SEO
8 Engaging Infographic Types & How To Create Them (+ 5 Free Tools)
If done correctly, infographics are a great visual to grab the readers’ attention while effectively communicating key points you want them to focus on within your content.
There are numerous benefits to incorporating infographics that can help your marketing strategy and build brand authority.
First, it incentivizes readers to stop and focus on the information through its well-planned design highlighting key data.
It can also play a storytelling role and guide readers through a new process or viewpoint leading to your call to action.
A recent study shows that 57% of B2B marketers are incorporating infographics and charts into their marketing content.
Not only are infographics great ways to inform readers or persuade them, but they are easier to share across social media to help reach your target audience.
Generally, people like to take in bite-sized information, and this is a creative way to accomplish that.
Infographics are useful throughout many forms of marketing content, such as blog posts, webpages, landing pages, emails, and lead generators.
Anatomy Of An Infographic
Now that you know why they are so important for marketing, we’ll break down the different components of infographics, the valuable and effective types of infographics out there, and some free tools you can use to create them.
Eye-Catching Title And Subheadings
So, for the main parts of a compelling infographic, first, you have to select the topic you want to discuss.
Then, you can lay out the main topic and subtopics with their corresponding title and subheadings.
It’s crucial they are well thought out and descriptive, so you can quickly get across to your reader what you’re trying to present to them.
Background And Research
Next, you’ll need to brainstorm and gather background information or conduct research for your topic. This is a crucial part of the process since it’s the foundation of your infographic.
Make sure you’re pulling the right information to highlight for your infographic. This could include statistics, data, or important facts for the intention and retention of information for your post.
This data can come from internal information such as customer data or research you’ve already conducted, as well as quotes from thought leaders, industry experts, or any credible sources you find along your research journey. Just make sure to verify your sources.
Layout And Design
After you have all the information you need, you can select what you’d like to use and begin the layout and design. Make sure to include attention-grabbing graphics, images, or icons.
Graphics are helpful and aesthetically pleasing elements to enhance your infographics.
It’s vital to ensure that the theme is consistent, not just throughout the infographic’s layout but also within your chosen information.
Also, make sure you keep your brand elements in mind when designing your infographic.
Now, we’ll dive into some best practices for designing an infographic and then run through the different types of infographics that can help make your data shine.
Best Practices For Designing Infographics
Below are some valuable aspects to keep in mind when designing an infographic:
- Pick your target audience and tailor your infographic to that audience.
- Determine an infographic type that best suits the information.
- Choose a designer or create a wireframe.
- Select your key performance indicators.
- Marketing your infographic with appealing headlines.
- Create a good meta description or initial copy to draw people in.
- Make sure you can easily share and locate your infographic.
- Review your infographic and get feedback from team members.
Infographic Types And When to Use Them
Understanding how and when to use the following infographics can help you better engage with your readers and make sure they are focusing on the information you want them to remember.
Here are the different types of infographics you should consider:
1. Timeline
Timeline infographics are perfect for showing the different steps to planning an event, creating a storyline for a topic, or presenting a timeline of important milestones your company has hit recently.
In addition, they are great for showing critical points in work history or when you want to further discuss projections of an event.
If you’re trying to show how long a project will take, you can show when each goal or aspect of a project will be completed in a timeline infographic.
For example, you might want to use this type if you have an upcoming project and want to detail the dates for milestones along the way to represent how that project will come to fruition visually.
If you choose to create a timeline infographic, you might want to make the dates or points stand out by using different font sizes and connecting each date with a line.
In addition, you can use different colors to differentiate between the date and subtext.
2. Statistical
Statistical infographics help your readers better understand and retain specific data points or statistics that are key to the information you’re providing.
This can be helpful to highlight information to prove a point and convince your reader with quality resources.
Again, this puts the communication effort on the numbers, making them work in your favor.
If your company recently completed a study and wants to showcase the outcome or attach an infographic to a case study to quickly highlight the data, a statistical infographic could be a great way to do so.
3. Flowchart
Like the timeline infographic, a flowchart breaks down the main components of an event or project but focuses more on the actual steps or significant points along the path to completing a task.
It’s a visualized and summarized representation of key ideas. This can be useful if you are trying to simplify explaining a process and help your readers better understand each step.
If you choose a flowchart infographic, ensure that each step has cues to the next step.
For example, you can separate subtitles and content with different colors and sized fonts. This can also be helpful if you’re trying to communicate a new process within your company, need to create a how-to guide, or show a hierarchy.
4. Informational
An informational infographic could be perfect if you want to make a couple of key points pop.
It would also be helpful if you’re going to communicate an overview of an event or new idea. It’s a great way to summarize or give the main points to a more in-depth topic.
It can be helpful to include these types of infographics in a blog post to help quickly and effectively relay information to your readers where you plan on providing future content about a particular concept.
The title and subheadings are key here; they need to be descriptive and engaging if you’re explaining a complex topic.
You can help differentiate the points by putting them in blocked sections with different colors. Although, don’t go overboard, just select a couple of colors for the infographic’s theme.
5. Comparison
Comparison infographics are perfect for comparing two different products or services.
For example, you can compare your company’s product to another or describe the pros and cons of why a product would work better in one situation over another.
Comparison infographics are also great for producing a list of some of the positives and negatives of a viewpoint or if you want to compare different stances on a topic.
But, it’s important to keep the information concise so as not to overwhelm the reader with too much data.
6. List
People often create to-do or checklists in their daily life to keep track of what they want to accomplish, and this can transfer over to helpful infographics.
For example, if you want to create a summary or list of tips or main points on a topic, a list infographic can be handy.
For a list infographic, keep the information succinct and straightforward; remember this is short-form content.
Also, group related information together in the layout to avoid confusing the points.
7. Maps
Map infographics are perfect for presenting information on an accumulation of locations of a business in different geographic areas or providing a quick rundown of demographics.
You can use this infographic as a visual view of the world or a specific country or city to display important information about a region.
Suppose your company has completed a survey or study on a particular region and has valuable information and statistics they want to showcase, then this infographic could be helpful.
A company can also use this infographic to show areas they service or locations for an upcoming event.
8. Interactive
If you want to slowly bring readers through a more complex idea or process, then an interactive infographic can help you complete this task.
This infographic is excellent for guiding readers on a journey while providing smaller chunks of data at a time that they can go back and forth between on their own time.
If there are key points in the infographic that readers want to learn about first, they can select those before exploring further.
It is essential to think about the user experience here to ensure they are guided to the call to action on your infographic.
5 Free Infographic Tools
The following are some fantastic tools to make effective infographics with numerous features and customizable templates.
It’s important to find a user-friendly platform that can help you easily create influential infographics, so if you’re interested in using an infographic tool, consider these:
Takeaway
Infographics are a great creative tool for content creation and marketing.
They are a compelling way to tell a story and help your readers retain the key information you want them to for a content piece.
It’s important to take the time to choose the right infographic and focus on each phase of the design process to make sure they’re effective.
Remember to start with the goal of your infographic, and then it’ll be easier to figure out which one is best for the content and the types of graphics and design elements that would be most helpful.
This visual storytelling is one of the best ways to efficiently communicate with your readers.
More Resources:
Featured Image: alexdndz/Shutterstock
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
if( typeof sopp !== “undefined” && sopp === ‘yes’ ){
fbq(‘dataProcessingOptions’, [‘LDU’], 1, 1000);
}else{
fbq(‘dataProcessingOptions’, []);
}
fbq(‘init’, ‘1321385257908563’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
fbq(‘trackSingle’, ‘1321385257908563’, ‘ViewContent’, {
content_name: ‘infographic-types-tools’,
content_category: ‘creation digital-marketing-tools ‘
});
SEO
Google Clarifies Vacation Rental Structured Data
Google’s structured data documentation for vacation rentals was recently updated to require more specific data in a change that is more of a clarification than it is a change in requirements. This change was made without any formal announcement or notation in the developer pages changelog.
Vacation Rentals Structured Data
These specific structured data types makes vacation rental information eligible for rich results that are specific to these kinds of rentals. However it’s not available to all websites. Vacation rental owners are required to be connected to a Google Technical Account Manager and have access to the Google Hotel Center platform.
VacationRental Structured Data Type Definitions
The primary changes were made to the structured data property type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.
The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.
The primary changes were made to the structured data type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.
The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.
Address Schema.org property
This is a subtle change but it’s important because it now represents a recommendation that requires more precise data.
This is what was recommended before:
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.”
This is what it now recommends:
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Unit 6E”
Address Property Change Description
The most substantial change is to the description of what the “address” property is, becoming more descriptive and precise about what is recommended.
The description before the change:
PostalAddress
Information about the street address of the listing. Include all properties that apply to your country.
The description after the change:
PostalAddress
The full, physical location of the vacation rental.
Provide the street address, city, state or region, and postal code for the vacation rental. If applicable, provide the unit or apartment number.
Note that P.O. boxes or other mailing-only addresses are not considered full, physical addresses.
This is repeated in the section for address.streetAddress property
This is what it recommended before:
address.streetAddress Text
The full street address of your vacation listing.
And this is what it recommends now:
address.streetAddress Text
The full street address of your vacation listing, including the unit or apartment number if applicable.
Clarification And Not A Change
Although these updates don’t represent a change in Google’s guidance they are nonetheless important because they offer clearer guidance with less ambiguity as to what is recommended.
Read the updated structured data guidance:
Vacation rental (VacationRental) structured data
Featured Image by Shutterstock/New Africa
SEO
Google On Hyphens In Domain Names
Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about why people don’t use hyphens with domains and if there was something to be concerned about that they were missing.
Domain Names With Hyphens For SEO
I’ve been working online for 25 years and I remember when using hyphens in domains was something that affiliates did for SEO when Google was still influenced by keywords in the domain, URL, and basically keywords anywhere on the webpage. It wasn’t something that everyone did, it was mainly something that was popular with some affiliate marketers.
Another reason for choosing domain names with keywords in them was that site visitors tended to convert at a higher rate because the keywords essentially prequalified the site visitor. I know from experience how useful two-keyword domains (and one word domain names) are for conversions, as long as they didn’t have hyphens in them.
A consideration that caused hyphenated domain names to fall out of favor is that they have an untrustworthy appearance and that can work against conversion rates because trustworthiness is an important factor for conversions.
Lastly, hyphenated domain names look tacky. Why go with tacky when a brandable domain is easier for building trust and conversions?
Domain Name Question Asked On Reddit
This is the question asked on Reddit:
“Why don’t people use a lot of domains with hyphens? Is there something concerning about it? I understand when you tell it out loud people make miss hyphen in search.”
And this is Mueller’s response:
“It used to be that domain names with a lot of hyphens were considered (by users? or by SEOs assuming users would? it’s been a while) to be less serious – since they could imply that you weren’t able to get the domain name with fewer hyphens. Nowadays there are a lot of top-level-domains so it’s less of a thing.
My main recommendation is to pick something for the long run (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for), and not to be overly keyword focused (because life is too short to box yourself into a corner – make good things, course-correct over time, don’t let a domain-name limit what you do online). The web is full of awkward, keyword-focused short-lived low-effort takes made for SEO — make something truly awesome that people will ask for by name. If that takes a hyphen in the name – go for it.”
Pick A Domain Name That Can Grow
Mueller is right about picking a domain name that won’t lock your site into one topic. When a site grows in popularity the natural growth path is to expand the range of topics the site coves. But that’s hard to do when the domain is locked into one rigid keyword phrase. That’s one of the downsides of picking a “Best + keyword + reviews” domain, too. Those domains can’t grow bigger and look tacky, too.
That’s why I’ve always recommended brandable domains that are memorable and encourage trust in some way.
Read the post on Reddit:
Read Mueller’s response here.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Benny Marty
SEO
Reddit Post Ranks On Google In 5 Minutes
Google’s Danny Sullivan disputed the assertions made in a Reddit discussion that Google is showing a preference for Reddit in the search results. But a Redditor’s example proves that it’s possible for a Reddit post to rank in the top ten of the search results within minutes and to actually improve rankings to position #2 a week later.
Discussion About Google Showing Preference To Reddit
A Redditor (gronetwork) complained that Google is sending so many visitors to Reddit that the server is struggling with the load and shared an example that proved that it can only take minutes for a Reddit post to rank in the top ten.
That post was part of a 79 post Reddit thread where many in the r/SEO subreddit were complaining about Google allegedly giving too much preference to Reddit over legit sites.
The person who did the test (gronetwork) wrote:
“…The website is already cracking (server down, double posts, comments not showing) because there are too many visitors.
…It only takes few minutes (you can test it) for a post on Reddit to appear in the top ten results of Google with keywords related to the post’s title… (while I have to wait months for an article on my site to be referenced). Do the math, the whole world is going to spam here. The loop is completed.”
Reddit Post Ranked Within Minutes
Another Redditor asked if they had tested if it takes “a few minutes” to rank in the top ten and gronetwork answered that they had tested it with a post titled, Google SGE Review.
gronetwork posted:
“Yes, I have created for example a post named “Google SGE Review” previously. After less than 5 minutes it was ranked 8th for Google SGE Review (no quotes). Just after Washingtonpost.com, 6 authoritative SEO websites and Google.com’s overview page for SGE (Search Generative Experience). It is ranked third for SGE Review.”
It’s true, not only does that specific post (Google SGE Review) rank in the top 10, the post started out in position 8 and it actually improved ranking, currently listed beneath the number one result for the search query “SGE Review”.
Screenshot Of Reddit Post That Ranked Within Minutes
Anecdotes Versus Anecdotes
Okay, the above is just one anecdote. But it’s a heck of an anecdote because it proves that it’s possible for a Reddit post to rank within minutes and get stuck in the top of the search results over other possibly more authoritative websites.
hankschrader79 shared that Reddit posts outrank Toyota Tacoma forums for a phrase related to mods for that truck.
Google’s Danny Sullivan responded to that post and the entire discussion to dispute that Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums.
Danny wrote:
“Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums. [super vhs to mac adapter] I did this week, it goes Apple Support Community, MacRumors Forum and further down, there’s Reddit. I also did [kumo cloud not working setup 5ghz] recently (it’s a nightmare) and it was the Netgear community, the SmartThings Community, GreenBuildingAdvisor before Reddit. Related to that was [disable 5g airport] which has Apple Support Community above Reddit. [how to open an 8 track tape] — really, it was the YouTube videos that helped me most, but it’s the Tapeheads community that comes before Reddit.
In your example for [toyota tacoma], I don’t even get Reddit in the top results. I get Toyota, Car & Driver, Wikipedia, Toyota again, three YouTube videos from different creators (not Toyota), Edmunds, a Top Stories unit. No Reddit, which doesn’t really support the notion of always wanting to drive traffic just to Reddit.
If I guess at the more specific query you might have done, maybe [overland mods for toyota tacoma], I get a YouTube video first, then Reddit, then Tacoma World at third — not near the bottom. So yes, Reddit is higher for that query — but it’s not first. It’s also not always first. And sometimes, it’s not even showing at all.”
hankschrader79 conceded that they were generalizing when they wrote that Google always prioritized Reddit. But they also insisted that that didn’t diminish what they said is a fact that Google’s “prioritization” forum content has benefitted Reddit more than actual forums.
Why Is The Reddit Post Ranked So High?
It’s possible that Google “tested” that Reddit post in position 8 within minutes and that user interaction signals indicated to Google’s algorithms that users prefer to see that Reddit post. If that’s the case then it’s not a matter of Google showing preference to Reddit post but rather it’s users that are showing the preference and the algorithm is responding to those preferences.
Nevertheless, an argument can be made that user preferences for Reddit can be a manifestation of Familiarity Bias. Familiarity Bias is when people show a preference for things that are familiar to them. If a person is familiar with a brand because of all the advertising they were exposed to then they may show a bias for the brand products over unfamiliar brands.
Users who are familiar with Reddit may choose Reddit because they don’t know the other sites in the search results or because they have a bias that Google ranks spammy and optimized websites and feel safer reading Reddit.
Google may be picking up on those user interaction signals that indicate a preference and satisfaction with the Reddit results but those results may simply be biases and not an indication that Reddit is trustworthy and authoritative.
Is Reddit Benefiting From A Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop?
It may very well be that Google’s decision to prioritize user generated content may have started a self-reinforcing pattern that draws users in to Reddit through the search results and because the answers seem plausible those users start to prefer Reddit results. When they’re exposed to more Reddit posts their familiarity bias kicks in and they start to show a preference for Reddit. So what could be happening is that the users and Google’s algorithm are creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
Is it possible that Google’s decision to show more user generated content has kicked off a cycle where more users are exposed to Reddit which then feeds back into Google’s algorithm which in turn increases Reddit visibility, regardless of lack of expertise and authoritativeness?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Kues
-
WORDPRESS6 days ago
Turkish startup ikas attracts $20M for its e-commerce platform designed for small businesses
-
PPC7 days ago
31 Ready-to-Go Mother’s Day Messages for Social Media, Email, & More
-
PPC6 days ago
A History of Google AdWords and Google Ads: Revolutionizing Digital Advertising & Marketing Since 2000
-
MARKETING5 days ago
Roundel Media Studio: What to Expect From Target’s New Self-Service Platform
-
SEO5 days ago
Google Limits News Links In California Over Proposed ‘Link Tax’ Law
-
MARKETING6 days ago
Unlocking the Power of AI Transcription for Enhanced Content Marketing Strategies
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google Search Results Can Be Harmful & Dangerous In Some Cases
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 12, 2024
You must be logged in to post a comment Login