How to increase engagement through data visualization

Many content marketers primarily focus on writing and optimizing article copy for search engines, but they give little attention to how visitors will experience their content. As a result, their content may receive a significant amount of search traffic, but experience low engagement and a high bounce rate.

Content marketers need to focus on producing content that will not only get visitors to their site but will also keep them there.

One way marketers attempt to increase session duration is by adding a compelling image at the beginning of articles. However, the effect the image has on overall engagement is minimal. Even with an image, about 40% of readers will leave by the time they reach the end of the third paragraph. 👋

The importance of including imagery

There’s a reason why adding an image to the beginning of an article can slightly increase engagement, and that’s because human beings are visual creatures. Consider these facts:

• The majority of people are visual learners
• Half of the human brain is devoted directly or indirectly to vision
• The human brain can process and identify images that are seen for only 13 milliseconds (0.013 second)
• Content with imagery increases the chance of the reader remembering it the next day by 55%

Those reasons are why utilizing imagery throughout an article can help maintain the attention of readers.

Using data visualization for increased engagement

Images can help with engagement, but data visualizations via the use of charts, graphs, and tables can further stimulate a reader’s interest. That’s because data visualizations are more interesting to look at and can offer more context than just pictures and text.

Data visualizations also give the impression that a significant amount of time and research has gone into the creation of the content. Psychologically, it impresses upon the reader that the content is probably worth reading and sharing with others.

This article provides methods and resources for data gathering. It also covers the best data visualization options for creating and publishing graphs, charts, tables, lists, code, infographics, and documents for increased engagement.

Table of contents

• The importance of including imagery
• Using data visualization for increased engagement
  • Data gathering sources and methods
    • Use your existing data
    • Getting new data
    • Using someone else’s data
• Using interactive charts
  • The best interactive chart libraries
    • Honorable mentions
  • How to use interactive charts in WordPress
    • Best interactive chart plugins for WordPress
• Using interactive tables
• Next steps