When non-specialists hear the word SEO marketing, the usual presumption is that it’s a strategy used for blog and article content. While it’s true that Search Engine Optimization is highly targeted at making text-based content rank the SERPs, it also puts a good hand in ranking graphic-heavy resources such as Infographics.
What Are Infographics?
If pictures are worth a thousand words then I dare say that infographics are worth two-thousand words. Infographics, if split apart into two words, would be “information” and “graphics.” Information would refer to useful data we can gain value from. Graphics are anything that has to do with visuals. Infographics therefore, is a combination of both – data-driven visual content.
Why Is There A Need For Infographic Content?
Sometimes, words aren’t enough. Sometimes, pictures aren’t enough either. But when you get both of them together, things actually start to make sense. Infographics have long been used by various industries. They simply didn’t know what they were at the time thus; they failed to elicit its utmost potential. However, many marketing studies show that infographic material increase user engagement. According to Infogram, resources that contain infographics are 34% more likely to receive user responses in terms of comments and share, increases the average session duration up to a 100%, and also impacts how deep a user gets into your content by 317%.
The numbers don’t lie. But I somehow find it amusing how majority of people have not surpassed the “picture book” phase – me included.
Why Are People So Hooked With Graphic-Heavy Content?
One fact is that majority of people are visual learners – 63% to be exact (according to a 2016 statistic). Another fact is that majority people find materials more fun and engaging when it’s not left for them to imagine.
Let’s face it. We’re not all endowed with a gift for mental visualization. To compensate for it, those who do have the gift assist us by creating the perfect accompaniment for words – graphical images. And that transforms the entire reading experience for us.
From a boring bunch of words it turns into something much more colorful. Plus, it’s easier to digest too!
Content specialists found this positive connection between pictures and text rather helpful in getting people to stay in a website longer. They have also found that information is much easily absorbed when it is aided by visuals.
The very first infographic dates back to Ancient Egypt. Although probably, Cleopatra and her subjects never imagined its influence to come this far. Hieroglyphics are often texts embedded with images. If you’re no philologist, they’re hard to tell apart though. This is because most of the hieroglyphs look more like pictures anyway!
If you want to travel back in time and learn about the ancestral roots of infographics, you can check out this video. I’d run you through it myself but apparently, we’re here to talk about something different today.
What Does SEO Have To Do With Infographics?
Infographics help SEO campaigns big time. They have good impact on user experience. A lot of people browsing your website really appreciate it when you’ve got an infographic summing up all the points you’ve discussed or planning to discuss in the article.
Primarily, infographics help users in the following instances:
Oftentimes, a huge chunk of complex information is hard to simplify using words alone. For example, when explaining HTML coding, I’d teach users how to use the codes as well as when and where to use them. If I’m an IT professional, using technical terms would be inevitable – especially when there are no simplified, equivalent terms available to use. Cases like this, call for infographics.
By adding pictures to the next that describe the step-by-step process, you can relay the information more efficiently. And this doesn’t only benefit the user – it cuts the workload for you too!
When users find your material helpful and informative, there’s a good chance they’ll go back to it when the need arises. Like “Hey, I read an article once that had a relevant statistic we can use.” If you’re content is 15 pages long, it’ll be hard for users to pinpoint which part of the article holds the data they need. When you have an infographic to summarize all important data you’ve discussed in the material, users can just directly scan that part of the article and conveniently find the info they need.
Users like convenience. When they start noticing that this is how you normally format your articles (text + infographic). They’ll surely come by more in the future.
Entertainment is a form of help, sorta – I think. You’re helping them absorb a lot of useful information minus the boredom. It’s rather indirect but still a form of helping if you ask me. For example, students can study better when their reading material has infographics in it. In the same way, employees would feel more inclined to read the company manual when they see infographic versions of instructions and policies.
And let’s not even talk about how infographics help with marketing. Modern marketing are guilty of using infographic material heavily on their strategies – online and offline. SEO agencies like Tayloright and SearchEngineLand, value the importance of digital marketing in their content.
Is There A Way To Apply SEO In Infographics?
There is, although it’s quite limited. Crawlers have not yet reached a point where they can see images. Since an infographic is usually (and can only be) incorporated as an image file in your article, crawlers will be blind to it. Cutting to the chase, what I’m saying is that crawlers can’t be bothered with whatever’s written in your infographic file.
However, what matters is the image tag of the infographic.
This one tag – several, if you have more than one image in your article – may be insignificant in your eyes but they’re a valuable source of data for crawlers. If you don’t pay keen attention to image tags, they usually end up looking this way:
alt=”img12345678”>
The alt tag if you may have noticed look terribly generic. Thus, they have no impact whatsoever on the indexation of your website. If you change what’s written in-between the quote however, you can sway the tide to your favor. Like so:
alt=”infographics-help-seo”>
By simply doing this, you’ve successfully optimized your image tag. This helps Google and other search engines understand your website better which in turn, leads to better indexing.