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I always use two or more unique images (photos/infographics) along with content on my pages. I understand they help with user experience. But apart from that, is there any SEO benefit? Specifically, is there any on-page SEO benefit? Do the images add to content quality on Google's eyes?

(I am not speaking about off page benefits like those from links that images get themselves if someone shares the images somewhere.)

Update: I am copying my comment to one of the answers so everyone can see.

One would accept in-depth content is more authoritative than shallow content. On similar lines should I not expect indepth-content with unique images to have competitive advantage over indepth-content without images? (Given all other factors are same)

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    Having an image high in the content is seen as a factor in engagement. Nothing more.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 4:04
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    seen as a factor in engagement. Nothing more.: I have to question your comment here. Do you not agree that an image's alt tag helps to provide contextual relevancy as well as potentially improving CTRs? I mention the latter, with the view of the implementation of a Schema. An effective image(s) use, will offer search engines a greater choice of images, to display in search results, when looking to match user intent.
    – Craig
    Commented Oct 8, 2018 at 13:14

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Images are very important in SEO. They are not as useful as content but they must be part of an SEO strategy. You can get traffic from images searches.

Check this site which offers "Free Photos Gifted by the world’s most generous community of photographers". They only have photos and yet, it's organic traffic is epic.

enter image description here

Check 42 Stats You Should Know About Visual Content Marketing in 2017 in order to understand the importance of images on SEO.

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An image is content, just that. It may enhance your main content, or it may be a crucial part of it, but at the end of the day it is just that: content.

SEO is about optimizing the mark up (alongside the content it encapsulates) so that search engines understand it better. It has nothing to do with your content, only with they way you present it.

So, having images in your content does not improve SEO. However, it may increase your viewers by being part of useful/quality of life additions to your main content, but this is natural. Good content attracts visitors, many visitors improve your ranking.

To technically answer your question: no. Unique images do not help with SEO. They (may) help with improving your content, which will generate traffic and improve your ranking. But just that. Nothing to do with SEO.

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  • One would accept in-depth content is more authoritative than shallow content. On similar lines should I not expect indepth-content with unique images to have competitive advantage over indepth-content without images? (Given all other factors are same)
    – Kannan
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 7:32
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    @Kannan, yes. Indepth content with unique images should perform better compared to same content without images.
    – Prinny
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 8:20
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Informative images add value to user experience. Say, a chart explaining website traffic or similar.

Images also can help stay your audience on your page while they read the information in the image, like a graph or report etc, helping with your bounce rate.

So it is a positive SEO approach.

https://quoracreative.com/article/content-marketing-reasons

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