Content marketing is set to continue as a leading trend for online businesses. With so many websites getting in on the action, it’s never been more important for your blog posts to stand out.

But when Facebook and YouTube are just a click away, how can you help keep visitors scrolling, instead of exiting your page? One such way is to make your pages more enticing with plentiful visual content.

Visual Content is Good for Your Blog

The benefits of adding visual content to your blog posts are abundant. Engaging visual content can help lower bounce rates, increase dwell times, encourage higher-SEO rankings and improve conversions.

These may seem like far-fetched ideas and you may not believe me, but in this post, we’ll discuss exactly how you can reap these rewards.

So, shall we get into it? Here are 6 types of visual content that will improve your blog posts.

1. Relevant Images

This one may seem simple. However, it never ceases to amaze me the number of blog posts I see with random stock photos that’re completely unrelated to the post content.

When a visitor hits your page, you have just seconds to catch their attention. The first thing they do is scan the page to see whether your post is something they should commit to reading.

Relevant images quickly showcase to the reader what your article is about. This, in turn, can pique visitor interest and help lower your bounce rate by keeping them on your site longer.

Furthermore, a second benefit is offered by using relevant images. With image titles and ALT tags properly filled out, images will boost your SEO.

When search engines detect images that match the content of a post, they’ll be more likely to increase your article rankings for being a quality, relevant result.

2. Include YouTube Videos

As a visitor’s attention wanes, they’ll become far more likely to abandon your post. This is especially true for long-form articles. A quick & easy way to help prevent visitors from becoming bored half way through your post is by adding some mixed media content, like YouTube videos.

A relevant YouTube video embedded in your blog posts provides visitors with easy-to-consume content as they become tired of reading. Rather than leave your page to head over to Facebook, readers can take a break and watch a video, then resume your article once finished.

Not only does this increase the dwell time of visitors, but it also helps add value to your post, and again, makes your content more search engine friendly.

3. Social Media Embeds

Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram allow third-party websites to embed people’s public posts.

This is a fantastic way to add free, highly-relevant, and engaging content to your own articles, without needing to create it yourself.

With that being said, embedding your own social media posts into articles can be great for building your brand and your own social media followings. Taking this one step further, you can even upgrade your own branded posts with ready-made social media templates.

Note: One downside to embedding other people’s social media posts is that the image could later be deleted or the profile set to private. If this happens, you’ll lose the embeds from your posts. Embedding your own content or posts from multiple social media users can be a good way to mitigate this risk.

4. Infographics

Infographics are well-known for keeping users engaged on your website. They’re fun, easy to read and entertaining.

Humans are visual creatures. Our brains process images faster than they process text. For this reason, articles which are heavy on the text are more likely to be skipped by impatient visitors.

On the other hand, a website article which includes an interesting infographic is a much more attractive read.

A further benefit to infographics is they’re very shareable, and a popular way to build back-links to your blog. If you don’t have the resources to hire a designer to make infographics for you, check out tools like Canva and Visme for making your own.

5. Animated GIFs & Memes

Memes are no longer just a hot trend among millennial Instagrammers; they’ve become enshrined as a part of internet language.

A lot of online writing is about communicating the voice of your brand, including its character, values, and personality. Adding animated GIFs and memes to your post can be a sure-fire way to connect with your audience, as well as providing additional eye-catching content.

Note: before diving in and adding any old meme to your articles, make sure you understand the type of meme you’re posting and decide whether memes are right for your brand.

6. Quotes as Images

Highlighting quotes has long been used by newspapers & magazines to capture a reader’s interest in an article. The smartest of marketers have also been doing this for some time with their online publications.

Image-based quotes are not only a great way of catching reader attention, but they are also very shareable. It also gives you highly-relevant content when, perhaps, a stock photo or illustration would not be an applicable option.

What Visual Content Tips Can You Share?

So now you have it: 6 easy ways to upgrade your blog posts with quality visual content.  And if you like this article, please share it using the social buttons.

How to Create Your Own Visual Content

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Jen Smith is a Content Writer and Developer at Brandpacks. She loves working in the ever-changing world of digital media and is fascinated by the role content plays in today’s marketing.