If you’re not including images in your website’s content, you should be.
Regardless of your website’s niche, including relevant images will almost certainly prove beneficial in boosting visitor engagement while encouraging higher search rankings. It only takes a few minutes to upload an image, making it well worth the time and effort. To learn more about the benefits of using images in web content, keep reading.
Image Search Traffic
WordStream suggests that we think of Google image search as an easy win for SEO optimization, stating that it’s often easier to drive qualified traffic than through regular search.
The next time you are analyzing your website’s stats in Google Analytics (or your preferred web metrics tool), check to see how much traffic is coming from Google Images, Yahoo Images and Bing Images. It may not be as much as the actual search engines, but it’s probably still a decent amount of traffic.
By including images in your website content, you’ll create new listings in these image-based search engines, increasing the total amount of traffic that your website receives.
Higher Search Rankings
Another reason why you should include at least one image in each and every piece of content you publish is because it encourages higher search rankings. Google uses hundreds of different “signals” to determine where and how a website should rank. Some of these signals are obvious, such as backlink relevancy and domain age, whereas others are more discreet, such as image alt tags and image file name. Therefore, if you’re looking to increase your site’s ranking – and you should – it’s recommended that you use optimized images on your website.
Remember that organic is still the primary driver of content — an estimated 51 percent of website traffic comes from SEO.
Reinforces Content
Images are helpful for adding value to pure-text content, making it easier for visitors to read and understand. The fact is that most people do not read every word on a webpage. Instead, they scan the webpage for sections of important information. By using images on your website, you’ll make it easier for visitors to scan and read your content.
Vero, ran a study on email campaigns with results that definitely support just how important images in content are.
“When we analysed the data from over 5,000 campaigns we found something powerful: campaigns with images had a 42% higher click through rate than campaigns without images.”
More Social Shares
Let’s face it, webpages with images are more likely to receive social shares than webpages without images. According to a study conducted by SocialBakers, 93% of the most engaging Facebook posts are images, whereas only 3% were status updates, 2% were links, and another 2% were video. Social media users are naturally attracted to images because they offer instant gratification.
If you think Twitter is simply about characters, think again. Adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by an impressive 35%.
As you can see, there are numerous reasons to include images in your web content. From boosting search traffic and rankings to improving content readability and social shares, it’s a great way to enhance your content.
