Using Infographics for SEO - More Pictures!

Google product ads are a great way to add some visual spice to your PPC. So, let’s talk about how your organic strategy can benefit from a little bit of pictorial pizzazz as well. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the infographic!

Since Google announced the introduction of new penalties for too much SEO, providing good content will be the key to a successful organic strategy.

Good infographics mix in-depth research, quality content, catchy copy, and compelling design. They are more engaging than regular text, and let you connect with customers and potential customers on emotional and intellectual levels that typical advertisements just can’t deliver.

Here are some things to think about when creating and using an infographic for SEO:

• Who is your audience?  What would be useful or entertaining to them? Proper targeting will help your infographics reach the right people, which will also give them the potential to go viral. Keep in mind that students LOVE infographics. Nothing says A+ presentation like an infographic!

• Like a news story, you need a hook. Facts and stats are good, but don’t be afraid to use humor either. Be as creative and original as you can.

• Be sure to take ownership of the buzz that your infographic creates. Include your logo or a short description about your company to make sure people know you made it.
• Pair your infographic with a more in-depth article or blog post for extra links and extra sharing.

• Help your target audience find it. You can blog about it, tweet it, put it on Digg, send previous customers an email, contact industry-related bloggers, post on targeted forums, etc. Use anything that you think might help spread the word.

• Once people can find it, make sure it’s easy for them to share. Use Facebook’s ‘Like’ buttons or Pinterest’s ‘Pin it.’

Infographic creation process

Say I’m a pet store owner selling pet supplies. Who is my target audience? How about male and female pet owners ages 25-40?  Since it’s a presidential election year, I could create an infographic about presidential pets.

I’d do my research, and be sure to include some interesting facts and heart-warming photos of notable names like Bo, the Obama’s Portugese Water Dog, Bill Clinton’s cat Sox, and the Kennedy’s pet pony Macaroni. Pet owners will be interested to see if any former 1^st families owned the same breed of dog as they do, and political junkies will be psyched to be able to impress their friends with presidential fun facts.

After blogging, tweeting, pinning, e-mailing, and getting in touch with political and pet-loving bloggers, my infographic is in prime position to generate some great buzz for my business.

Infographics for SEO

Sometimes the usual link building tactics for SEO can get a little monotonous. Viral content, like an infographic, lets the links build themselves. When a blogger or a website owner sees an infographic that relates to their content in an e-mail, social media site, or wherever, they can then find the code and post it on their site. If your infographic or the accompanying content links back to your site, Google gives you credit for it, and in the SEO game, quality links lead to higher search rankings.

See some cool infographics from around the web.