As search engines draw more results from social media and prioritize video and image results from websites, it’s important to rank the videos and images on your website to improve your rankings. Just adding a catchy image or video isn’t enough anymore.
Visual content can work wonders for online visibility and that’s why we are in a golden age of content creation where everyone from your grandma to big brands are leveraging it to grow an online audience. Some businesses also choose to outsource visual content optimization to white label SEO agencies in India to hire the right experts for the job.
Role of visual content in SEO
- Higher and more enhanced audience engagement
Videos, images, infographics, and charts are much more effective at capturing audience attention and retaining it as well compared to plain text. A few images increase the visual appeal of a bland webpage and that keeps users more interested in your website and makes them spend more time on it. Users are less likely to go back to the search results and that brings down bounce rates, a positive signal for the search engine algorithm.
- Higher visibility on images and videos
Search engines display video and image results when it’s relevant to the search query. For instance, if you search for ‘vivid red’, Google will show you a bunch of red images from different websites. On the other hand, if you look up ‘how to design an artboard with vivid red’, Google will show relevant video results from different websites. When you have visual content on your website, you unlock a new stream of traffic.
- More engagement on social media
Search engine marketing experts always stress the importance of shareable content. When you make engaging visual content that’s relatable as well, more people tend to share it on their social media handles and drive traffic back to your website. Search engines favor social media signals and may boost your ranking.
Now that you know about the crucial role of visual content for SEO, it’s time to learn how to polish and optimize the content for the best results.
Also read: 6 Best SEO Courses for 2024
Tips to optimize visuals for SEO
- Minimize files
You have created a beautiful and informative picture that works perfectly for a webpage on your business site. However, if the file size is too large, it will bring down the loading speed of your website. Search engines hate slow web pages since it leads to poor audience experience. The same holds for video files and GIFs.
Actually, it’s best to turn your GIFs into auto-playing videos since properly encoded videos are much smaller. Moreover, if you have large videos, consider using a video CDN (Content Delivery network). With a CDN, users smooth the video from the near server with a low latency and quick response time, ensuring a smooth incident.
If that’s not an option, consider uploading a video to YouTube and implant the link on your website or utilize online video compressor tools with adjustable settings to balance size and quality according to your needs and support a wide range of video formats, offering flexibility in handling different types of video files. It does not require to download or install software on your computer or device hence saves time and storage space. A white label SEO outsourcing company can handle these dull tasks so that you can focus on your business.
- Add keywords to meta attributes
After keyword research, you usually add it to the text files before uploading it to the webpage. Online marketing companies in India also add these keywords to the meta tags and descriptions since it provides search engines with more context about the content and helps it show your content to relevant search queries. The same holds for the meta attributes of images and videos. Add the keywords in the title and caption and be descriptive in the alt text.
- 3. Make visuals mobile-friendly
Mobile traffic eclipsed desktop usage a while back and that’s why making your website mobile-friendly is non-negotiable. This leads to a better user experience that translates to increased dwell time and clicks on your website. Internet marketing services have developers to make images fluid and responsive so that they automatically adjust to mobile resolutions.
In this day and age, SEO optimization is incomplete without visual content. Implement these tips for a significant bump in the search engine rankings and enhance the overall user experience. Don’t forget to add social buttons on videos and images on your website either. Maximize the reach and push your rankings to create a positive feedback loop that outsmarts your peers.