Infographic link building isn’t a new strategy by any means, but it still delivers positive SEO results to this day. Infographics are a very popular form of link building and it’s easy to see why. They allow you to generate organic (free) links, increase the shareability of your page and drive social engagement.
Infographics can enhance your website’s SEO but they are best used alongside other link-building tactics, this helps create a more diverse backlink profile for your site (which means better search engine rankings!). Ready to see how you can easily generate some great backlinks and improve your site’s SEO with the power of infographic link building? Let’s do this.
FIRST, UNDERSTAND WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL INFOGRAPHIC
Too many marketers jump straight into infographic marketing, getting a design created without putting any real thought into it. Just like everything in marketing, you need a plan.
A successful infographic must:
- Use interesting, data-backed research
- Preferably be focused around a trending topic or a topic your audience
- Have an interesting and eye-catching design that is well suited to the content
- Be backed by a strong promotion and outreach campaign
STAGE 1: RESEARCH
A successful infographic begins with insightful data. Decide on the topic for your infographic (preferably something that’s relevant, shareable, and newsworthy). Then, check out some competitor infographics that are based on the same or very similar topics. You can measure their success using a tool such as ahrefs, to see how many links each particular graphic has generated. From there, browse the content and data that has been used on some of the more successful infographics in your niche. This is a great starting point for your very own design.
If you can’t find any competing infographics, be sure to have a think about your topic of choice and if you feel your audience would be interested by it. If the answer is yes, you’ve found a gap in the market!
NEXT, IT’S TIME FOR A BRAINSTORM…
Get your team together and brainstorm some content ideas and angles, using the information you have already gathered. A mind map is usually a good idea. Just get all your ideas onto paper and whittle the list down to the final idea you’d like to push on with.
SECURE THE DATA
Next, you need some top-quality data to back up your infographic. This is the backbone of your infographic link-building campaign, so it’s worth spending some time gathering data that will drive results. Remember to try and keep it somewhat surprising, insightful, or newsworthy, this is what the big publications are looking for! Don’t worry, there’s no need to waste a huge budget on the data for your design. Here are some excellent free (or cheap) data sources that can be utilized for your very own infographic:
- Google Trends – browse Google’s huge wealth of search data
- Google Scholar – find scholar articles to backup your content
- US Census – quality data on the population and economy of the US
- Data.gov (US) – the home of the US government’s open data
- Data.gov (UK) – the home of the UK government’s open data
- Pew Research Center – A wealth of data here, definitely worth a browse
- EuroStat – A huge amount of free European data
- Statista – This service isn’t free, but their account options are well worth the money
- Your own website! Why not use your very own traffic, buyer behaviour and conversion data?
STAGE 2: CONCEPT & CONTENT
So, you have the topic, notes from your brainstorm and you’ve collected some useful data. Now you can design your concept around the data you’ve been able to find online. Come up with at least 10 data points for your infographic.
What is a data point? A data point is one segment of written content (backed by data) that will appear on your infographic. You’ll want at least 10 points for a long-form infographic that engages the viewer. Rework your stats into interesting lines of content and be sure to finalize the concept of your design. Get all this written on a Word Doc or Google Sheet for easy access when working with a designer.
Try and get your brand’s tone of voice across in the content and add some humor where possible. Get a few creatives on the case and you’ll have some perfected copy in no time! To put it in perspective, your infographic design should take the viewer through a story. Work through the story as you move down the infographic and feel free to add a cheeky call to action at the end.
STAGE 3: INFOGRAPHIC DESIGN
This is the fun part! It’s time to get designing and produce a beautiful piece of content for your site that will pick up those all-important links. The design will make or break your infographic link-building campaign, so it’s important you get this part spot on!
Some people will opt to create the design themselves. This is certainly a great option if you feel capable of designing a high-quality infographic and you’ll save some money in the process. That being said, if you don’t know your Photoshop from your Illustrator, it’s probably best to leave it to the professionals. Canva and PhotoADKing are both powerful, cheap tools that have all the features you need to design a stunning piece of content.
If you do decide to hire a professional designer, you have a few different options to choose from. One great option is Fiverr, where you can find some very talented designers available for hire. Some infographic designers on Fiverr will even submit the finished design to various infographic sites. Services like this are a great way to kickstart your infographic promotion. Here is a great infographic designer we can recommend. It might be useful to check out some of the infographics that have been submitted to this site, for some design inspiration.
Did you know we also offer incredible infographic designs on this site, starting from only £50.00? Invest in a unique and eye-catching infographic design for your website, with delivery in just a few days! We’re the experts when it comes to this stuff.
Be sure to send over a detailed brief to your designer, including any specific branding, logos, or color schemes you’d like included in the design. Remember to give your designer some room to work, they have an eye for good content and should usually be able to produce something epic. That being said, you are the marketer in this situation so feel free to provide feedback and stay in communication until you end up with the end product you dreamed of.
How to create Infographics?
The creation of Infographics is not a very big task. You can hire a graphic designer or you can also make infographics by yourself using an online Infographic maker. Online tools are very easy to use.
STAGE 4: INFOGRAPHIC PROMOTION
Build it and they will come? Unfortunately, that’s not the case when it comes to digital! You need to get out there and promote your new content to build some incredible backlinks for your brand. There are a few different tactics you can use, we’ll look at a few tried & tested methods below.
USE AN EMBED CODE
First things first, make sure you use an embed code somewhere on the web page where you have uploaded the infographic. An embed code will allow other site owners to copy and paste a simple line of code onto their site in order to showcase your infographic to their audience. This should be encouraged as much as possible. It’s also good practice to include a small note somewhere near your embed code asking other site owners to give credit via a backlink to your site. An embed code is easy to implement, here’s a quick and simple embed code generator.
INFOGRAPHIC SUBMISSION SITES
There are a tonne of infographic submission sites out there but some are better than others. Submission sites are great sources of authoritative backlinks that your site would be unable to pick up with any other kind of content. You can submit your infographic to be featured here at Infographic School via this page. Infographic submission sites often have great SEO metrics and can be extremely valuable for your link-building campaign. Some are free, others require payment and all have different submission methods.
SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION
Infographics are highly shareable on social media, particularly Pinterest. They are engaging to read and often boast bright colors, interesting data, and eye-catching colors. They were practically made for the news feed! Share your infographic across multiple channels. If you have some extra budget handy, you could even pay some social media influencers to feature your graphic on their networks.
OUTREACH
Outreach your infographic to other sites in your industry. This is the #1 way to generate links for your content and build those powerful backlinks you’re looking for! Build out a list of target sites where you’d like to get your infographic featured. These can be bloggers, authority sites in your niche, sites that have written about similar topics, or any other relevant sites that may be open to hosting your content. Find their contact info, craft the perfect email template and reach out to these site owners with your new content.
If you can provide them some value in return for the infographic inclusion, you’ll have much more success. Perhaps you can provide a short guest post for their site, or send some social media traffic their way in return for the link?
PR
Want those DA70+ link placements on top authority publications? PR is the way to go! A great way to reach site editors and publications in your industry is to write up and distribute a press release. Here is a great guide that takes you through the entire process. It’s worth noting that newsworthy and shock-factor content will always perform better in these circles.
AND FINALLY MEASURE SUCCESS
The process is complete!
You have a well-designed infographic that’s sure to drive results and pickup links along the way. Measure your results, find ways to improve, and repeat the process to keep a stream of organic links coming in. Some key metrics to measure our website traffic, keyword positions, social shares, average time on page and anything else you feel is important.
Hopefully, you found this article useful! We’d love for you to share it with your network and pass on the infographic love.