How To Get Backlinks With Infographics

Infographics are all the rage right now–in just the last 4 years, they’ve enjoyed a 67% increase in usage among B2B marketers and have become insanely popular on most social media platforms, but are infographics good for SEO? Businesses put a lot of effort into optimizing their sites to rank higher with search engines, but most would agree that one of the building blocks of great SEO optimization is having high-quality backlinks. Fortunately, infographics are one of the easiest link-building methods and knowing how to get backlinks with infographics can do wonders for your SEO. Let’s take a look at how infographics and SEO can work together.

What are the benefits of infographics?

Infographics are highly shareable 

As the perfect combination of well-researched information and vivid visuals, it’s no wonder that infographics are so well loved. They’re shared 3 times more than any other piece of content on social media and can be posted on practically every major platform. This allows them to be shared by millions of people all over the world and, as a result, generate tons of traffic for businesses. 

Visuals are king

Pictures truly are worth a thousand words and, nowadays, people would much rather let an image tell them a story over a long piece of text. The nice thing about infographics is that they meet people in the middle. Text in an infographic is usually short and sweet and is designed to work together with images to create an overall cohesive graphic.

What makes good infographics? 

Irresistible design

The heart and soul of every infographic is great design. Of course, the actual information presented in the graphic is what viewers will take away, but it’s the visual that reels them in to begin with. Your infographic should create a narrative for viewers and flow much like a story would. To do this effectively, plan out how the information will be presented:

• Think about how the text will work together with the pictures
• Consider if it would be helpful to use bullet points 
• Understand which pieces of your text need to stand out most and make that font? larger, especially for SEO purposes 
• Make sure any numbers or percentages are easily identifiable
• Incorporate pie and bar charts 

Utilise anything that will make the data in your infographic as easy to understand as possible using the least amount of room.

Great research

You could put together the perfect design for an infographic, but if the data isn’t solid, you’re missing a pretty important piece of the puzzle. This is why getting information from reputable sources is crucial. Once you decide on a topic, search for statistics from sites with high authority on the subject you’re researching, such as websites that end in .edu and .gov. Even if you plan on using data from studies or surveys your company or organisation has conducted, incorporating other reputable sources will only increase your infographic’s credibility. 

How to create your own infographic

Start by choosing a topic that people would be interested in. It might help to research the kinds of infographics that are already resonating with people, as well as any topics that aren’t too well-explored, but still of high interest to your potential audience. For example, if your business specializes in email marketing, you could create an infographic comparing the benefits of plain-text emails and html emails. The goal is to offer easily understandable data to viewers, while not overwhelming them or telling them something they’ve already heard many times before from someone else.

Once you have a topic locked down, start researching or gathering information from your own studies. Compile any useful information and then try to condense all of your findings into the meat and bones of the topic. Ask yourself: 

• What do I want my audience to really know? 
• What piece of information is going to stand out most to them? 
• What will convince them that this information is not only important but that my brand is a proper authority on the subject?

After you figure out an outline and the narrative you want to convey, you can finally start creating. If you have a design team at your beck and call, at this point you can pass off all the details of the infographic to them to bring your vision to life. However, if you need a little more assistance, there are numerous design tools and websites you can take advantage of. A free example is Canva, which will aid you in creating an infographic of almost any size and offer you various templates to choose from.

How do you get backlinks withe infographics? 

You’ll want to publish your infographic on your own website with an embed code to make it easy for people to share and post on their platforms. However, the page speed of your website is just as important as the backlink. This is because Google factors in the amount of time your site takes to load for SEO. 

From there, you’ll have a variety of options available to get high-value backlinks. Let’s go over some below. 

Use your own audience

Promoting your infographic with the audience you already have is a great place to start. This means posting on your social media as well as including the infographic in your email marketing. In newsletters, for example, you can encourage your audience to share your infographic on their social media pages to boost your overall reach. Some of the best platforms for infographics are Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, especially with the use of relevant hashtags.

Submit to an infographic directory 

There are many free options available–some are geared towards a specific field, like education or healthcare, but there are a lot of general sites that involve you simply filling out a form, attaching the graphic, and hitting ‘send’. As soon as your infographic is reviewed and approved, it’ll be live for many more eyes to see. Try out the directory sites on this list.

Reach out to influencers and brands in your niche

You can approach influencers and brands  through Direct Message on social media or contact form fills on their websites, but it can be more professional to use email. Using email finder tools like hunter.io, you can type in the domain name of a company and pull up their contact info. However, another neat trick is to hire a freelancer on Fiverr to compile a list of prospects for you. Once you have a decent list, you can start sending out emails, either manually or using software to automate the process. In your message, ask the addressee if they would be interested in using your infographic on their site or sharing it on their other platforms.

Try guest blogging

When pitching your article, let the blog know that you would like to include your infographic. Some may charge a fee for the blog post, but others may be open to a quid pro quo relationship, allowing you to guest post on their site in exchange for a guest post on yours. If this works for you, you not only gain a business partnership, but you also get a backlink on a site for people who are specifically interested in your niche.

Conclusion

Gaining good backlinks can be a time-consuming process, but it’s one of the most important aspects of SEO. Fortunately, using a tool as popular and effective as infographics allows you to create great content to boost your SEO strategy, promote your brand in a creative way, and reach more audiences who are interested in what your business has to offer. 

Find more SEO link building strategies here.