Incorporating multimedia such as images and video into your content is a must for several reasons, mainly to make your content more appealing and easier to read – and there can be SEO benefits too. Incorporating images and video can also enhance user experience and encourage readers to stay on your website for longer.
Read on to find out how you can incorporate multimedia such as images and video in your content to enhance user experience and break up text-heavy content.
Why Use Multimedia Such As Images And Videos In Your Content?
Firstly, humans are visual creatures! We all prefer looking at visually appealing content – there isn’t a person on planet Earth who enjoys reading massive blocks of text on websites.
So, the primary reason to include multimedia in text-heavy content is simply for aesthetic reasons. Not only will people enjoy your content more, but they’re also more likely to stay on your website, read more content, and even come back again.
In addition, many people are visual learners – they retain information better when it’s presented in a visual format. So, if your content is focused on education, images can help you get your point across and assist people with learning.
People have different reading styles too – some will read a body of text word by word, whilst others will scan the text, picking out important information. Presenting your key points in a variety of styles will cater to all types of readers.
Do Images & Video Help SEO?
Including images and video in your content can help with search engine optimisation in a couple of different ways.
Firstly, it’s widely accepted that Google favours content that includes videos and images. If your content is favoured, it’s more likely to be shown to people in search results. However, it isn’t as simple as chucking any old image or video in your blog post – Google is still looking for relevancy and how helpful your content is. So, make sure the multimedia you use is relevant to the text in your content – of course, you can use images because they look pretty too, but they probably won’t contribute much towards your SEO efforts.
The other reason images and video can help SEO is by making your media appear in image or video searches. Increasingly, people will Google a topic and flick straight over to the images or video tab in their Google browser.
If you’ve optimised your images and video correctly, you are providing additional ways for people to access your content and for your website to rank.
Read our previous post on optimising images for SEO.
How To Break Up Text Heavy Content With Images & Videos
So how do you break up text-heavy content with images and video? Here are some ideas for multimedia to break up text-heavy content:
- Add an image every 4 or 5 paragraphs to illustrate what you have written
- Start each new section with an illustrated graphic title in addition to a written one (as per this post!)
- Use videos after complex information to explain what you are talking about
- Add a video version of the content for people who don’t want to read!
- Add infographics to enhance information and provide information ‘at a glance’
- Turn quotes into visual elements rather than just typing them out
The sky is the limit really – there are no set rules to adding visual elements to your content, just choose creative ways to break a web page up, help keep your readers reading, and learning.
Can Multimedia Enhance User Experience?
As mentioned, adding multimedia to content does enhance user experience in several ways:
- It can help people absorb information more easily
- It caters to different reading styles
- It just looks better ad is more appealing!
- It encourages people to stay on a page for longer
- It may encourage people to come back for more
- It can help guide people to different parts of your website
- It can be used to encourage readers to take actions you want them to
It’s also worth remembering that enhancing user experience directly relates to conversions on your website too. If people enjoy using the site and consuming the content, they’re more likely to make a purchase or get in touch.
What Other Visual Elements Can I Use To Break Up Text And Enhance Content?
Don’t forget that images and video aren’t the only elements you can use to break up text-heavy content.
On web content management systems such as WordPress, depending on your theme, you jazz up break-out text such as quotes or statistics in their own boxes, in a different font, or colour that stands out from the rest of the text. You can add line breaks, or even create your own elements to break content up such as using icons or call-to-action buttons.
Need Help?
If you need help creating images and videos to jazz up your content, please contact GrowTraffic. We produce engaging, informative content and can advise you on your current content strategy.
Feel free to get in touch with any questions!
