Visual Media in the Post-Penguin Web

Following Google's Penguin Update in April, many sites were greatly affected in the SERPs and have since struggled to regain their former rankings. Strong content and link quality have become more important than ever before, so webmasters have sought website SEO services as a way to restructure their online presence.

One of the strategies any good SEO service will suggest in an SEO campaign post-Penguin will be one which relies upon a combination of text-based, and visual content.

Long gone are the days when SEO could be achieved solely by stuffing keywords onto pages of questionable value or simply editing metatags. In the post-Penguin web, Content Marketing and Social Media become the most effective media for creating SERPs-friendly content.

Post-Penguin, any effective SEO strategy must leverage visual media in conjunction with more traditional methodologies. With the introduction of blended search results, combined with an emphasis on content that is shared via social media, any strategy that does not effectively make use of video and photo content, is destined to fail.

While traditional, text-based content has had long-standing authority in the SERPs, alternative content is now increasing in value to online marketers. Rich content such as video and photos are now finding more prevalence within universal search and the number of webmasters, marketers and business owners generating such content is increasing, as well.

The Value of Video

Video content providers such as YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion are all indexed by search engines and some content on those video sharing sites is even visible within universal search results. These videos appear in "Video Packs" which are ranked by using video SEO techniques. Titles, descriptions and keywords are important factors in determining the ranking viability and authority of video content within result pages. Going forward, video is expected to play an even larger role in Internet marketing campaigns as it continues to rise in popularity amongst Web users.

Photos in the SERPs

There is also an enhanced presence of photos in search results. Image ALT tags and relevant text on the page help to determine the ranking of photo content in "Image Packs", which are displayed on the SERP pages in a similar fashion as Video Packs. As with videos, images are likely to have greater visibility within search results in the months ahead.

For Internet marketers, this alternative content helps to supplement text and links and helps to create a rich, engaging page. As with traditional content, video and images must be original and relevant to hold real value within SEO campaigns, but they are certainly a crucial factor in building page authority post-Penguin.