Infographics and Visual Assets for Link Building

Infographics were overused for link building to the point that most publishers now dismiss the format on sight. But visuals themselves haven’t stopped earning links — what changed is that only genuinely useful visuals do the job now. A tall, text-heavy graphic repeating a blog post in a different layout earns almost nothing, while a clear data chart, a well-made process diagram or a genuinely useful reference table still gets embedded, shared and linked to, often for years after publication.

Visuals that still earn links

• Data visualisations built from original research — the specific chart a journalist embeds directly into their story rather than describing in prose. See data-driven PR campaigns for how to build the underlying research these visuals depend on.
• Process diagrams that explain something genuinely complicated in a way that’s faster to grasp visually than in a paragraph of text.
• Maps — regional or national comparisons are particularly popular with local and national press, who can localise the story to their own readers.
• Reference charts — conversion tables, size charts, cheat sheets and similar assets that people bookmark and return to rather than reading once.

What reliably doesn’t work any more

• Tall, text-heavy infographics that simply repeat an existing blog post in graphic form.
• Visuals presenting no original information at all, just a restyled version of publicly available facts.
• Heavily branded graphics that read as an advert rather than a genuinely useful reference.

Make the asset easy for someone else to use

• Publish each visual on its own dedicated page with explanatory text around it, so there’s an actual page to link to rather than just an image file.
• Offer a simple embed code or clearly stated reuse terms that require attribution back to your page.
• Provide high-resolution versions specifically for journalists, who often need print-quality assets rather than web-optimised ones.
• Use descriptive file names and proper alt text, both for accessibility and because it helps the asset surface in image search.
• Serve optimised formats such as WebP or AVIF so the hosting page stays fast even with several visuals on it.

Promoting the finished visual

Pitch the visual to journalists and bloggers who actively cover the topic, with a specific angle framed for their particular audience rather than a generic “check out our new infographic” email. If you spot the visual being reused somewhere without a credit link, a polite request for attribution is reasonable and often successful — see turning unlinked brand mentions into links for the exact approach.

Embed codes and link quality

Embed codes that include a visible, relevant, branded credit link are fine and standard practice. Keyword-rich or hidden links buried inside embed code are a known manipulative pattern that search engines have specifically targeted in the past, and they’re worth avoiding entirely rather than risking the whole asset’s value over one exploitative link.

Budget and production realities

You don’t need a large design team to produce visuals that earn links. A single well-designed chart built from a genuine dataset, done properly, will consistently outperform a full infographic set produced cheaply and quickly. If budget is limited, prioritise one strong visual tied to real data over several generic ones, and reuse the same underlying dataset across formats — a chart for the web page, a simplified version for social, and a high-resolution version for press — rather than commissioning entirely separate assets for each channel.

Choosing the right visual format for your data

Data type	Best format
Trend over time	Line or bar chart
Regional comparison	Map
A multi-step process	Flow or process diagram
Lookup or conversion data	Reference table or chart

Deciding whether a visual is worth commissioning at all

Before commissioning any visual, check whether the underlying data or process is actually interesting enough to justify one. A visual built from thin or unoriginal data won’t earn links no matter how well it’s designed, since the design can’t manufacture substance that isn’t there. If you’re unsure, sketch the chart or diagram roughly by hand first — if it doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know, a polished version won’t tell your audience anything either, and the budget is better spent elsewhere.

Visuals as part of a wider content and PR strategy

A strong visual rarely stands alone as an outreach asset — it works best paired with the research or angle behind it. This connects directly to the skyscraper technique, where an original visual is often exactly the “new information” that separates a genuine improvement from a longer rehash, and to broader linkable asset planning, where visuals are one format among several worth considering upfront rather than added as an afterthought.

Where to go next

Read original research on a small budget if you need a data source before you can build a meaningful visual, and journalist outreach that gets replies for pitching the finished asset to press. Publishers who regularly run data-led visual stories can be found by browsing the marketplace filtered to relevant niches.

Frequently asked questions