- As discussed in class, please provide three reasons why visuals are important to web content. Please ensure. you go into detail for each item. (6 Marks)
There are dozens of reasons why visuals are important to web content. Below is a list of what I believe based on class learnings, to be the most important factors in why to use visual to develop web content.
- Improved brand recall, and communication.
Since all web users are humans, by nature they process information visually. Think of opening your front door of your childhood home and looking out at the world around you. You can identify most things, such as trees, cars, houses etc. fast forward 20 years, you can still for the most part recall, and identify what you saw on your street. This is recall. The imagery of the world around you was processed and stored in your long-term memory. Using imagery for web content leverages the same principles as recalling an old memory. Humans have a rapid ability to process visual information, it takes roughly 13 milliseconds to process just 1 image (class content week 9). When compared to processing texted based web content, humans process visual content 60,000 times faster (class content week 9). This is why as a society our culture has gravitated towards image based social media platforms. Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok etc. proving why visual content is so important (Class discussion week 9 and 11). Due to the rapid processing images can support or communicate your businesses messaging on the web. Since society has a disposition to imagery on the web, statics suggest that websites with images get 94% more visits than pages without (Yellow Pages 2018, and class content week 9). The goal of any business is to make the message hit home with the reader so that they remember your content/your business. The purpose of the image depends on the context of the page but what is important is that the image communicates your message clearly. Science Daily suggests that detailed images improved readers comprehension of ideas, concepts, and instructions and also long-term recall of that particular topic (Science Daily 2016). Industry standers suggest that in order for your content to be well received, imagines are mandatory. You can describe products well, but nothing will bring your product or service to life more than images. The Human brain process images at 13 milliseconds, and long term they can actively recall and recognise the imagery either immediately after the exposure to the image, or at a delay of 3-6 weeks after exposure (Scientific Reports 2022). The very same study suggested that in long term recall, participants where able to recall information with images 97 times better than participants who had to recall texted based learnings. Pairing conapts with meaningful images is powerful. Recognition and recall of an image is perfect because it can assist your website in staying at the top of mind in the presents and also in the long-term, and a website can leverages this in your campaigns. The evidence is clear, images assist in understanding and communicating the messaging of the web content. Studies suggest that websites with images have 83% more effective in recall. This is why images on web make brand recall and communication so powerful.
- Increased engagement
By nature, humans are emotional being that respond to emotional cues, as a result imagery on a website has the power increase the response and engagement of web users by a substation amount. From psychological perspective, images evoke emotional reactions and leave a lasting impression on the viewer. Humans are emotional creatures who respond to facial features, body language, colour, lighting and many more influences. Images have a direct influence on our emotional systems due to the brain’s responsive to sensory signals (National institute of Health 2009). Images have the power for the viewer to processes the mental imagery and the perception of that they are viewing to be reregistered in the mind as a “as if” response, meaning that when their brain is registering all the emotions of the image, their brain is perceiving/responding to that image “as if” the person was experiencing that exact moment in real time (Science Direct 2010). Because of these images particularly on the web invoke an emotional response which translates to the levels of engagement that they user has with the content on the website. Engagement is defined as the metric of how relevant and engaging the viewers on your website find your page. If images are used correctly and leveraged to the purpose of the website content than studies suggest that there is 100% higher engagement rate than those that only use texted based content (Class content week 9). This is because of the emotional response and the emotional connection the user has now made with the image. For example, a non-for-profit website may be wanting to raise money for starving children in America. The copy would tell the user to donate to save life, and the emotional response and engagement is low. But if there was imagery of starving kids on the website the emotional response 100% higher and the engagement with that would result in donations. This is because 40% of people respond better to visual information better than plain text (class content week 9). Websites with images do in fact have a increased exposure for your website. The main reason why there is higher engagement is because the message of the content is transmitted faster than just texted based content. Studies show that the readers can register 36,000 visual messages per hour. This means that since people can process information rapidly, they can respond to the emotional cues given. This when paired with the societal preference (82%) to viewing/watching visual content make visual images a powerhouse for increasing higher engagement for content on the web (class content week 9). In order to have engagement with images on the web, the image messaging must be clearly communicated in order to ensure that there is space to allow for a engagement response.
- Images improve conversion rates.
As a result of high engagement, and effective message communication, this results in higher conversions. Studies show that 40% of consumers respond better to visual information rather than text. In the contexts of the web, they have the power to evoke a emotional response, to encourage the reader to follow through in a desired action. I the non-for-profit example in the answer above, an image that features starving children in America will evoke sadness, broken heartiness, and distress, resulting in a conviction which triggers a response to the CTA, which was to “donate now to saves life.” Invoking a emotion can leverage the readers needs/wants and offer a immediate solution to the imposed response to the imagery on the web. In terms of practical web conversions, content with visual attract 3x more inbound links which in turn increased web traffic and positionally resulting in higher conversions. Web content that is integrated with images also improve the sit for SEO, which will index the content in the search engine and can show up in any of the SERP’s that the reader to searching for. This will attract more visitors and drive-up traffic to the website. According to LinkedIn research website content images that are indexed in google images increase website traffic by 30% (LinkedIn 2019). Images for web content also have other contributing factors such as the file description name, alt tag associated with the image, and if the image was compressed. These 3 factors influence the effectiveness of images for the web as it pertains to the importance of web content. The purpose and advantage of image-based content is in offering something visually engaging to the reader that solves a need and communicates a message. In order to effectively reach the audience, they must be given the chance to visualize/engage with the content, which is the most important factor of image-based content in relation to SEO and ranking higher in search results.