Optimize Your Visual Content to Boost SEO Ranking.
Penelope Hunt, 9 July 2022.Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving website ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. The higher the ranking, the more likely people will discover your website and visit it.
Keep in mind that when aiming to land on the search engine result page (SERP), you're competing with thousands of other websites for the same keyword. It won't be easy to rank for specific keywords if you don't optimize your website.
That's why incorporating an SEO strategy is essential.
SEO helps you improve your website ranking and visibility, making it more likely for people to find you online.
There are many factors that go into SEO, such as the quality of your content, the structure of your website, and the keywords you use. Another important factor is the visuals on your website.
3 Ways Visual Content Increases Your SEO
Visual content helps break up text-heavy pages and makes your website more appealing. It can include images, videos, infographics, GIFs, and anything that contains visual aid on it.
Adding visual content to your website will help visitors visualize the information. For example, if you have a new product launch, you can post the actual image of the item instead of using a text-block description.
Or you may include product videos to show your audience how it works.
Having visual content on your website increases your online discoverability because everyone can find your post in several ways: the exact keyword used in your content, the alternative text, as well as the variety of the content itself. Hence, more people will discover your website easily.
Here are some other ways that visual content can boost your SEO.
1. Visuals improve click-through rates (CTRs) from SERPs
Visual content can help improve your CTRs from SERPs.
In general, people are more likely to click on a page result that has visual content next to it. One study showed that posts with images received 94% more total views than those without images. That means, that if you have visual content on your website, you have a higher chance of getting higher CTRs (click through rates) which lead to more conversions.
2. Visuals can make your website more shareable on social media
Social media is a powerful platform that can help increase traffic to your website. When you post visual content on social media, people are more likely to share it.
For example, posts with images are more likely to be shared on Twitter than those without. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
When your content is shared, it helps increase your website's reach and visibility. The more people who see your content, the more likely they'll visit your website.
3. Visuals can improve the dwell time on your website
The dwell time is the amount of time someone spends on your website before returning to the SERP. A high dwell time is a good indicator that people are engaged with your content and find it helpful.
One way to improve the dwell time on your website is to add visual content. People will spend more time looking at images and videos rather than reading a long block of text on your pages.
If you can keep people on your website longer, it's a good sign that your content is high-quality and relevant to search engines. As a result, your website is more likely to rank higher in SERPs (search engine results page).
The bottom line
Visual content is highly effective in increasing your website's SEO. Content like images, videos, and infographics can help improve your click through rate (CTR), social media shares, and dwell time. All of these factors contribute to increasing your website ranking in the search engines and make it more visible to people searching for the niche keywords you're targeting for your brand.
If you're not using great visual content like videos or photography for your website, now is the time to start. Adding visuals to your website will help improve your SEO, generate traffic, and close more deals.
Author:
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond an award winning explainer video production company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).