Skip to main content

Reaching your target audience through a viral blog post can sometimes feel like a fantasy. You want to create content that gets shared and builds an audience, but it can often feel like trying to win the lottery.

You know there have got to be a few tips and tricks towards reaching that golden post. Here is one such tip which according to Buzzsumo and Canva’s data should absolutely give you a massive boost to blog traffic.

That tip is picture list posts. Picture list posts are blog posts which essentially list information using frequent images to engage the reader and give overall a more memorable experience. The results are quite staggering…

Why does this boost blog traffic?

It’s long been known that most people find images as opposed to typography much more engaging and memorable. Let’s be honest it’s not hard to see why. We are hard wired to recognise visual cues, reading can capture our imagination briefly but those depictions will never match a truly detailed image.

So exactly how much more effective does this make your blog traffic? Over the last three months Canva & Buzzsumo looked at 100 million Facebook posts. They found that posts without an image on average earned 164 interactions. Posts with images over double that figure with an average of 372 interactions.

Socialbakers found in their research that 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook were images as opposed to status updates, links and video.

Images have instant gratification, which simply leads to a higher chance of being appreciated and shared. People know subconsciously that their friends are more likely to respond well to a shared image than a shared wall of text.

That’s where Picture List Posts come in. We like to share posts with images in, so it only makes sense to produce content with a series of curated images. Think along the same vein as an infographic where the images are used to deliver clear values and information. Picture list posts have a clear purpose for which their images are being used for example:

Storytelling

The Guardian used a Picture lists post to demonstrate the results of overpopulation and overconsumption. The photos in this article are at times quite frightening. The same impact just could not have been achieved using a standard written post.

How-to posts

This is a simple post in Wikihow on how to make pancakes. This article placed second in Google to the BBC’s Easy Pancakes on the search query “how to make pancakes”. An impressive feat to be sure, not to mention the hundreds of other pancake tutorials it’s topping just amongst other wikihow users. What really sets it apart is the detailed step-by-step instructions accompanied by images.

Comparisons

The Guardian use a series of Picture List posts “Then and Now” to compare locations present with their past. This particular example is of Australia, but the series is particularly potent in areas which have been affected by natural disasters.

Lists

This image is from a post by Awwwards a website dedicated to giving website awards. They also produce content relevant to designers. This is a list of top 100 free fonts, really useful for designers and very shareable.

Getting started

Hopefully these examples can give you some pretty good insight to what types of content will perform best in a pictures list post. However, if you’re still not sure how to translate this into your industry or niche, here are some questions to get you raring to go:

  • What type of stories work in your area? How does one of your successful projects or case studies look as a series of images?
  • What comparisons can you make with images? For example, how have products in your area changed over time.
  • Are there any processes or tips in your area that could be explained better through a series of images?
  • What ‘how to’ picture post might work in your area?

If you want to learn more about this process or you’d like a little bit of design magic in your project give us a call on this number: 01273 328877

We’re always open to giving advice!