the desire to read content by 80%.
In other words, providing your visitors with only bulky, text-heavy content can only scare them away. Reading those paragraphs is just too much to ask the visitors. They’ll exit your website immediately, increasing your bounce rate and harming your SEO.
Visual content can break up those text-based paragraphs, making it easier for visitors to read and understand. An infographic, screenshot, or chart can be a great visual guide to supplement and balance out your written research-dense articles.
#5. Attracts More High-Quality Links: Visual Content To Boost SEO
Backlinking remains one of the most powerful strategies in SEO campaigns. It’s a top search ranking factor that can add to your site’s authority. In this case, visual content can help you gain more high-quality backlinks quickly, as it’s highly shareable.
For example, infographics can be your backlink goldmine since they share value with other sites. Other sites will likely link to your site if it’s designed well and conveys crucial information.
For maximum results, you can also do outreach campaigns to distribute the content and get maximum exposure. Find relevant websites and ask them to link back to your content.
#6. Gives the Visitors More Options
In today’s digital era, the internet provides people with endless options. Therefore, internet users (including your website visitors) demand more options to consume their desired content.
Some like to skim through infographics, while others feel comfortable watching videos. Including visuals on your website means diversifying your content in multiple ways for different people.
When you can convey the information in several different forms, your content will be accessible to a broader audience, which means more website traffic.
Real-World Examples of Visual Content Boosting SEO
Example 1: Neil Patel’s Blog: Neil Patel, a well-known digital marketing expert, extensively uses visual content on his blog. He incorporates infographics, videos, and custom graphics to enhance his articles. This strategy has helped him achieve high rankings for competitive keywords and attract a large number of backlinks.
Example 2: Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays: Moz’s Whiteboard Friday series is a prime example of using video content to boost SEO. Each week, Moz publishes a video featuring an expert explaining an SEO concept using a whiteboard. These videos increase dwell time, encourage shares, and provide valuable content that attracts backlinks.
Example 3: Canva’s Infographic Templates: Canva, a graphic design tool, offers a wide range of infographic templates. These templates are highly shareable and often linked to by other websites, driving traffic and improving their SEO.
Visual Content To Boost SEO Wrapping Up
While text-based content will still be a core of your content marketing strategy, you can always include visual content to balance it out. It brings text-based content to life by adding more color and flavor. In this case, creating a balance between text and visual content can improve your content delivery and help you with audience retention.
Author
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order). Twitter: @breadnbeyond LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro
