When you’re trying to find something specific on the internet, it can be so frustrating! We all run across sites that we jump on and jump off again, but when it’s your website that is getting a high bounce rate, there are many options to consider to lower it, from wanting to redesign the page layout to the possibility of hiring marketing professionals to start a new advertising campaign. But what about the images, graphics, and other visual elements on your website? Can you use them to help lower your bounce rate? Absolutely!
Visual Information Uptake
Before the internet, there was a lot of information in a traditional format – the book. Books have large blocks of text with a great deal of information, but it takes time to get through that information to find what you need to know, even if there’s an index of subjects within the book. Once the internet, and specifically search engines, were established, suddenly there was a world of information at your fingertips. The problem with such a large amount of information was sorting through it effectively.
Today, you have a matter of moments to get your viewer’s attention before they go back to their search results to continue looking. Much like the majority of live communication being in body language and other nonverbal communications, visual information in the form of an image, infographic, or sketch often conveys the meat of the subject before the reader has read more than a half dozen words.
How to Effectively Use Visual Information Aids
There are a few things to keep in mind to get the best result from your visual aids:
- Load time not only affects your bounce rate, it can also impact your search engine ranking. Add graphics that load quickly to avoid taking a hit in that area.
- Keep the image above the fold. That means it should appear on the page without having to scroll down to view it.
- Use kooky, crazy or downright strange images to help grab the attention. When someone is searching for a specific subject and find a somewhat unrelated image, they want to find out how it ties into their search.
- Your graphics and images help lay out the broad strokes of your page’s information, with the details being filled in through the text, much like an outline does for writing.
- Find a great quote in the text to turn into a graphic to grab the attention. This can be a star commenting on something that seems counterintuitive to their public perception, a neat fact about a historical figure, or a couple of facts about a brand new technology.
Once you’ve figured out what needs to change, don’t forget to update your content! Whether you hire a professional writer or an awesome graphics designer, regular updates of your website with quality content will help you not only rank higher in the search engines, but will keep your viewers coming back for more.
Cathleen V is a multi-talented writer with experience in various fields. She focuses on content, article and blog writing for small business management, content optimization and marketing, arts businesses, crafts, agriculture, home improvement, food, nutrition and natural health. She is a top 1% content writer out of over 22,000.
