Infographics have been around since the dawn of print media. In recent years, they’ve attracted a new level of interest as an Internet marketing tool. In this article, we will examine the ways you can use information graphics as a link-building tool to boost your SEO performance.
But first, we need to answer some preliminary questions for those just joining the class:
- What is an infographic? As the name suggests, an infographic is a graphic that conveys information. It is a visual explanation of a certain topic or concept. These graphics can be used to simplify complex topics and interrelated ideas. Infographics are created by designers, though an entire team might contribute to the final concept.
- Why are links important? Attracting links from other websites can help you boost your search engine rankings over time. All search engines use “link popularity” to some degree when evaluating and ranking websites. It’s not the only criteria they use, but it is one of the most important. A well-designed infographic can help you attract links from established websites.
When a Graphic is Worth a Thousand Words
We defined two important concepts above — link building and infographics. Now let’s put them together. How can you use informational graphics to increase the number of links to your website? To answer this question, we need to examine a well-made infographic to see what exactly it does.
The graphic on the right was created by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Granted, this is not a for-profit business organization. But they’ve still created a first-rate infographic that is worthy of emulation. This well-designed graphic explains how a thing you and I take for granted (mobile phone technology) is helping to reshape the developing world. Don’t get too wrapped up in the message at this point. Focus on the presentation.
What does this infographic do? It tells a story in a visual way. It makes a complex topic easier to understand. It presents a tremendous amount of information in a highly accessible manner. It gets the point across more quickly than a text-based document could ever do.
Conveying a lot of information at a glance is a defining trait of infographics. Take a look at the bottom portion of the USAID graphic, where the human silhouette is surrounded by blurbs of text. Here, the designer and author have explained how mobile phones are improving the lives of people in the developing world. It’s a wealth of information, but it’s instantly accessible as well. The dominant figure in the middle pulls your attention. It’s almost impossible not to read the surrounding text. This is the benefit of using infographics in conjunction with plain text.
Of course, there is a certain eye-candy factor as well. Professionally designed infographics make information “sexy.” And all of these things contribute to their value as a link-building tool. A well-written, informative blog post or article will eventually pick up a few links. But when you add an infographic into the mix, the link-building potential more than doubles.
Infographic Essentials: How to Get the Most Links
Creating a good infographic is the hardest part of this process. You must start with an idea people will find interesting, and then convert that idea into visual form. You’ll have to enlist the help of a professional graphic designer, if you want to get it right.
Fortunately, the promotional aspects are somewhat simpler. Here are some steps you can take to enhance the link-building potential of an infographic.
- You can help people share your infographic by providing an HTML “embed” code on the same page. This would be a box with pre-written HTML code that includes the graphic (or a thumbnail version), along with a citation link back to your website. Note: that the example included above does not include this. Here is an infographic from unbounce called the Noob Guide To Online Marketing that does.
- Include social sharing buttons on the infographic page. This will encourage easy sharing.
- Most people will gladly credit you for your work. Others won’t. So be sure to include some type of branding and identification within the graphic itself. This could be as simple as placing your logo and website URL somewhere in the design, as in the example above.
- If the graphic is intended for a binational or international audience, consider making additional versions in those other languages.
- Promote your infographic by all means available. Post it in a prominent location on your website or blog. Link to it from the home page of your website. Share it through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social networks. Outreach to niche bloggers is also key, especially if you do not have an active social following.
- Consider making a video version of the content, by reformatting the graphics in a storyboard sequence. Obviously, this will require more work. But it allows you to capitalize on the broad reach of YouTube and other video-sharing websites.
- Include the transcribed text somewhere on the page (if possible), this will help provide SEO benefit.
A well-designed infographic can require a significant investment of time and effort. But that investment can pay great dividends from a link-building perspective. Sometimes, a picture can be worth a thousands words … and a thousand links.
