Infographics are pretty much the greatest thing I’ve seen in a while. They’ve grown increasingly popular over the past few years and it isn’t for nothing.
Infographics take content creation to a whole new level – they are aesthetically pleasing and ideal for link building.
Infographics come in varying styles. There are the ones that portray data points. Others that convey theories – like the power of social media sharing, and ones that discuss concepts in a fun way. I particularly love the infographics that take difficult concepts with tons of data and make them easily understood by anybody.
Not only does an infographic make your content more approachable to the masses, it spruces up your page. It helps to break down your content into an ideal format so that people can understand your point, and quickly too.
I recently saw an infographic by the omniscient SEO company, SEOmoz, that I really liked. It took the appearance of a typical webpage and provided information on how someone can fully optimize their page for search engines as well as readers.
However, they lack on-page SEO value. Since they’re usually a photo, it’s hard for a search engine to see the real value of the infographic just by seeing the ALT attribute text. Fortunately, while on-page SEO is important, off-page is more important. Make sure you get the most out of your infographics because – if done properly, your valuable insight will garner you a lot of reads, shares and inbound links to your site. And we all know, the more links we have to our sites, the more votes we have in the eyes of Google and the more they’ll like us and appreciate the content (ie get your site served up in more searches).:
Make sure you get the most out of your infographics by:
1. Giving it a captivating and keyword rich title. If people are going to share it, we want the title to be something interesting and of value. Some popular ones are “The social media effect”, “10 charts about sex” and “Twitter Usage Per Capita: How States Compare“.
2. Including easy to see social sharing options. You put a lot of hard work into make this infographic informative and fun, and the last thing you want to do is miss out on the opportunities for people to share it. Add visible sharing buttons like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and email which will encourage people to share your content.
3. Include embed code. This makes it easier for people to blog about and share your infographic. Be sure to include keyword rich anchor text so the link back to your site shows the search engines exactly what your infographic is on.
What are your thoughts on infographics – love them or leave them? If you have a favorite, please share it below.