While it is proven that compelling headlines act to draw the attention of visitors and a good opening line entices them to keep on reading, it is also true that an interesting visual element will keep them focused, ensure long-lasting memorability. The bonus is that eye-catching visuals also act as a strong foundation for link building, arguably the most difficult task that marketers face in the online environment. A study conducted by Skyword reveals that web content containing relevant images consistently performed better across all categories of content.
Types of Visual Content That Can Be Employed to Build Links
- Infographics
- Logos
- Product photos
- Employee or Company images
- Statistical Graphs, Charts, and Maps
- Memes & GIFs
- Stock Photos
Infographics
Users prefer infographics because it saves them the trouble of reading through masses of text to get to the crux of the matter. The use of infographics permits marketers to present complex information in a concise yet appealing manner. Infographics are useful in driving website traffic because when they are smartly presented people not only tend to share it on social media but also link to it. According to https://www.forbes.com, several free and paid infographic generation tools can be easily used to create attractive infographics.
Logos
Even though you may not automatically think about it, the logo is a very important visual representation of the company’s brand and all that it stands for. The good thing is that most websites already make liberal use of the logo on various pages, which means that it is very likely to show up. You should regularly monitor where your logo appears on the web and ensure that it is linked back to your website.
Product Photos
Displaying photos of your products are essential for those selling online or on an e-commerce website because they are the easiest things that other people can use to link back to your site. Most of the affiliate marketers will use this the technique for generating traffic and encouraging conversions so it is useful to employ very high-quality photos of your products. Remember that high quality does not have to translate to a large file size that will make page loading slow. According to a leading New York Search Optimization Firm, you can use one of the many image-optimizing tools to scale down the file size while keeping the quality high. The nature of the photos will depend on the nature of the product or service but generally, conversions improve if the product is shown being used by a human with positive body signals like a smile. You must employ a professional photographer to shoot the product photos because amateurish attempts are very easily spotted by the discerning public.
Employee or Company Images
Link the building also gets a big boost when the images are more relatable by the public so it can be a very good idea to use images of your employees at work or having fun. Photos of team-building exercises also serve to convince prospectively customers of your reliability and professionalism while your internal audience will also feel very motivated that their photos are being published online. As in all photos, you need to make sure that they are of high quality and that the captions are accurate with the names of the employees or persons appearing in the photos spelled correctly.
Statistical Graphs, Charts, and Maps
Graphs, Charts and maps have long served ad very important methods of data visualization and serve a very important function in the online world, where everyone is in a big rush. Apart from building your own charts and graphs, you can even use many of the ones generated by leading research or statistical organization to make your point. However, some of these representations can be very complex, so you should use your judgment and post only the ones that your the target audience can understand easily and quickly, especially on the small screens of their mobiles. If you are using third-party graphs and charts, do make sure that you attribute them as the source.
Memes & GIFs
Everybody loves a well topical, thought-out, and entertaining meme. They have been used by many leading marketers to foster a feeling of community among users and especially social media followers. The sense of belonging arises because the audience can very easily relate to the situation being described, and everyone loves to have a good laugh at the expense of others. It is well established that content that entertains is the biggest draw among users and helps them to develop a sense of belonging to your business and brand. When a meme is especially funny, you can expect a lot of people to share it, which will translate to lots of inbound links. Making a meme can be quite easy using an online meme generator.
Stock Photos
Since stock photos tend to be overused, they have fallen out of favor of most content managers and marketers. However, when used correctly when there is no option, stock photos can still serve a very useful function in enlivening your content. Remember to use photos that are not too popular yet are relevant to your content, and make sure that they are interesting and of good quality.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, just by selecting good quality photos and other visual content, you are not necessarily in a position to attract a large number of backlinks from sites with good authority. To get the full benefits of visual content, you need to optimize the images. Adding attractive and informative captions, optimizing file names with relevant keywords, including alt text, etc. are very effective for building backlinks.
According to the PRSA, images with captions attract up to 16% more views than just text. Using captions add value to the photos because they explain what the photo is all about in its given context. This information is also picked up by search engines and processed for page rankings. The file name also helps search engines to figure out the meaning and context of the image and to help this; you should keep it relevant and precise while including important keywords. Including alt text also helps search engines to interpret the meaning and relevance of images, which is why they should be concise descriptions of the images and contain important keywords.
