Easel.ly, Venngage, Piktochart, Infogr.am, and Many Eyes are examples of easy-to-use tools for making infographics. They all have their strengths in particular types of charts and are all free with the option to upgrade for a fee. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are the professional choice for those with strong design skills.
Visual content can powerfully communicate complex information. For example, many public health organizations use infographics to communicate compelling stories about health issues.
What are infographics? Infographics are visual representations of information, or “data viz” that present complex information quickly and clearly. They are easy to understand and consume as they are very concise and visually engaging. Infographics are made up of three parts: visual, content, and knowledge. That means the strength of infographics lies in the fact that it is visual.
What are infographics?
In newspapers, infographics are commonly used to show the weather, as well as maps and site plans for newsworthy events. In recent years, the use of infographics in journalism has increased dramatically with the arrival of new technologies which make it easier to create infographics, for example, infographic software and web-based services. At the same time, various easy-to-use data visualization tools have emerged, making it easier to represent statistical data in various different forms. Infographics have been a very successful tool to allow people to easily digest information since people are often exposed to them from an early age. This tool has been very effective as a means to bring about social change considering its simplicity and ability to enlighten. Finally, infographics are used to communicate messages within businesses, often employed as internal memos to present information in a more interesting way. An article appearing in the New York Times on data interpretation pointed out that a huge issue that has been plaguing companies for the past few years has been the inability to understand and act on the rapidly growing volumes of data, and infographics are thought to address this issue.
Information graphics or “infographics” are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. These graphics are used where complex information needs to be explained quickly or simply, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. They are also used extensively as tools by computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians to ease the process of developing and communicating conceptual information. They can present a rich amount of information without using a lot of text.
Importance of SEO services and link building
SEO is a dynamic process and could be time-consuming. It is not a one-time task, but more of an ongoing effort. The same goes for link building. It’s not simple to secure high-quality links and entails loads of effort. With hard-earned money at stake, business owners can’t afford to toss away on things that don’t work. For the past few years, SEO has gone through several changes because of constant updates in search algorithms, especially from Google. This has made it more complicated to understand which SEO method is working. It used to be a simple matter of creating lots of keyword-rich content and then building bulk links. But today, these methods are not effective anymore and might affect your site in a negative way. For link building, there are lots of SEOs having trouble securing high-quality links these days, as some of the old tactics were devalued or ignored by Google’s new algorithm updates. And there are some who are giving up on link building because they are not sure which methods are good for their site. With the difficulty of getting high-quality links, we don’t want to waste them with undesired infographics.
Benefits of Infographics for SEO Services
A well-structured and researched infographic always attracts viewers who are genuinely interested in the topic; hence, they are more likely to become quality inbound links to your website, given that the infographic has certain embed features. This hits two birds with one stone as SEO services put a heavy emphasis on employing natural and quality link-building strategies to increase website rankings in the SERPs and getting organic traffic. As infographics trend upwards as a versatile and shareable tool, more people are using it to influence their search and content optimization strategies. This has a steep learning curve, and the ever-evolving infographic generation is a niche market of its own, which requires the correct image to SEO schema or else it would defeat the purpose. The demand creates more room for hiring infographic designers and SEO specialists who have knowledge in infographics, and with the constant research on search algorithms, it opens up potential tie-ups between industry professionals.
What makes infographics a unique tool in online marketing is its ability to make it easier for potential clients to consume the information with just a glance. People are data hunters and infographics serve as the best solution in giving out information compared to traditional pieces of text content as it provides a mix of succinctness, functionality, and design. The probability of the message reaching out to the viewer is much higher, and this increases the chances of them visiting your website. High-quality and attractive infographics are magnets for viewers, and this has a ripple effect of enhancing the website’s visibility in the sense that viewers tend to share and comment about it on their various social media platforms and blogs. This also affects brand awareness as it strengthens the association of the brand with the industry within the consumers.
Enhancing website visibility
It is no secret that organic search is an important aspect for a website’s performance. A quality infographic with a well-written researched text will increase your chances of showing up in search engines around the web. Attracting the right audience and potentially attracting more than one audience to your text. Infographics can act as a content bait as people will often times post the infographic on their site with a link back to the original or use the infographic to create their own post. A business could utilize an infographic in various ways. For example, let’s say you sell a service, you could use the infographic to convey the information to make it easier for your sales team to understand and also keep referring back to. You could email it to customers as an easy way of explaining things and customers could print it off and pin it to their notice board. This means that you can attract print those on print-driven audience too. This might look similar to a point made earlier, but it is well worthy of a separate point. Many web publishers and bloggers who find your content and link to it will often times use your main page as a source to gather information to post or write an article. They may skim through the text to find a vital piece of information and sometimes they could misinterpret the meaning. With a visual content, you are providing a nice and clear piece of information that can be easily located and since most infographics have main points or facts, they can be less likely to misinterpret the information. This can also be used as a pre-emptive tactic to persuade people who are on the edge of using your services. They’ll see the professionalism put into the content and be confident that you have provided knowledge on the subject.
Increasing organic traffic
There are two ways in which infographics can help in increasing organic traffic to a website. Firstly, most people who run websites with little or no knowledge of SEO or are just starting out might not be aware of the potential organic traffic they might gain from their site by building up their knowledge of SEO strategies including infographic marketing. This will mean that they will be more likely to add your infographic to their website, especially if you can show them an example of in which it has increased traffic to your site in some tangible way. And secondly, submitting the infographics to infographic directories can help increase organic traffic to your website. While the initial traffic from the directory itself might not be staggering, it can still have a long-term effect. This is due to the fact that an individual might come across your infographic at a later date when looking for information that can be included in an article or another infographic. This can then attribute it to reaching an even wider audience than it would have by only producing a single infographic.
Improving user engagement
One of the most important aspects of creating infographics is that they help in improving user engagement. Infographics that are clear, to the point and able to provide useful information go a long way to hold the attention of the readers. It is an established fact that content accompanied by visual aid is better able to capture the imagination of the person, compared to a page full of text. Brands and small businesses get only a small amount of time to make an impression on the minds of the consumers and for that they need to create quality content that is easy to consume. If the information provided is interesting and the presentation is compelling, there is a higher probability of the visitors sharing it on social networks. This increases the brand visibility and strengthens the SEO. When an infographic goes viral and gets shared around various platforms, it results in more backlinks to the site. Many people who link back do not provide a text link and this could mean a loss in the link juice. An appealing image with information is more linkable and backlinks with optimized anchor text can also improve the keyword rankings of the site. As the infographics generate more inbound links, it is bound to affect the SEO of the site in a positive manner and improve the site visibility in the search engine result pages.
How to Create Effective Infographics for SEO Services
Researching relevant data and statistics
If the answer to these is yes, then the data is ripe for visualization. For a graphic to be effective, the data must be interpreted as an overarching idea or message. Without this, a graphic is merely the collection of related illustrations and stats. This message should be kept clear at all times to avoid the common pitfall of contradiction between what the graphic is trying to say and what the data is actually showing. Finally, and with care, the data should be translated into another form. This can involve many methods, from simply finding a more effective way to represent data already in a graphical form, to abstracting complex ideas into universally understandable illustrations. This is the core of what an infographic should be and the most critical factor in its success.
In order to be a resounding success, all infographics must be based around a compelling, attention-grabbing, and most importantly, a unique statement or statistic. Whether these be a new or interesting finding, or just a new take on an old static. The importance of this is clear, everything in a graphic must support the conclusion. If the information doesn’t do this, or is simply padding around the idea, it weakens the overall impact and makes for a less memorable graphic. When trying to visualize data or an idea, some methods are simply proven to be more effective than others. Consider the data on a global scale, can it be simplified to a more basic idea? Can analogies or comparisons be used to help explain the point, with a view to a decisive conclusion?
Designing visually appealing infographics
In order to be effective, the infographics must not only have interesting information but also represent it in a visually appealing manner. It is important to remember that the visual representation of the data is equally as important as the data itself. In a study done by the New York Times, it was found that the less economic the data, the more creative the visual representation should be. The structure of the graphic itself also plays a large role in how well the data is received. You want to make the information easy to understand, and the best way to do this is to create a story with the data.
Optimizing infographics for search engines
There are several ways to optimize an infographic for a search engine, which will enable your optimized page to rank higher in the search engine results pages. Your best bet is to host the infographic on your domain in a unique page that is well linked from within the site. Additionally, you should create a detailed textual description near the infographic which should help with the indexation of the graphic. Be sure to include your targeted keywords in the filename, image title, and alt attributes of the infographic. Finally, you should submit the infographic to infographic directories. This will provide decent quality, authoritative, and contextually relevant text links back to the hosting page. This, in turn, will help that page earn increased visibility in image search as well provide ranking power for the hosting page.
Promoting infographics on social media
The fifth point of promoting infographics on social media is giving a brief description of the infographic and providing an embedded code. Sometimes people like to write articles on any interesting topics, but due to a lack of media, they cannot express themselves well. If your infographic can solve their problem, then they will surely publish it, and also your given embedded code will work as a backlink for you. Always suggest putting anchor text with the main targeted keyword.
The best and guaranteed way of promoting infographics is sharing them on Facebook and Twitter. These are the top social networking websites, and they can also give you huge referral traffic to your website. If you can manage to get 50-100 likes and 10-20 shares on your Facebook infographics, then you can estimate how much traffic you can get. Always ask your friends to share on their wall if your infographics are related to technology, SEO, internet, etc. tips. Then it will surely get a good response.
Leaving apart email marketing, share your own or any other infographics images on social bookmarking websites. It’s a very sneaky way of getting backlinks and promoting infographics. There are many high PR and top social bookmarking websites available like Reddit, Stumbleupon, Digg, and Delicious. These websites have huge traffic and a very catchy user interface. You can easily promote infographics and grab the attention of visitors. If your infographics are really impressive, then you will get a good response, and this will increase your online brand reputation.
Overview of Sotavento Medios, a digital marketing agency in Singapore
Sotavento Medios is a digital marketing agency in Singapore that provide SEO service which has evolved to what it is today. An agency with a strong focus on online creative marketing; specializing in design conceptualization, web development, and SEO. Their experience in both development and design, however, has given them a strong understanding and capability in the development and implementation of online campaigns. This is what sets them apart from other search marketing agencies. The ability to visualize and create ideas and material; and implementing them via SEO and tracking its effectiveness. Sotavento Medios has always been looking for ways to help their clients get more from their internet marketing campaigns. Whether it is through design, development, and/or search marketing process.
