5 Steps to Mastering Visual Content SEO

• 347,222 photos are shared between mobile phones
• 216,000 photos are posted to social sharing sites and blogs
• 8,333 videos are shared
• 3,472 images are pinned on Pinterest
• 72 hours of video is uploaded

Compound that over a single 24-hour day and you begin to see how much visual content is really out there. How can you – as a marketer – possibly find a way to stand out against the masses? It’s difficult, but not impossible. Tips for Making the Most Out of Your Visual Content In order to avoid further facilitating the publishing of low-quality visuals and to consistently produce content that converts, you should keep some of the following tips in mind:

• Always include images. As a blogger, or someone who manages a company/client blog, you should make a rule that you never publish a blog post without an accompanying visual. Regardless of how good the writing itself is, you’ll miss out on almost all conversions without an image, graphic, or video to go with it. Large blocks of text intimidate people and words aren’t nearly as effective as compelling visuals. With that being said, not all visuals are created equal and you must find a video or image that fits into your subject matter.
• Prepare images in advance. If you’re using an original image or illustration and will be uploading it from your computer, you should begin optimizing from the ground up for optimal SEO benefit. You want Google to know exactly what your image is without even having to see it. For example, instead of leaving a picture of the New York City skyline titled “DSC932154.jpg,” you should name the file “new-york-city-skyline-at-night.jpg.” It’s a small touch, but everything detail counts in SEO.
• Give infographics a shot. Infographics are everywhere, and there’s a reason. Research data shows that infographics are liked and shared exponentially more than any other form of content. While you may not be a graphic designer or artist, there are plenty of sites designed to help you effortlessly build infographics. Furthermore, as long as you give credit, other sites are more than willing to let you share their infographics on your own website, blog, or social media platform. Don’t miss out on this opportunity, as infographics can generate some good back links.
• Captions matter. When positing images alongside a blog or article, take time to develop a compelling caption. According to KissMetrics, “Captions under images are read on average 300% more than the body copy itself, so not using them, or not using them correctly, means missing out on an opportunity to engage a huge number of potential readers.” It’s also shown that users will read image captions to determine whether or not the rest of the article or post is worth reading. As such, you should be taking these captions as seriously as you would titles.
• Remember speed. Everyone knows that Google takes page loading speed seriously and rewards sites that are fast, as opposed to those that take five, six, or seven seconds to load. Unless you want to fall into the latter category, you need to pay careful attention to the file size of your images. When possible, scale your image to a smaller pixel size and save it as a smaller file. This will reduce lading times and likely increase conversions.

Visual Content Can Work for You