The importance of link building in digital marketing can’t be overemphasized. Equally important are interactive content such as images and videos for medical search engine optimization (SEO).
Images are important elements of content these days since they drive engagement. They give you an opportunity to connect with your audience much more than words could. Equally important for your digital marketing efforts are links. Links get people to your website and contribute to your growth. So combining images and link building can bring about great results.
The process of link building revolves around getting your articles, blogs and resources linked by other sites. If quality, high ranking sites link to your content, it shows your website has relevant, research-based, useful content and it boosts your rankings as well since Google values your content more. And it’s not just textual content that makes your web pages link-worthy. Videos, images and infographics can make them worthy too. So let’s turn to images and focus on how they can help in link building.
Research Speaks Volumes of the Importance of Images
There is an interesting piece of research by Brain Rules. It says that people remember only 10% of what they’ve read or heard three days before. However, they remember 65% of what they’ve seen in a simple graphic. That speaks volumes. For at least 32% of marketers, images are super-important to add to content for their digital marketing objectives.
According to the Demand Gen Report, images can help raise the traffic to your website by 12%. The effect is even more dramatic when you get to the social networks. Social media updates having images are shared 150% more than posts without images, as per research on Buffer. All this data is just to confirm that images make a big difference. Now let’s do everything possible to make the most of this wonderful resource.
Think Engagement
Now we know images are important. But not just any image will do. You need to have images that appeal to the intellect or the sentiments of people.
- When you think of the intellectual aspect, it involves infographics containing important information or images with easily understandable tips, facts or how-to guides. In fact, Buzzsumo research states that infographics are among the most shared kinds of content. It isn’t surprising, considering that they blend the best of visual and textual elements. They contain images that capture the attention of people plus important information that helps them, as the following example shows.
It is important to have informative infographics as part of your web pages, blogs and social media posts.
- While appealing to the sentiments of people, you can think of thought-provoking images. This depends on the kind of customers you’re targeting and the image your business wishes to convey. Informative posts and images appealing to the intellect usually work for all kinds of businesses including healthcare practices. Who wouldn’t want some quick health tips or some treatment information? But emotionally appealing images also have their place, particularly when you want to motivate the audience to sign up for some service, visit your website or participate in charity efforts.
Ensure Regular Posting on Social Networks
Keep posting regularly on the social networks and make full use of the behavior data you gather about your target audience. The posts that get the most shares give you an idea of the kinds of images or infographics you need to post. In such situations, it also pays to check the kind of posts your competitors are posting and the shares and likes they get.
In fact, looking at competitors for inspiration is nothing new. It’s been that way even before the digital revolution. By anonymously following their feeds, you can keep in touch with their activities. It can also help you to be aware of any new marketing trends.
Image Alt Tags and Hashtags
Work to get your images into image search. That can give you a great deal of traffic. Make sure you add the appropriate image alt tags so that the search engine crawlers can track your images and put them up on the SERPs for appropriate searches. When it comes to images on social networks, particularly Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, you must add hashtags in the image posts you put up. Make sure the hashtags are trending ones.
Instagram and Pinterest
Make sure you hang out on the trending social networks, and by that we mean the most popular ones. Of course, different businesses have different kinds of customers, and the social networks they frequent vary based on their age, demographics and interests. But generally, Instagram and Pinterest are the most active and engaging.
- Research mentioned on Search Engine Watch states that Instagram is used by 86% of brands. Of these brands, on average, 72% post a single picture each week. Each year, Instagram graphics engagement is rising.
- When it comes to Pinterest, its viral quotient is 80% more than Twitter. That makes it thrice as effective as Twitter in generating leads. With tools for social media management you can post every day on these networks and track the activities in them. Pinterest Marketing has been facilitating conversions faster than other social media platforms.
Making the most of images and other interactive content is at the core of effective social media optimization services offered by advanced and experienced digital marketing companies.
