In many cases, this “simpler the better” mentality transfers over nicely into the world of marketing—too many pop-ups are annoying; flashing messages look like spam; ultra-creative content can be confusing, etc. Overall, busy-ness can be a real strain on the eyes. However, there is a flip side—long drawn out content can be boring; many article topics are duplicated across the web; staring at a computer screen makes an article difficult to read. In other words, simplicity can also be a real strain on the eyes.
Fortunately, companies have found a happy medium in what is known as an infographic. Infographics, or information graphics, were created to help make content more visually interesting. Although infographics have been used in society in many different forms such as street signs, weather reports, graphs and charts, many businesses are starting to bring the idea online. Infographics are great for a few reasons:
- Certain subjects in business can be very confusing, so infographics work to teach entrepreneurs and business owners about these subjects in a simpler way.
- Some subjects in business can be very dry and boring; therefore people have a hard time reading plain text on these types of subjects. Infographics make these boring topics more interesting. According to a Jungle Minds Digital Consultancy study, 87% of people who saw an infographic read the associated text while only 41% read the text of a regular article.
- People are more likely to link back to an infographic (as opposed to a plain article) because they are so interesting and fun to read. This will help improve your companies SEO rankings.
- Infographics are a great way to grab a visitor’s attention; thus keeping them on your webpage longer.
In general, companies work with web designers to create an infographic on a topic of their choosing. While most web designers should be familiar with infographics and how to create infographics, it is still the job of the business owner to dictate the subject of the infographic and the elements that will be found within the infographic. For this reason, it is important to understand the characteristics successful infographics have shown in the past.
5 Elements of a Successful Infographic
Below are several different characteristics that you should include in your infographic in order to help you succeed and get your points across easily and in an interesting way:
-
Specific Subject Matter.
The reason infographics work so well is because they have the ability to make a complicated topic simpler. For this reason, it is important that you infographic focuses on something very specific. For example, don’t create an infographic on “home based jobs.” Instead, create the graphic “how to get a small business loan for your home based company.” Readers can understand something simple by reading a plain article. Infographics are a bit more expensive to generate than plain text, so don’t waste it!
-
Clean and Organized.
Infographics offer businesses with the opportunity to be creative, but you do not want to be too creative. You want to have great fonts and graphics, but too many will be confusing; thus going against the point of an infographic altogether.
-
Interaction.
Most businesses today are creating interactive graphics. This is where the biggest difference comes into play when you think about infographics vs. other charts and graphs. Taking readers through a series of slides will help keep them engaged and learning.
-
Short and Sweet.
If you decided to go the interactive infographic route, you’ll want to make sure the graphic isn’t too long. Even with the interesting visuals, people will get bored. It’s a good idea to let people know how many steps they will have to complete (or slides left) so they do not assume it’s too many and forget it altogether. You can also help shorten the graphic by linking to other pages with more information.
-
Accuracy.
Many times graphs and charts need to be scaled down. If you add in the extra graphics this can sometimes get lost in the shuffle, so pay attention that all of your numbers are accurate.
Although you do not want a website full of infographics, launching one or two per month should help increase your website’s popularity. As far as SEO for infographics goes, both SEO for the graphic and how it affects your overall SEO, visit this article we published earlier this year.
Do you have anything else to add when it comes to creating an infographic? Let us know your thoughts and your experiences in the comment section below.