A Development Guide - Why You Need to Start Creating Visual Content

We all know some of the best reasons to add visual content to your website. For example, what better way to show that your product is waterproof than by displaying an image of your product working underwater. This article explains some of the less obvious reasons why you need to start creating visual content. The benefits of creating and adding visual content to your website are now at a point where they outweigh the costs of creation.

There are search engine benefits

Websites are ranked up by Google if they are picture. The more popular a site is, then the more likely it is to rank up on the Google search engine results. Adding visual content to your web pages is not a guarantee that your web pages will become more popular, but it does help to make them more user-friendly. It is a little like how painting a car helps to sell it, in that the car does its job without a paint job, but people prefer painted cars nonetheless. High-quality visual content is sometimes enough of a selling point to make a website accessible on its own.

Tips on how to exploit the search engine benefits

In simple terms, you need to create well-designed websites that make use of images, animations, and videos in a sensible and usable way. Each page element should be engineered with the target audience in mind. There is no shortcut to creating top quality and favorite web pages. Also, the Google Images search engine seems to rank original images more highly for specific keywords and key phrases. For example, a blog post that uses new and unique illustrations for the main image will have that image rank more highly on Google Images for the tagged keywords that are associated with the post.

Faster internet speeds have to lead to more demanding web users

You need to start creating visual content because your viewers demand it. Faster Internet speed has directed to websites with more visual content. Faster Internet speeds have led to more graphically rich websites, and to websites with more video and animated content. People have become so spoilt by modern websites to the point where they are unsettled when a website is made up of nothing but text. Even Wikipedia, which is the website with the most text of any website, still has between one and twenty images on each page.

Tips on how to exploit visual content for demanding web users

Tone it down. Unless your website uses visual content as a primary use medium, you only need a minimum amount of visual content. A common mistake is for a webmaster to exploit faster Internet speeds to thoroughly and create a website that is full of fancy graphics, GIFs, images, videos and sound files. Viewers are more demanding, but they have only turned away if there is a physical void, i.e., they have just become away if your website completely lacks visual content. Look at new merchant websites and look at secure merchant websites such as eBay and Amazon. A new merchant’s website is often full of big flashy graphics showing deals and high-resolution images displaying products. Old-timers such as eBay and Amazon have smaller pictures and very few flashy effects because they are not needed. Sometimes, the best way to exploit a demand is to play it down (like playing hard to get in the romantic world). Opt for a more subtle approach and make sure you thoroughly test any significant visual changes.

Visual content is easier for readers to contribute

Create visual content to having your viewers contribute visual content. Having people contribute comments is a great way to get people engaged with your content. However, having them add their own images and animations helps them showcase themselves in a way that helps them bond with your website. Social media is viciously popular for the same reasons, and there are plenty of websites that have achieved a strong following by actively encouraging people to contribute.

Tips on how to exploit a user contribution framework

Allow users to contribute and then allow others to rank or rate that contribution with thumbs up, or plus signs, or heart symbols, etc. You may like to offer rewards for favorite donations such as a monthly prize. You may also want to provide extra services to your contributors, such as editing and filtering tools for their images. Your website could add its twist such as tools that let people animate their still images or add sounds to their pictures.

Some information is better conveyed with visual content

One of the best reasons to start creating visual content is to help explain something that is too difficult to explain with words alone. If you have ever set up a professional bow, you will know how viciously tricky it is. Describing how to set up a bow with just words is very difficult because the user needs to see what is happening. Even with the help of images in the format of a comic strip will still cause problems because the process of putting together a bow is so tricky on its own. Add a video on how to set up a bow, and add it to the text and the images, and you may just have an informative web page that new archers can use. To enhance the user experience further, consider utilizing a free video editing tool to refine the video's presentation and ensure that the instructions are clear and engaging.

Tips on how to convey information better with visual content

Take what others are doing and add to it. How deeply you cover a topic is up to you, but it often pays to be more informative, descriptive and precise than your nearest competitor. Even a simple task such as boiling an egg can be visually conveyed in an ugly or unintuitive way. The comic-strip format may suit whatever information you are trying to convey. Do not rely on a video only because people can quickly go onto YouTube and see several videos on the subject you are covering. If the information you are passing on is tricky, then go slow, add text, images, and a video. Focus on clarity above all else.