Image credit: PhotoDune
Information overload is alive and well and isn't going away anytime soon. With the increased use of emails, social media, and web browsing, Americans are bombarded with five times more information than we were just fifteen years ago. With data, images, and information flying at us from every direction, how do you get your products or services noticed by your target audience? One great tool is infographics.
Quality Infographics
- Presents information people want. It should entertain and inform, hopefully on a topic related to your products or services.
- Includes significant data or information. I add the second because Oli Gardner of unbounce believes that you don't need actual data to craft great infographics.
- Has eye-catching visuals. Pick a color pallet (just one please) and use charts, graphs, images, cartoons, and icons to represent your information in an easy-to-understand flow.
- Presents a well-designed flow. A good story has a beginning, middle and end, and so should your infographic, with one idea relating to the next, so it is fun and easy to follow.
- Includes your logo, website, social media accounts. Make it simple for someone to find your site and buy your products.
- Is easy to share. Help your awesome infographic go viral by including share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms.
Infographics and Content Marketing
Infographics are not a magic fix for low SEO rankings or sluggish site views, but they can be an effective component of a content marketing campaign. Using quality infographics, you can increase brand awareness which increases your search results. It also presents you as an expert in whatever field you are in and can help make a complicated idea easy to understand or product placement fun. Either way, they engage the reader and encourage them to visit your site, which is the first step in a sales conversion.
- Grab Attention. They are fun and easy to digest, which increases the likelihood they will be noticed and read.
- Drive Traffic. Great infographics get shared over and over, which expands your marketing reach and sends viewers to your site.
- Play Well With Others. Infographics present well on all social media platforms and their visual nature results in more shares than other types of content.
- Make Things Sticky. A sticky website is one that encourages viewers to hang out awhile, and the longer they stay, the more likely they are to buy. Infographics have a great sticky factor.
- Leave Footprints. Infographics are easy to track through analytics which helps you know what is and isn't effective.
Infographics and SEO
- A long, shareable life due to its evergreen content.
- Higher website authority due to your "expertise" and quality content.
- Exportable to other formats including brochures, fliers, and posters, each with your website prominently displayed which draws viewers to your site.
- Effective link building by sharing them (with embedded codes) with bloggers and influencers.
- Expand subscriber base which impacts your ranking.
- Infographic's URL
- Meta Descriptions
- H1 Headings
- Image Alt Text
Bottom Line:
Well designed and presented infographics are a great content marketing tool that can also support your SEO Rankings and Ratings. To be effective, you must provide quality, evergreen content that people want to read and share as well as employ optimal keyword usage and other SEO factors to receive maximum benefit.