The benefits of using infographics in SEO

Infographics have become an integral piece of content for marketing purposes. Their ability to catch the readers’ attention without taking up too much of their time made them perfect for search engine optimization efforts.

By using infographics on your website, it’s possible to increase the traffic by as much as 12%. This can contribute to your conversion efforts and give your website higher rankings.

According to HubSpot, infographics are the fourth most popular type of content used by marketing experts. In the past years, the popularity of this media has been growing tremendously.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of infographics for your SEO efforts.

Why use infographics in SEO strategy: Benefits of infographics in SEO

Do infographics do well in SEO? If you invest time and money in creating high-quality pieces, you can use them for search engine optimization and many other promotional efforts.

1.Continuous popularity

According to Google Trends, the interest in infographics have been growing over time. These pieces of content are gaining popularity because of the lack of time faced by modern users.

People, who don’t have enough time to read long texts, are appreciative of any effort you make to help them digest the information quicker.

Since the popularity of such media is growing, its potential to bring traffic to the website is doing the same.

2.Sharing potential

Images have high sharing potential. Images with clear information on them are even more shareable. By creating a solid infographic, you are turning your users into brand ambassadors.

Infographics are a hit on social media especially if they manage to convey complex information in simple words.

3.Using infographics to get backlinks

Infographics can generate backlinks. Many companies are looking for simple ways to express certain information. They happily take advantage of infographics created by other resources. Meanwhile, influencers are usually happy to share the link to your infographics with their followers.

Since backlinking is one of the backbones of SEO, infographics are becoming an integral part of it as well.

4.Brand Awareness

Talking about your brand or writing about it can be beneficial. However, turning your efforts into a picture can do a much better job. The big difference between telling and showing is reflected in infographics.

Besides relevant information, infographics include your brand name and logo, helping potential clients remember your company.

5.Authority

Infographics allow you to position yourself as an expert in the industry. You can use your expertise to educate the audience through this piece of content without producing a lengthy text.

Many companies prefer to add an infographic or two to their articles. Your competition could become your brand ambassador by using your valuable infographics. This can do a lot for your website rankings.

How to get backlinks from infographics

Since high-quality backlinks are especially important to SEO, using infographics to get them should be on any company’s agenda. Let’s talk about ways to get the precious backlinks with this content.

To go viral, your infographics should have the following:

• High-quality design – infographics must be visually appealing so you have to spend time and money on the design. Hiring a professional designer may be a good idea.
• Solid information – you must make sure that the content you use for the infographics (especially statistics) is properly researched and backed by real studies.
• Promotion – to receive backlinks, likes, and shares, you need to invest time and effort in promoting the infographic on social media and over email.

Here are the basic steps to take to generate backlinks with infographics.

1.Create valuable content

The design of your infographic is not as important as the content you put on it. So if you are on a tight budget, hiring a professional is not always necessary. You can take advantage of affordable or free infographic tools like Canva or Adobe Spark to create an appealing design.

The more valuable the information you share is the more likely people are to link back to it.

• Use statistics – stats are the backbone of many popular infographics.
• Create guides – easy to digest guides are appealing to the audience.
• Conduct research –100% accurate content is the key to the infographic’s popularity.

2.Promote your Infographic

Once you create an infographic, you need to make it as visible as possible. Publish it on:

• Your website
• Social media accounts

Also, submit it to such infographic directories as:

• Pinterest
• Infographic journal
• Flickr
• Infographics portal
• And more

This can give your free backlinks with a small amount of effort. Some directories may charge for posting infographics, but the costs are generally low.

3.Publish on other websites

While infographics directories may be useful, publishing your infographic on other websites can bring you more backlinks. Reach out to websites in your niche that accept guest posts. You can embed your infographic in a guest post to get more backlinks.

You can also try to ask these websites to publish your infographic in relevant articles. You would have to reach out to the owners with your offers. If your infographics offer real value, you are likely to receive many positive replies.

Learning how to build up backlinks with infographics can help you improve your website rankings tremendously. Remember, the key to any shareable and linkable infographic is value.

Importance of infographics in SEO: Are infographics still relevant?

Many SEO beginners wonder if infographics are still relevant. With many different types of media available to tweak your search engine optimization, does it make sense to bother with infographics?

Infographics aren’t easy to make. They require time, dedication, and research. They are generally harder to produce than articles and images. However, they can be easier to create than videos.

The power of infographics is hard to underestimate. They give people what they need the most – concise information. As long as the internet user keeps searching, infographics will be popular.

• Infographics allow you to present the message in an efficient and visually pleasing manner. They catch the reader’s attention and hold it for as long as possible thus lowering your bounce rate.
• When you add infographics to your content marketing campaign, they help your pages get higher search rankings on Google. Some types of content work better when used together.
• Infographics are designed to look appealing on a smartphone. When users are on the go, they prefer concise and quick information instead of lengthy articles or videos. Infographics can help bring your content to 3.5 billion smartphone users.
• Infographics turn complex and boring subjects into easy-to-understand materials. This makes them highly shareable, thus boosting your SEO efforts.

Alt text for infographics

Alt (alternative) text is designed to convey the meaning of the infographic in a digital setting. Basically, it’s a description of your infographic which should make people who don’t see it understand what’s on the screen.

Google spiders take advantage of the alt text to index your website. That’s why it’s vital to take a serious approach to creating alt text for infographics.

Adding alt text to your infographic on the website is generally easy. The majority of content management systems allows you to click on the images and change the name and alt text according to your needs.

The alt text should be specific to your image, concise, and readable. It should be related to the topic of the webpage the infographic is embedded in.

• Be very specific about the infographic you are describing. Make sure to use the website context to come up with a valuable copy. Imagine a visually impaired person reading the alt text. Will they understand what the infographic is about?
• Keep the alt text short. Ideally, it should be under 125 characters. If you make the description longer, the screen-reading software may read the entire text. It will cut off at 125 characters, leaving the reader to wonder what’s next.
• Don’t use the words “infographic describes…” Go straight to the description. Don’t waste your 125 characters on useless words. Screen-reading software and spiders will identify the infographic as an image anyway.
• Make sure to use keywords in the alt text for infographics. However, you have to be careful with stuffing. Try to use the primary keyword as early in the text as possible. Long-tail keywords aren’t always great for alt tags since they take up too much space.
• Use keywords sparingly. If your article or blog posts contain several images and infographics, try not to use the keyword in each one of them. It could be considered keyword stuffing. Instead, make sure that the primary keyword is present in at least one image/infographic.

Infographics in SEO: Final thoughts

Infographics are an efficient SEO tool, which allows you to increase your website’s ranking, generate leads, reduce bounce rate, create backlinks, and more. The popularity of this content is currently on the rise and isn’t likely to fade in the nearest future.

By learning how to do infographics for SEO, you can improve your marketing campaign and stay ahead of the competition.