Why Do Infographics Work? 4 Experts Share Their Opinions

under Experts, Gurus, & Other Mythical Creatures, Infographic Marketing.

Sharing an article of information with your audience is great, but nothing will capture their attention like information like a beautifully designed infographic. You're sharing the same facts, but a layout with graphics and images is proven to skyrocket rankings, sharing, and links.

So what is it about infographics that make them such a gold mine for shares? We asked some of the top names in Chicago's digital marketing scene.

Why Do Infographics Work?

Why Do Infographics Work?  4 Experts Share Their Opinions 1When done right, infographics can be very informative and interesting which makes them highly shareable. A big component of SEO is getting links back to your site (specifically from highly trafficked websites), and this kind of content entices your audience to do the work for you. Infographics - especially when they're strongly aligned with your visual brand and brand message - go a long way to reinforce and amplify your voice in the crowded arena of the World Wide Web (or even the more Local Wide Web).

Marty Vernon, Educo


Why Do Infographics Work?  4 Experts Share Their Opinions 2A well-done infographic can make your message resonate and people share what resonates. The human brain processes visuals many times faster than it processes text. Therefore if your content - even complex data-driven content - is presented in a visual format, it will greatly enhance how the public processes your content. Whether your message is funny or compelling or shocking or just interesting to the user, putting it into an infographic makes it far more likely to be shared than if it were just text. And for SEO, shared content is very good. An infographic shared from your site to social media will drive traffic to your website, which improves your search ratings.

Rochelle Weiner Carr, Andiamo Creative


Why Do Infographics Work?  4 Experts Share Their Opinions 3Infographics are so important for SEO as they allow you to leverage the infographic content to build links from high authority websites that happen both through earned placements and through organic visibility. Infographics can be credited or cited on high authority website because of source attribution to the image which allows you to earn a backlink to your website which will in turn help your SEO and digital visibility.

Bad infographics aren't going to earn you blacklinks though.  Everyone and their sister is pumping out infographics in hopes to help their SEO and online visibility, but not enough people are making the extra investment to do them well. Infographics that earn high authority placements are either original content ideas or are backed up by proprietary data that media sites want to use in their news stories. Try running a survey and using the data you compile into an infographic that answers a question that hasn't been answered.  If you do this well you will earn high quality backlinks to your infographic that will positively impact your SEO.

Matt Zajechowski, Digital Third Coast


Why Do Infographics Work?  4 Experts Share Their Opinions 4Because infographics are visual, they're easy to pitch. And because they're often practical or research-driven, they often get picked up. Here's how it works:

  1. Send an infographic to an editor and offer to write a short companion piece to go with.
  2. If they accept it. Include the source link in the piece as a citation for the research, an image source link or in body text of the companion article.
  3. Once it goes live, you've earned a link. That link passes authority which increases the likelihood that every URL on your domain will rank.

That's the theory behind the infographic / SEO pitch. In practice, it's actually tricky. The infographic, the pitch and the follow up have to be very very good. It's noisy out there!

Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media