Why Infographic Are So Important to a PR/ SEO Link Building Campaign.

If you are reading this page, the odds are that you work in PR/SEO or have a keen interest in them regarding promoting your brand online, and driving organic traffic. In this article, I want to explain how important and central interactive assets (infographics) are to your content marketing efforts, and why we use them in pretty much all of our PR campaigns. 

Different Types of Infographics: Static and Interactive:

Both static and interactive assets are useful, but as an agency, we often go down the interactive route. They are simply more engaging, keep readers on the page for longer, and ultimately (which is what Google really likes) provide unique and interesting content. Having said that, particularly if we have a lot of data to show, static infographics can be preferable to interactive ones. Here is an example one we created for fitness-site Barbend. We called the campaign ‘America’s Biggest Loser’ – the wording was a play on NBC’s biggest loser, whereby we analyzed each county’s rate of obesity in 2012 to newly released figures in 2022, to find out which counties had lost the most weight (i.e. the biggest losers!).

Created by BarBend • Viewlarger version

For Mixbook, the number 1 rated photobook company, we created an interactive map, whereby readers could hover over each state to see unique data. This particular campaign was based on a survey of 65 year olds and above, to find out at what age they have experienced peak life satisfaction. You can see the map below:

Created by Mixbook • Viewlarger version

For Aqua Expeditions, we ran a campaign testing people’s knowledge on local and international landmarks. For this press campaign, we created an online quiz, whereby readers could test their knowledge, and compare their answers to other users:

Created by Aqua Expeditions  • View larger version

Enhancing Audience Engagement:

First and foremost, here is the science: infographics are compelling due to their visual appeal and ability to convey complex information in an easily digestible format. The human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text, making infographics an ideal medium to grab attention and convey messages succinctly. This heightened engagement is beneficial for SEO as search engines like Google reward content that keeps visitors on a page for more extended periods. The longer a user stays on a webpage, the higher the chances of the content being considered valuable and relevant, leading to improved search rankings.

On a more human note, journalists love infographics! We live in a media age whereby journalists are judged on the number of clicks they get in their articles, rather than how well written they are (although in most cases, there is a high correlation between the two). Journalists also like infographics because they are highly shareable. So when we create infographics, we create a share feature, making it easy for readers to post through their social media channels.

On a technical note, we also insert code into our interactive assets (usually Google analytics) which allows our clients to track infographic usage among readers, and also provides them the option of running re-marketing campaigns on top of our PR efforts.

Driving Backlink Generation:

As mentioned above, infographics are highly shareable, making them potent tools for generating backlinks. When an infographic is created and shared on a news publication, it becomes a source that others may refer to. When other websites, blogs, or social media users pick up on the news article, they can share the infographic, and often link back to the original source, generating valuable backlinks. These backlinks serve as endorsements and contribute to improving the domain authority and search rankings of the website. Please note, rarely do we carry out campaigns whereby the infographic is the primary driver of the campaign – they are great, but usually to serve as additional tool to get valuable press coverage, or backlinks.

Content Diversification and Rich Snippets:

Diversifying content is crucial in any content marketing strategy. Infographics allow us as a PR agency to present data and information in a different format compared to traditional text-based content. Moreover, Google’s Bard and ChatGPT are now more sophisticated in recognizing and indexing images and other multimedia content. An optimized infographic with well-thought-out file names, alt text, and surrounding context can be picked up by search engines as a rich snippet, thereby enhancing the visibility of the content in search results.

Branding and Authority Building:

An often-overlooked aspect of infographics is the opportunity they present for branding and building authority. Custom-made infographics that align with a company’s branding elements such as color schemes, logos, and typography, create brand consistency. Moreover, well-researched and informative infographics can position a company as an authority in its niche. Search engines are progressively prioritizing E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) as a ranking factor. Infographics that demonstrate expertise and provide value can contribute positively to a website’s E-A-T profile.

Optimizing for Social Media:

Infographics are perfectly suited for sharing on these channels. When a publication features our infographic, they often then share on their organization’s social media channels. A well-designed infographic can garner likes, shares, and comments, increasing social signals related to the content. While the direct impact of social signals on SEO is debatable, there is a correlation between content that performs well on social media and higher search rankings. Sharing infographics on social media can also lead to increased traffic to the website, which is a positive signal for search engines.

Conclusion:

Infographics/online assets are a great addition to any public relations or backlink building you run. They are universally loved by clients, journalists, readers and search engines! It takes a bit more effort to run a campaign with them, than without, but the benefits will have a compound effect as media are more likely to feature them, readers are more likely to share on social media, and you will dominate the SERPs!

Hope the above has been useful and best of luck with your brand building 🙂

Kate