Are you filling your website with enough visual content?

Does your website have enough visual content? According to a new study, around a quarter of small business website owners consider visual content to be highly effective – meaning if you aren’t yet delving into this content format and serving up infographics, images and illustrations to your visitors, you could be missing a chance to delight your audiences.The survey, conducted by Visual Objects, was packed with interesting findings thanks to insight and experiences shared by hundreds of small business website owners.

Visual content 23% of SMEs taking part in the research said visual content was their most effective content format of the last 12 months. The survey revealed that publishing content consistently was important, with the majority of SMEs aiming for new content around once per month.When asked what type of updates made up their content mix, the most deployed content format was company information at 67% but visual content was a close second at 58%.Visuals are also a priority for the coming 12 months with more small businesses planning to invest in this type of content than any other. Website design and good quality content The survey findings concluded that good-quality content could enhance small business website design and improve user engagement. Good quality content was also found to improve the user experience.With around half of website visitors returning as a direct result of the content they are offered, working in great quality content is key to creating a compelling proposition for site visitors.The Visual Objects research found that web design was a key priority for 2019 amongst small business owners with user engagement and e-commerce also important.Getting into the habit of regularly publishing good quality, unique and relevant content including visuals could help SMEs achieve each of these goals simultaneously according to the report, with the research team noting, “Small businesses should consistently publish and update content to keep users engaged but not at the expense of content quality. Content that is current and regularly published shows users that your small business cares about its online presence.” Creating visual content Creating visuals can be a challenge for small businesses, who often won’t have the expertise or tools needed in house to produce illustrations, custom imagery or compelling infographics.Where capability needs to be outsourced, the more expensive visual content can be balanced with a mix of other formats – such as blog posts, podcasts, guides, slide shows and other useful information to help keep the budget in check.Any investment made in visual content production can also reap rewards later, with the potential to reshare and repurpose it across other brand channels such as social media.