1. How infographics improve your SEO 2. SEO Best Practices 3. On-Site Optimization 4. Off-Site Optimization
Introduction: Written content is useful for on-site Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but sometimes a secondary delivery format of the same or similar content can help achieve off-site SEO success in the form of link popularity and social media sharing. Consider creating a visual interpretation of data in the format of an infographic and promote it to people who are writing about the same topic and they may link to your infographic to supplement their own content. The potential for external links and social media likes/shares represents the SEO value of infographics. Infographics and SEO: Infographics are a maturing marketing technique. As with any online marketing tactic infographics at first were unique and dynamic. Due to that nature they easily attracted buzz in the form of external links and social media sharing which is a major component of improving organic search rankings. To a certain degree SEOs jumped on the infographic bandwagon. That s not to say they aren t still effective, they are, it is just important to ensure the use of infographics is targeted, warranted, tells a story, and is well designed. Infographics are particularly valuable in supporting text content on your web site. For example, if you are writing about Water Sports, support that content with an infographic on the evolution of the surf board or a timeline of when certain water sports were invented. Brainstorming the topic and how you ll tell the story through an infographic is going to require the most creativity in this whole infographic process. The combination of your infographic and supporting text can lead to both on-site and off-site SEO authority in the eyes of search engines. Infographic SEO Best Practices: 1. Topic: SEO is not always the only reason for creating an infographic. With that said SEO research can help you determine which topics and statistical 2
information may contain the most relevance and search volume. This information can help guide the title and angle of your infographic. Ideally your infographic will present a visual answer to questions your customers are asking. 2. Development: The infographic will most likely be an image file, so the creative format should be controlled by the creative team and not the SEO team. Search engines cannot read images, so once the topic is decided upon leave it up to your creative team to best present the information visually without creative restrictions. The real SEO benefit is going to come from others linking to your infographic rather than search engines reading your actual infographic. 3. Placement: All digital departments should be involved in determining where the infographic lives on your site. From an SEO perspective it should not be hidden or floating, but rather linked to from primary and relevant web pages on your site. 4. Promotion: You will commit resources (internal and/or external) to developing infographics; you should do the same in promoting them. As discussed earlier the main SEO potential of infographics is the ability to attract external links. Make sure your Content, Design, SEO, Social Media, and PR teams are all aligned to work together in making your infographics a success. 5. SEO Process: a. Brainstorm topics with your marketing team. Use tools like Ubersuggest and Topsy to find topics that would excite your readers. b. Keyword Research: Identify which keyword phrases, statistics, and questions generated search volume and address these in the infographic. c. Competitive Analysis: Look for competitive examples of infographics that have attracted external links and social shares. Find out who is linking to the infographic for ideas on where to distribute your infographic. 3
d. Link building and Social Media Outreach: Research other web sites, blogs, and social media influencers to contact about promoting the infographic, which will hopefully lead to external links and social media interactions. Infographic On-Site Optimization: Infographics should be promoted on-site with a dedicated page and include the following features: 1. Calls-to-Action: Lead users to additional content and lead generation activities. Getting them to your site is great, but encourage them to convert. 2. Social sharing buttons: People are more apt to share images, infographics, videos, and tools than standard text. Ensure social sharing buttons are in place 3. Embed code: Allow others to easily embed the infographic on their own websites, ensure a link to your site is included within the embed code. Here s a tool to create them for you: http://bit.ly/xf9wzk 4. Internal Linking: Link to and from the infographic/page from other pages on your site, ideally using keyword rich anchor text links. Text supporting the infographic. This text can live above and/or below infographic. Include a paragraph of text that talks about the infographic and what the reader will learn from this. It can also contain internal text links to other related content. Infographic 4 Calls to Action Embed Code 1 3 2 4
Infographic Off-Site Optimization: As mentioned previously, infographics can attract external links and social media interactions. Once created, the infographic should be promoted through the following efforts: A. Social Media Promotion: Promote infographic on all of your social media profiles. B. Facebook: Post infographic as an image on Facebook. This allows users to see the full infographic in their timeline. Then within the image description on the Facebook post, write an announcement of the promotion and a call-to-action with a link back to page on your site that contains the infographic, additional editorial content and calls to action for further engagement. C. Directories: Submit infographic to sites that promote all types of infographics (List of these type of submission sites: http://bit.ly/vcwq5a) D. Related organizations: Share infographic with sites that talk about that topic (for example a fire prevention infographic could be promoted to: NFPA.org, Fire department organizations, FEMA, etc). E. Press Release: Create press release about the stats contained in the infographic and your company s efforts involved with that topic (always include links back to the infographic page on your site in the press release). F. Paid Ads: Consider additional marketing channels to promote your infographic efforts such as paid ads on social networks, using as a specific landing page for paid search ads, etc. Conclusion: Infographics are a useful method of presenting complex ideas and data in an easy to digest image format. If you can identify a difficult to comprehend concept and 5
explain it easier through an image you have successfully used an infographic. From an SEO perspective people may be more likely to link to an infographic or other visual element rather than another piece of standard text content. If your infographics are useful for your own site visitors then chances are it will attract external links and therefore improve your search engine rankings. 6