Why Are Images so Important in Blogging?

images and blogging

A picture is worth a thousand words – or that’s what they always say at least.

But does the same catchy phrase apply to blogging?

Well, let’s take a look at some recent stats to answer the question:

  • Web content (blog posts) with images generate 94% more views than content without images. (HubSpot)
  • The human brain process visual information 60,000x faster than it does plain text. (HubSpot)
  • When considering e-commerce sites, it’s been reported that 67% of consumers say that the quality of a product image is extremely important in determining whether or not they will purchase a product. (Jeff Bulas)
  • Visual content is over 40% more likely to be shared on social media than any other type of content, like plain text postings. (HubSpot)

Clearly, visuals are an important component to both blogging and websites in general.

So, why can it be so difficult to prioritize images? Because I’ll be the first to admit that this is an area that I need to improve upon.

In fact, one of my goals this year with the JSL Blog is to use better images and use them much more frequently in our blog posts.

blog-300x300This might sound like a strange goal, but sadly, images aren’t really something that I’ve paid much attention to since beginning to blog. And that’s a shame, because obviously, they are an extremely important component to any blog post.

Have you experienced something similar on your own blog? Still wondering why images are so important in blogging? Check out some of these reasons:

Our Attention Spans are Limited.

It makes sense, really. With more and more content being produced and published online daily – an estimated 2 million blog posts per day alone – it really comes as no surprise that our minds have a hard time focusing in on and choosing which articles to read. If one has a compelling image, it’s more likely that we will choose that one over the other, less compelling articles.

Images Better Convey Human Emotion.

Sometimes just reading about something isn’t enough to elicit a particular emotional response, whether that be to make a purchase, read an entire blog post through to completion, or just feel some sort of emotion towards a lump of text on a page. Using a relevant, compelling image alongside your blog post can really make a huge difference in the attitude and response of your audience.

Images Break Up the Text.

Gone-Viral-300x300For no other reason than to break up the text on a page, images are critical to the success of a blog post. Staring at pages and pages of text without any visual break whatsoever gets tiring pretty quickly and your readers will begin to lose interest in what you have to say. Make your words a little more exciting and easy to follow by breaking them up with relevant and interesting images.

Quality Images Encourage Social Sharing.

One of the main methods for promoting and sharing blog content is through various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all of which rely heavily on images to make content more appealing and interesting (Twitter maybe slightly less so than the others). By including quality, shareable images within your blog post, you’re encouraging your audience to share your content via social media, thus promoting your blog even further.

Whichever way you slice it, images are important to the growth and success of any blog or website. As I personally work to improve in this area, I hope that you’ll feel encouraged to do the same!