Key Takeaways
Infographics for Link Building: Infographics effectively attract backlinks due to their engaging visuals, authoritative data presentation, and the ability to simplify complex information, making them highly shareable.
Why They Work: They require significant effort to create, enhance textual content, and are seen as trustworthy due to their data-driven nature. This combination increases user engagement and offers unique insights, making them valuable for link building.
Creation and Promotion: Utilize tools like Canva, Piktochart, Visme, and Adobe Illustrator for creating infographics. Promote them through a dedicated resource page, social media, email outreach, and relevant directories to maximize visibility and backlink potential.
Strategic Tips: Update old infographics with new data, focus on storytelling, ensure visual appeal, present original research, and make them easily shareable with embed codes to enhance their effectiveness in attracting backlinks.
Do Infographics Work for Link Building?
Yes, infographics can be an effective strategy for link building.
By creating visually appealing and informative infographics, you can attract backlinks from other websites, improving your search engine rankings and organic traffic.
Simply put, visual content is more engaging and attractive to audiences, breaking up the monotony of written content and conveying messages in a different medium.
Infographics are information dense, focusing on the most important aspects of a topic, making them powerful at illustrating a point.
This quality makes them very shareable and attractive, essential for any successful link building activity.
5 Reasons Why Infographics Attract Backlinks
Infographics have been a popular backlink acquisition strategy for years and they’re still great at it.
Here are several reasons why.
They’re time-consuming and require skill to create
Time is an important part of the content creation equation.
Anyone producing content at scale tries to be mindful about the time spent on each piece of content.
That’s why it’s often more impactful and effective to refer to somebody else’s assets than try to create everything on your own.
This is where infographics come in. They’re often both time-consuming to create and require certain skills.
Especially when it comes to making them visually appealing while conveying a message at the same time.
Sure, there are tools and templates that make this easier, but anyone who created infographics before knows it always takes a bit of adjusting and effort to make your infographic just the way you want it.
They enhance the content around them
Enhancing the visual appeal of content is a major reason why infographics attract backlinks.
Not to mention the fact that our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text.
This makes infographics much easier to digest and understand.
Additionally, the information presented visually is more likely to be remembered than plain text as well.
Adding infographics to your content marketing arsenal can power it up and get you backlinks at the same time.
They’re authoritative and trustworthy
Infographics rely on data, statistics, and research to present information, enhancing the authority and trustworthiness of your content and making them powerful link magnets.
Visualizing data through charts, graphics, and other elements makes complex information more digestible, concrete, and believable.
High-quality design choices, including color palettes, typography, and imagery, subconsciously signal professionalism and subject expertise.
They make visitors stay on the page for longer
How many times have you bailed on a piece of content just because you were bored of the monotony of text?
This happens all the time, whether we’re aware of it or not.
High-quality visual content like infographics can serve as a resting point and reset the fatigue of textual content for users.
Not only will users spend more time on the page, but they also might continue reading simply because your infographic made it clear to them you know what you’re talking about and that sparked their interest further.
They offer a unique perspective on the topic
Infographics excel at translating complex data and statistics into visually compelling narratives, offering fresh insights and interpretations not easily conveyed through text alone.
They can combine various visual elements like charts, illustrations, and icons to create unique perspectives that wouldn’t be possible with solely written content.
Sometimes, seeing data points visually displayed in relations to each other can help the reader connect the dots much more easily.
Best Types of Infographics for Link Building
There are many types of infographics that excel in link building, varying by niche or industry.
Not every infographic type will perform equally across different niches, such as tourism versus gaming.
Consider your niche when selecting infographic types for your site.
Here are a few types that perform well universally:
- Statistical Infographics: They use statistics to capture attention, showcasing data and figures to establish authority and trustworthiness.
- Comparison Infographics: These infographics highlight differences between products, services, or concepts visually.
- Process Infographics: Ideal for illustrating multi-step processes in a clear, sequential manner.
- Geographic Infographics: Utilize maps and data to reveal local trends, regional differences, or global insights.
Tools for Creating Infographics
Now that you’ve seen why infographics attract backlinks, it’s time to unleash your creativity!
Don’t worry, you don’t need a design degree or a hefty budget to start.
Here are infographic creation tools I personally use and recommend, suitable for every budget and skill level.
Canva
Canva is a popular and user-friendly design platform with a free plan offering thousands of templates, images, and fonts.
You can also upload your own images and brand assets.
While the free plan has limitations, it’s great for beginners or those on a tight budget.
Piktochart
Piktochart is another popular free infographic creation tool, offering a variety of templates and design elements.
The free plan allows up to three infographics per month and exports as PNGs.
Visme
Visme offers a good balance of features and ease of use, with a free plan allowing up to five infographics per month and exports as PNGs or PDFs.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard vector graphics editor, perfect for professional-quality infographics.
However, it comes with a steep learning curve and a monthly subscription fee.
9 Tips for Creating Link-worthy Infographics
When aiming for juicy backlinks with infographics, it’s crucial to strategize and boost their appeal at every stage.
Here are tips to achieve just that:
#1 Recreate outdated infographics with up-to-date information – ensure your infographics remain valuable by keeping them accurate and current.
When you find an outdated infographic, create a new version with the latest data and consider pitching it to sites that linked to the old one.
#2 Turn statistical posts into infographics – with data-rich statistical posts, you have a solid foundation.
Simply choose an appropriate infographic template and fill it with the data.
#3 Tell a story – use an engaging headline and structure your infographic to clearly convey a compelling narrative.
Visual elements should highlight key data, discoveries, or intriguing information.
#4 Use pleasant color schemes – attractive color combinations make infographics visually appealing and help retain viewer interest.
Colors also emphasize critical data points, differentiate sections, and guide viewers through the content.
#5 Get original data if you can – presenting new data you’ve gathered and analyzed offers unique insights.
This approach not only distinguishes your infographics but also enhances their authoritativeness and credibility, making them more likely to be referenced through backlinks.
#6 Know Your Audience – Understanding your audience’s interests, needs, and knowledge level enables you to customize the information and its presentation to their preferences, making your infographic more relevant and engaging.
Identify specific data points, statistics, or visuals that align with your audience’s pain points or interests and select design elements, color schemes, and humor that mesh with your audience’s cultural context and preferences.
#7 Keep the Text to a Minimum – Infographics excel through visual storytelling; minimizing text lets you focus on impactful visuals, charts, and icons, making your infographic more visually appealing and instantly engaging.
This visual richness fosters sharing and embedding on websites, potentially attracting backlinks.
#8 Establish Visual Uniformity – Ensure your logo, brand colors, and fonts are prominently featured in the infographic to forge a visual association with your brand.
This subconscious connection boosts the likelihood of viewers remembering your brand when they see the infographic or find your other content online.
Maintain a consistent design style across your infographics and brand materials to enhance brand recognition and solidify your brand’s visual identity.
#9 Provide Embed Code – Offering readily available embed code makes it extremely easy for other websites and bloggers to incorporate your infographic into their platforms.
This encourages sharing, leading to potential backlinks, and ensures proper attribution with your website URL and branding included in the embed code whenever your infographic is shared or embedded.
Promoting Your New Infographic
Your infographics will likely attract backlinks passively from people who find them organically through search, but there are strategies to boost your link acquisition further.
Create a Resource Page on Your Site
A dedicated resource page serves as a central repository for all your infographics, enhancing their discoverability by visitors and potential link donors.
You can even link to your resource page from the main menu, highlighting it for every visitor to see.
This strategy increases backlink acquisition significantly.
Social Media
Share your infographics on multiple platforms to reach a broader audience, including potential link donors who find your content valuable.
It’s a numbers game; the more people see your infographics, the greater the likelihood of someone wanting to share them on their website.
Use relevant hashtags to enhance discoverability among individuals actively searching for information related to your infographic’s topics.
Email Outreach
Unlike social media, email allows you to personalize your outreach to specific websites with content directly related to your infographic’s topic.
This increases the chances of your message being seen and considered.
Pro Tip: Reach out to sites with a track record of linking to infographics.
Relevant Directories and Communities
Submitting your infographics to relevant directories and communities places them in front of a specific audience actively searching for information related to your topic.
This increases the chances of someone finding your infographic valuable and linking to it from their website. These directories and communities include:
- Flickr
- Reddit (/r/Infographics and /r/infographic/)
- SlideShare
- Infographics Showcase
- Graphs.net
- Visual.ly