Using Infographics for Link Building

What is an Infographic?

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. Infographics illustrate complex information and/or processes in a form that the human brain easily recognizes and associates with the information behind the representation.

Infographic of  Infographics by Ivan Cash

In the past decades, infographics have been used in many fields such as media, sciences, and business, to share data, information, or knowledge. Since 2005 many internet marketing companies are using use this tools to generate viral content and get backlinks.

Why Using Infographics?

How to a Create a Good Infographic?

Infographics do take a lot of time to design because the different strands of information need to be drawn together.  The design need to be visually stimulating in order to catch the attention of your audience quickly.

First of all you should decide what information you are you going to share. An infographic can explain the benefits of new products and it can also be used to analyse a specific topic or to provide an industry overview.

The next steps are:

1.    Research for data.
2.    Find information that can be visually represented.
3.    Organize the information.
4.    Create the infographic concept.
5.    Design an image that can image that can create an emotional response.
6.    Reflect your own style and your business style in the infographics you create.
7.    Communicate your purpose.

We know that you are not a designer but should be able to write an effective design brief.

Promote your Infographic

•    After you have created a great infographic, you should submit it to relevant social media sites, bookmarking sites, blogs, etc
•    Host the infographic on your domain, making sure you get the link credit. If you have a blog, this is the best possible location for your infographic.
•    Ensure that your infographic is easy to share, easy to upload and provide you good links.
•    Provide the embed code to make the whole process as mistake-proof as possible.
•    Submit your infographic to data visualisation directories and image directories such as Flickr.
•    Get a Commons license for the infographic and request a specific anchor link in return for posting.
•    Create a targeted email template to approach influential bloggers explaining why your infographic would benefit their readers.

Link baiting is about being creative and using different elements to increase your site popularity and gain links. It may be the rise to a controversy, some humour, interesting information, a plug-in, free tools, etc. Designing a good infographic will require time and effort but it will deliver great results.