SEO100
SEO method 63 of 100

Infographics for Link Building: Make Them, Place Them, Reclaim Credit

Intermediate Low impact A few hours Images, video and audio

Updated · First published

Short answerAn infographic earns links when it shows original or well-sourced data that other sites want to cite. Publish it with a text version on its own page, pitch it to sites that already cover the topic, ask for a credit link where it is used without one, and keep embed code links natural to stay clear of Google's link spam policy.

An infographic is a picture that turns data or a process into one visual page, built to be shared and cited. In SEO it works as a linkable asset: other sites place it in their articles and link back to the page you published it on. Done well it earns links from sites that cover your topic. Done lazily it earns nothing, because the web already has too many pretty pictures with weak numbers.

It is a three-part loop:

  1. You publish an infographic with a topic and data other writers need.
  2. Writers, bloggers and journalists place it in their content with a credit link.
  3. You find copies that use the image without a link and ask for credit. This second step is the image link building half, and it costs one email per link.

Why does it matter for SEO?

Links from relevant pages still help a page rank, and an image gives people a reason to link: it saves a writer an hour of design work. The link only counts when the page that carries it is a real page, so the infographic needs its own URL with text around the image.

Be realistic about impact. Google’s link spam policy names large-scale link schemes and widely distributed links in widgets and embeds as spam. A well-made infographic with data worth citing earns links. A mass-produced one wastes money. That is why the impact here is Low: it pays off only with the right data and some outreach.

How do you do it, step by step?

  1. Start with data. The best infographics rest on original research: a survey of 200 customers, your own anonymised product numbers, or a clear comparison of public figures from named sources. Opinions and recycled statistics are not worth citing. Write the source under every figure.
  2. Choose one idea. One question answered in one picture: “How long do invoices take to get paid, by country”. Check that someone has searched for the topic (keyword research) and that sites in your niche already write about it.
  3. Design it for reading. One column, large numbers, short labels, readable on a phone. Skip tiny text. Keep the file light (see image file size).
  4. Publish it on its own page. Put the image at a stable URL, plus an HTML version of the content: a 150 word intro, the main figures as text, the methodology and the sources. Search engines read the text, and writers can quote it.
  5. Add alt text and a caption. A one-line summary of the finding in the alt, the full data as text on the page (see alt text).
  6. Offer an embed code, with care. A short snippet that includes the image and a plain credit link to your page helps writers. Use a descriptive, natural anchor such as your brand or the study title, not a keyword phrase. Google’s spam policy calls out keyword-rich links embedded in widgets spread across many sites, and says paid or sponsored links need rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
  7. Pitch it to the right people. Find 20 to 50 pages that already cover the topic and send a short note with the single most interesting finding, one sentence on why their readers care, and the link. This is digital PR on a small scale.
  8. Find uncredited use. Run a reverse image search on your file with Google Lens and TinEye, and watch for new copies every few months. When someone uses the image with no link, write a friendly email: thank them, point to the source page and ask for a credit link. See unlinked mentions and link reclamation for the same method with text.

How do you measure the result?

  • Search Console, Links report: new linking sites to the infographic page over time.
  • Backlink tool alerts: new links with the page as the target (Ahrefs, Semrush).
  • Reverse image search log: a sheet with the page found, whether it credits you, and the email result.
  • Referral traffic in your analytics from the pages that embed it.
  • Cost per link: hours and money spent divided by links earned. If it stays high after three infographics, change the data or the topic.

What mistakes should you avoid?

  • No real data. A design with common statistics gives nobody a reason to cite you.
  • Only an image. Without a text version, the page has nothing for Google to read.
  • Over-optimised embed anchors. Identical keyword anchors on dozens of sites look like a scheme.
  • Paying for placement without rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
  • Unreadable on mobile. A tall image with 8 pt text loses the audience that shares it.
  • Fabricated or old figures. One wrong number and a writer who finds it will not link to you again. Name each source and date.
  • Demanding removal over a missing link. Ask politely for a credit. Most site owners add one.

Where can you learn more?

Google’s spam policies and its guide to qualifying outbound links tell you which links are safe to ask for. The free digital marketing module of the Fe/male Switch startup school covers link building for startups, and the free pie chart generator makes a clean chart for the data section. Next steps: pick one data set you own, publish it as a page with a chart, and send it to 20 relevant sites.

Earlier versions of this directory listed this as: Infographic optimization, Image Link Building.

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Fe/male Switch is a startup school and game where you build a real company step by step. Its free digital marketing module covers SEO, and the free startup tools help with the rest.