Mash-Up of the Best Infographics for 2009

Over the past couple of weeks, while I’ve been researching Search related stats and Social Media information; I have come across some ultra-cool Infographics that explain the most complicated scenarios through the use of visual mediums – usually these are images and videos.

Hence, the cliche of “a picture speaks a thousand words” is definitely true in this case, especially in the world of Search and Social Media. So I decided to share some of these cool Infographics with you and to show how powerful they can be for SEO.

This was definitely at the top of my list for the best Infographics. The whole idea of simplifying an incredibly complex situation such as the credit crunch was illustrated incredibly well. Not only did this allow people to understand what really happened with the current credit crisis, but the use of pictures, and a well deployed Vimeo video, helped create a viral marketing spin on the whole thing. From an SEO perspective, the hub website, www.crisisofcredit.com, gained more than 18,500 links within 8 months and the Vimeo video gained 2.1 million views. In addition, iIf you also look at the SERPs for “the crisis of credit”, you’ll see that the 6 out of 10 results are all surrounding this original infographic, which is a great example of dominating the search engine results.

The next on my list of favourite infographics, is the image below.

This image metaphorically illustrates the complex world of social media that creates a busy city of communities, such as Youtube, Google, Digg and so forth. The original image was created by eBoy; but this image has been used by many other bloggers to visualise the essence of Social Media.

The third infographic which stood out of the crowd was the “If You Printed The Internet” image, as seen below. This is a simple, yet logical way to demonstrate the immense growth of the Internet. Looking at the blog post through the eyes of SEO, this innovative image is a creative way to gain links naturally. To prove its effectiveness, the image has over 175,000 links since the post was created.

Let’s move on to some more complex diagrams that have been successful from a linking building perspective. The next image on the list of cool infographics is Left vs Right World. It looks quite detailed and discusses the Left & Right parties of Government in regards to their regulations. I guess if we were to put this image into legal jargon, it would be near impossible for the general public to understand.. Beyond it’s intricate detail, this image alone has gained over 30,000 links over a span of 2 months. This just shows the effectiveness of link baiting strategies that use visual aids such as infographics.

The image below takes a more scientific visualisation of how people utilise their day with various activities. The great thing about this Flash image is that you can manipulate the different factors to see how the daily routine changes for different demographics. The New York Times also gained over 500 links for this post.

Well the next image is something that most people can relate to, coffee. Everyone likes their coffee made differently; hence there are so many types to choose from, such as Latte, Cappuccino, Flat White and Macchiato. Well the image below shows how some of these coffee types are made and how to articulate their names. It seemed appropriate to bring this image up, not only for its clever use of imagery, but also to show how a simple concept can generate so much interest. The blog post and infographic gained 408 comments over 2 months and 50,000 links to the whole blog site.

Finally, the last of the infographics that made my short list was the “Billion Dollar Gram”. The image is blatantly obvious; it’s trying to show how the economy spends, earns, gives and tightens its liquidity. I personally would say this is not the prettiest of infographics, but definitely gets the point across through one picture.

In conclusion, the above set of infographic examples are only some of many that I happened to come across. It appears more and more common for bloggers and social networks to use images and videos to explain either a simple or complex concept. Not only do these images seem a lot more pleasant to the eye, they also have a lot of traction to gain links and user generated feedback. This natural link building exercise plays an important role in SEO to help build relevant links back to the hub website and improve the visibility of the brand. This is something to then consider for a lot of brands.

Tags: infographics, link baiting, optimisation, SEO, social media, visualisation