Enhancing Your Content – Adding Images, Video and More

Now that you’ve written out the content for your website, the next step is to enhance the content. Eye catching images and videos keep the visitors more engaged than text alone.

Your objective in this chapter is to learn how to enhance the content of your website by inserting images and videos.

Kill Their Boredom

When visitors land on a website, they have certain expectations. One of those expectations is that your website will contain more than simply text. They want to be visually entertained. Occasionally, content-heavy websites (such as Wikipedia and certain government sites) get away without images. However, whether you’re in law or interior design, it’s important to find ways to incorporate visually stimulating images on your website.

People may choose your business over another simply because you have a more visually appealing website. Increase your chances of keeping visitors on your page (which helps your website rankings in search engines) and increase your chances of keeping potential customers and clients with imagery.

So, kill their boredom, keep them on your page, and grow your business.

Finding Quality Images

How do I find images for my website?

There’s not always an easy answer to this question. The short answer is that it depends on your industry and business.

Workers in industries that require visual appeal should showcase images of their work. For example, real estate agents, graphic designers and photographers should have images of jobs they’ve completed.

Other industries require a few basic photos: the staff, the building or lobby, the logo. Think creatively. Perhaps an attorney will want an image of the exterior of a court building or images that are familiar to their clients, such as an image of a car accident. In addition, you may want to create graphs that portray certain concepts to your visitors. Perhaps for you it’s right to include photos of satisfied customers on your website.

The more creative you are, the more your business will stand out from the crowd. If you need a few ideas check out websites from companies in your industry.

Another option is to buy stock photography from any number of websites. Prices and quality vary dramatically so you may need to do some research. Make sure you never steal images from other websites; it can cost you thousands of dollars in legal fees. Also, make sure to receive a photo release for each image you use or that you have permission to reprint the photo.

Adding Quality Videos

Videos are highly recommended for businesses. There are three different ways to acquire videos for your business:

1. Make a video yourself. Paying someone for a professional video can be time consuming and costly. For some people, this is the way to go. If you don’t have the funding, consider making the video yourself. Services like Animoto create slideshow videos set to music. While not extremely professional, it can be useful for a variety of business needs. In addition, you can use iMovie (on a Mac) or Movie Maker (on a PC). Or, if you want to create your own video, you can purchase an inexpensive tripod and shoot a video of yourself explaining your business. We recommend keeping it brief so you don’t require editing.

2. Use a video created by someone else. Almost every video on YouTube can be added to your website. Of course, you want to make sure you aren’t using a competitor’s video that drives your traffic elsewhere. Consider videos that interest your visitors. For example, if you are in construction, you may want to include a video on your website from HGTV or This Old House that explains how to tile a floor. It make take some creativity to find the right videos. This is a great trick that boosts your credibility in the eyes of your perspective clients and customers.

Final Thoughts

You’ve met your objective of learning how to enhance the content of your website by inserting images and videos.

Adding visually appealing elements to your website helps keep visitors on your site. By increasing the time they spend on your site you can increase conversions as well as search engine rankings. Plus, it makes your website look professional and interesting.