Words don’t teach. That's the truth.
The key is to show people what you’re talking about not just tell them.
And, this isn’t just for SEO articles and blogs.
“Content with visuals see 650% higher engagement than text-only posts.” — movableink.com
If you want to take your work, to the next level, and make $1,000,000, with online content…keep reading. Let me show you how we do it.
Written by Claudia Lee | Founder of Nexus Gecko
What's The Cherry On Top?
Here’s a fact for you.
“Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.” —Pop Video
Before you panic and feel you should start a YouTube channel, rather than have a blog, let me calm you down!
Written long-form, is the most convertible form of content, you can make. It does not necessarily a larger audience in numbers, compared to short-form video etc, but it has the highest convertibility.
Why Are Images So Important?
The truth is our eyes were not meant to read words. They react to stimuli.
Just like how that big red cherry caught your eye.
Your brain is wired to see it and notice it.
“When relevant images are paired with information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.” — Moveable Ink
After you’ve read this article, you will remember the information in it.
You’d remember the words you have read, and hold on to the information you feel is valuable.
But if you were to visualise this in your head, or try to put an image to this, you wouldn’t see the words.
You’ll see our images.
Rather than make your reader try to visualise you. You should give it to them instead. Let me show you.
When Do I Use Images, In Articles?
So when exactly do I use images?
To Illustrate a Point: When you’re explaining a complex concept, images will always complement the written work. Bold claims or abstract concepts will work well if images in a simpler form, are there too.
To Break Up Text: Long paragraphs can be daunting; images can break up large blocks of text, making the article more reader-friendly. It draws the eye, and gives the reader something to latch on to.
To Provide Examples: If you’re discussing a particular product, design, or art style, for the love of God, show the reader what you are talking about!
To Tell a Story: 9/10, a photo can tell a story better than words, conveying emotion and context in a way text cannot. A smile described in words, does not have the same effect when shown in an image.
To Show Data: This is a biggie! Graphs, charts, and infographics, if you are presenting large amounts of data or showing statistics, should be shown via an image. Numbers on a graph, hold more weight than numbers in a sentence.
To Encourage Social Sharing: Articles with images are more likely to be shared on social media, increasing the reach and engagement of the content. Showability, is scalability.
To Set the Mood or Tone: The right image can set the mood. It can show the true horrors of what you’re writing about, or highlight the joy of a wonderful experience. Give people something to mirror.
To Add Credibility: High-quality images can add a level of professionalism and credibility to an article. Be honest, if you saw this entire article without images, would you still be reading at this point?
To Provide Instructions: For DIY or how-to articles, step-by-step images can be invaluable in guiding the reader through the process.
PSA: If software companies could take some notes from this, and make those images in their troubleshooting tutorials a bit better, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.
How Does It Help You Rank…?
Alt-text.
Alt text (alternative text) is a critical component that allows search engines to index an image properly.
It’s a textual description that tells search engine crawlers what an image is about, which is also crucial for web accessibility. Using keywords in alt text can improve the SEO of the page where the image is published.
It’s like naming your images properly in the folders of your computer, so you can find them next time.
But who does that anyway…?
You should. That’s who.
And, make sure your images for your articles have a label too!
How Do I Make The Perfect Alt-Text?
You can do it yourself, or use AI to help.
You can put the image into Chat-GPT, let it give you some ideas based on what it sees, and adapt that to suit you.
Once you get the hang of it, you can simply just type them out yourself.
For effective SEO, alt-text should be concise, aiming for less than 125 characters when possible.
Make sure to include keywords for better ranking, and also make sure your images are as high quality as possible.
If it’s a graph — clear lines, well organised and easy to understand.
If it’s a beautiful shot of a beach — saturated, in focus, and showing beauty.
If it’s a tutorial —possibly labelled, HD or 4K, and well-lit.
And that’s about it!
Just give them something to look at. As time goes by you can perfect it, and with tools like Canva and Photoshop, you can whip up a set of images in no time.
If you would like help scaling your current brand, whether it be with images, or who whole shebang, click here.
Reach out to us at Nexus Gecko, and let us help you along this way. We build out large content systems for companies and individuals to scale courses, products or services, and build inbound systems.
Let’s help you put your content out there, and bring people to you.
Happy writing!
Written by Claudia Lee | Founder of Nexus Gecko
