Written content still rules
Many people these days try to write off written content in favor of video and graphic content. “Publish more videos and less written content” they say.
Although 81% of web traffic will be video by 2021, according to Cisco, video in general and visual content in particular has a limit – it is difficult to interpret video content and visual content through voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home.
When you ask a question to a device like Amazon Echo, it converts your voice data into text data, searches for the text, finds the needed text, converts the text data into voice data and then plays it for you. So, if you want to be found by voice-activated devices, you need to focus on written content. This is just one example.
It is also easier to go through text. Especially on smaller devices like mobile phones.
If you want to know about a product or a service, unless some visual demonstration is needed, you prefer to read text. Text is easier to scroll. You can easily go back and reread if you want, which is a hassle in video.
Search engines still rank your website according to the text it has. There is a reason businesses publish 2000-3000-word blog posts – they want to dominate the text in their niche.
Even when ranking your videos and images, search engines like Google and Bing analyze the text around your videos and images.
People are watching more videos because well, more people have mobile devices and better connectivity. Video is being watched more because of those highly stupid, mostly cringing, Tiktok videos, cute dog and cat videos on Facebook, and life hack videos and propaganda videos on YouTube that people are constantly watching on their mobile devices.
I’m not discounting video content. Of course, you can build your audience by strategically investing your time in publishing video content and a lot of time I prefer video content over written content (especially reviews for gadgets, software products and appliances), but eventually, when time comes to spend the money, people make their decisions after reading the information on your website.