An attractive and interesting blog is essential to attract new followers and retain your visitors. Surely, you've heard it said that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. In the case of your blog, the image will not only illustrate your ideas, but also capture your reader and help optimize your article.
When someone decides to open an article or stay in it, it's not just the content that matters when making that decision. The reader is also affected by the visual stimuli that this article transmits to him from the first contact. A heavy, text-only, visually unattractive article is less likely to be read, regardless of whether its content is good or not.
The image is very important in blog posts , no doubt, but it is also very important in publications and advertisements for social networks , in the emails that are sent, in short, in all the communication that is made.
The use of images is essential in an Inbound Marketing strategy but in this article we want to focus on the advantages it brings to your blog . Combining the weight of an image with the text, reconciling these two dimensions, is a winning team that should not be ignored in any communication process. If you're still not convinced, here are 4 more valid reasons to bet on the use of images on your blog!
1. Visually attract readers to your articles
Visual appeal is the most basic reason to include images in blog articles . The content writing, however good it may be, is not enough to capture the attention of the audience for your blog, this was visual. The image will make your article stand out from a sea of other articles. And remember that first impressions are very important. The image will give color, life and emotion to the blog article content and this will feed the reader's visual attraction, causing him to stay longer and be more involved in the page.
2. Make a massive text an interesting text
Do you want to explain technical information to your audience that you think is important but the text will be too heavy and boring? The solution is to put explanatory images in the blog article .
If you are explaining how something goes, use pictures with the steps you want to describe. If you are just giving information so that the audience understands a certain area, then use images that can help visualize what you are explaining in the text. It will be much more interesting and easier for the reader to visualize and interpret information in pictures than to read endless explanations.
3. Contribute to improve the article's position in search engines
Images are part of the SEO strategies , to improve the blog article's position in search engines . Of all the good SEO practices , images are one of the easiest aspects to implement. However, keep in mind that search engines are getting smarter and can distinguish if you place an image that is not consistent with the blog article. So always treat images as a complement to the article text and not just as something that has to be there to increase views.
Although search engines are getting smarter, they still need a little help. This is where the alt text or alternative description enters . This description is hidden and, therefore, you can use this text to write what the image contains, in detail, so that search engines can rank it in the best possible way. It is very important that you put your blog article's keyword in the alt text to further increase the likelihood of it being found in searches.
4. Increase the odds of being shared
By sharing a blog article with attractive and interesting images on social media , you will once again make your article stand out among many others and make people want to share it . There are studies that prove that articles with images produce greater engagement with readers, who comment and share.
Image banks: what are they?
Not all companies or businesses are able to create their own images for blogging, emails or social media . And not all images that are on the internet can be used freely by everyone. Therefore, it is important that you know where there are quality images , without being protected by copyright . In these cases, image banks can be a good solution.
Currently, there are numerous free image banks with a huge stock of photos so you can find the one that best suits your needs. You can use these quality images for free and without problems on your blog. There are 5 free image banks worth checking out:
- Pixabay ;
- Freeimages ;
- Freepik ;
- Unsplash ;
- Pexels ;
Using images and photographs is essential to attract more readers to your blog and, consequently, to your website . Using visual content is one of the steps to gain and retain more followers.
