Introduction
An infographic presents complex information clearly and concisely by visualizing data, information, or knowledge. Infographics can condense complicated ideas or vast volumes of data into a comprehensible and distributable format. Infographics are effective because humans are visual learners – our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text. An infographic can communicate the critical information from a lengthy report or article in a simple, eye-catching graphic that is more likely to capture attention.
Because infographics are aesthetically pleasing, educational, and entertaining, they are frequently shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They stand out in timelines and news feeds because of their visual nature. Viral content on social media drives new traffic to your website through recommendations. Infographics are also often embedded on other websites, which brings direct traffic.
Infographics simplify complex subjects people search for answers about, which helps content rank higher in search engines. The visual presentation also increases interaction and time spent on the page. Higher dwell time signals to search engines that the content is helpful for the reader. Such signals of user experience are valuable to Google.
Sites want to share or embed infographics as assets, which makes them excellent “link bait.” Relevant websites may provide backlinks to your infographic and source, which is a valuable source of authority backlinks to your website. Infographics can be directly pitched to web admins, bloggers, and journalists willing to embed or feature them in return for a link.
Creative, branded infographics help establish domain authority and thought leadership around topics related to your industry. An infographic that gets widely seen and shared builds awareness of your brand in organic ways that traditional ads cannot.
In summary, infographics increase website traffic from social shares, improve SEO rankings, provide link-building opportunities, and elevate brand awareness – all critical digital marketing goals for a content marketing strategy. Crafting compelling infographics on topics your target audience cares about can pay dividends through valuable backlinks and referral traffic.
The Basics: Types of Infographics
The three most common types of infographics are:
- Statistical Infographics
Statistical infographics visualize numerical facts, figures, and data. They showcase statistics around a topic visually appealingly, making the numbers easier to digest. Some utilize animations or multiple creative visual formats.
Examples include:
- Visualizing market growth with a climbing line graph
- Comparing sales funnel metrics with a creatively designed flow chart
- Using pictographs to show social media usage statistics
The strength of statistical infographics is simplifying complex numerical data into shareable graphics. Statistics perform well for link building because data backs up expertise claims. Choose statistical infographics to establish thought leadership by visualizing critical data around your industry. These serve best when the statistics revealed are surprising or offer unique insights.
- Informational Infographics
As the name suggests, informational graphics present knowledge around a specific topic. They organize textual information into concise visual maps, lists, process flows, and hierarchies.
Examples include:
- Step-by-step guide infographics that visualize a process
- Classification graphics showing types and taxonomies
- Comparison tables of products or concepts
Informational infographics help turn long-form advice content into more scannable and digestible formats that can be shared widely. This provides many embedding and backlink opportunities. Choose informative infographics to simplify extensive how-to guides or complex conceptual information into something more accessible to consume. It distills details into visuals to appeal to publishers.
- Data Visualization Infographics
Data visualizations take large sets of raw data and represent it visually through creative charts, graphs, maps, etc, that identify patterns. They go beyond basic charts to showcase insights.
Examples include:
- Animated heat maps showing activity or trends globally
- Unusual flows that trace connections, hierarchies, and relationships
- Interactive filters revealing custom insights
Dynamic and interactive data viz performs well because customized charting attracts target audiences. The linkability also comes from showcasing undiscovered insights from data. Choose data visualization to showcase unique discoveries from pulling reports and finding exciting angles in your website analytics or industry datasets—custom insights intrigue publishers.
In summary, consider statistical graphics to position expertise around numbers, informational infographics to simplify complex how-to advice, and data visualization to pull custom insights from industry data. Each type provides its benefits for linkable asset creation and traffic growth.
How to Create Compelling and Shareable Infographics (500 words)
The most critical ingredient for a successful infographic is choosing an interesting and novel topic that your audience will want to share. It should intrigue readers by promising to reveal helpful information or provide a new perspective. The topic should connect to issues your audience cares about. A dull or stale topic dooms any infographic before you begin.
Once you have an appealing concept, the visual presentation brings it to life. Basic design principles apply for making infographics visually striking:
Visual Hierarchy
Use size, color, and placement to logically guide the viewer’s eyes through the graphic. More important headings and conclusions should be more significant or more centered. Supporting details are more minor.
Color Psychology
Colors elicit emotional reactions. Black/red conveys power. Blue signifies trust. Green represents growth. Apply colors strategically to match the tone and meaning of different data sets. Vibrant infographics attract more attention in feeds.
White Space
Blank space frames elements elegantly without distractions so critical information remains prominent. Decluttering boosts comprehension. Leave breathing room around binding text and key visuals.
Consistency
Keep branded fonts, icon styles, layout grids, and color schemes uniform to feel cohesive rather than haphazardly thrown together. It should look professionally designed.
The layout principles make an infographic aesthetically appealing, but the content must connect with the reader by feeling relevant and telling a story.
Relevance
Customize data points, statistics, advice, or conclusions specifically for your target audience. Localized details engage readers more than generic information. Talk directly to their problems and goals.
Storytelling
Informational flow should build tension and interest and resolve with a satisfying conclusion. Pose an intriguing question to frame the problem, guide through rising action revealing key learnings, climax with the most significant discovery, and then resolve by summarizing the answer initially promised.
With a compelling topic as the foundation, strategic design choices for visual flow and hierarchy, and relevant, personalized storytelling that frames discoveries as satisfying conclusions, you have a recipe for an engaging, shareable infographic. Apply these principles for linkable content marketing success.
Getting the Most Link Building Value
Optimizing Infographics for Search
Conduct thorough keyword research to identify high-value search terms and questioning phrases related to the infographic’s topic and the information it conveys. Organically incorporate these keywords into headlines, captions, anchors, alt text, file names, URL slugs, transcript text, and image filenames. Ensure keywords flow naturally rather than over-optimizing. Include latent semantic indexing keywords and synonyms as well. Craft compelling on-page SEO-optimized meta descriptions that convince search engines the infographic answers the user’s query intent.
Maximizing “Link Bait” Factors
Incorporate visually stunning data visualizations, illustrations, charts, and creative designs that make the infographic exceptionally unique, attention-grabbing, and distinct from competing infographics on the same topic. Uncover and prominently feature counterintuitive insights and statistics that go against widespread assumptions, sparking interest.
Maintain rigor and credibility by citing reputable scientific sources and providing offline verification options. Conclude with concise, practical takeaways and following step advice for readers to act upon so publishers see intrinsic value beyond informational entertainment. Infographics that provide utility and solve problems intrinsically earn more links. Add interactive filters, hover effects, expanding details, customizable charting, and personalization so each viewer engages dynamically.
Effective Places to Distribute
Identify and directly contact the web admins, social media editors, and content strategists at reputable industry publications, blogs, hubs, and aggregators where the target audience will discover and interact with the infographic, arranging co-promotion partnerships and sponsored guest posts. Pitch to top influencers and thought leaders related to the topic who can share with their engaged followers.
Foster personalized relationships with reporters at major publications in the niche and actively pitch the infographic through a customized media kit, including quotes from creators. Distribute via visual content galleries, image aggregators, and embed sites. Amplify reach further through newswire press releases to tens of thousands of content sites. Then, employ social media site linking across accounts to drive visitors.
Leveraging Infographics for Link Outreach
Reaching Out to Influencers and Journalists
Conduct research to identify industry experts, thought leaders, and influential bloggers with large reader followings, high domain authority sites, and engagement on social media in your target niche. Follow them to understand the types of content and reporting they respond well to. Craft personalized emails demonstrating knowledge of their content focus and past link-building partnerships.
Explain why your infographic aligns well with this focus and offer an exclusive preview. Highlight key data points you suspect they may want to report on for their audience. Time outreaches to coordinate with relevant awareness days, controversies, or trending stories to increase pickup likelihood. To incentivize ongoing partnerships, offer contributors access to accompanying blog posts, interview sources, bylined guest posting opportunities, or future data reports.
Proactively connect with writers at significant publications and niche blogs directly on social networks like Twitter by engaging with their content and commentary over time to build familiarity. When pitching your infographic, reference previous articles highlighting the writer’s expertise in the specific topic your data visualizes. Suggest including expert quotes or sources from their past coverage as an exclusive value add. Sending personalized connection requests and mentioning existing affiliations with other contributors at the publication can improve open and response rates.
Guest Posting Infographics
Identify websites in your industry that allow contributed blog posts and infographic submissions from topic experts. Study their writer’s guidelines, media kits, past contributed posts, and infographic design style to determine if your content matches their standards and reader demographic. Follow and engage with editors on social media to establish awareness.
Craft pitches highlighting unique data, contrarian conclusions, or novel visualizations not covered by previous infographics on their site while demonstrating knowledge of these past graphics. Guarantee original designs and copy-free from plagiarism or duplicate publishing elsewhere to mitigate the risk of featuring unknown contributors and comply with site policies.
Offer to organize relevant cross-linking to supportive evergreen content across your sites. Propose ideas for an ongoing contributed column around recurring data reports. Site-wide contributor privileges and bio pages help earn trust, validating expertise over one-off submissions.
Promoting Through Social Media
Upload infographic images and accompanying blog posts natively to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. Write compelling alt text and social media meta descriptions emphasizing clickworthy findings. Participate actively in hashtags and groups where the target audience discusses related topics. Follow and interact with notable profiles and leaders in your space to gain visibility in their communities.
Carefully tag or mention category influencers next to your infographic shares to notify them directly alongside followers. Proactively like and comment on posts by audience members who would find your data relevant before inviting them to view it. Use paid promotion tools like Facebook ads, LinkedIn sponsored content, and Pinterest Product Pins to enhance visibility. Test different social platforms, formats, and captions and continually optimize based on engagement analytics.
Conclusion
Infographics simplify complex data and long-form content into easily digestible, visually engaging formats widely shared across social media platforms and embedded on websites. Their graphical nature makes them the perfect link bait asset.
Infographics have become a trendy format for simplifying complex ideas, visualizing data, and enhancing content marketing. By providing value to audiences on topics they are actively searching for, infographics can earn high-quality backlinks as other sites reference them over time. They lead visitors into your site ecosystem to read supporting blogs and resources. Done consistently over the long term across various trending topics, infographics provide recurring SEO and referral traffic benefits far surpassing the upfront effort to create them. As part of an integrated content strategy, infographics deliver lasting rewards.
