When you publish a piece of content, it enters a complex environment where it competes with hundreds if not thousands of other assets for the attention of your target audience. Visual elements can not only make your content more engaging, but also less likely to get lost in the shuffle.
Search engines use complex algorithms to identify signals that indicate web page quality and relevance to specific keywords. Content that satisfies user search intent is one of the most significant ranking factors, according to Google Webmasters.