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What do you know about infograpghics? Be careful!

by Adriana Copaceanu
10 replies
Someone offered to create an infographic for one of the sites I manage, and at first I agreed, thinking it was a great thing to have for the site for free (actually in exchange for a link to his educational site).

So, he asked me to give him a topic, and I gave him 2 to choose from, but he came back and said:

Come up with a good topic which can also be promoted on Digg and get chances of frontpage so you can get exposure.
And at this point my Red Flag sensor perked up. So I went and searched on Digg to see what he was talking about and came across an article that said infographics were a very tricky way to spam.

Here is the article I found: The Truth About Infographics: Pics, Videos, Links, News

Do any of you have experience with infographics? I made up my mind and I am getting ready to tell him I am not interested in his offer: I don't want to jeopardize this site.

The article above says that they include a link as part of the infographic with their keyword, usually related to an "online school", which is true of this person who contacted me.

I guess the lesson to be leaned is to do your due diligence before doing anything new to your web properties, especially if it sounds too good to be true.
#careful #infograpghics #red flag
  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Adriana Copaceanu View Post

    And at this point my Red Flag sensor perked up. So I went and searched on Digg to see what he was talking about and came across an article that said infographics were a very tricky way to spam.
    Looks to me like a typical white-hat SEO tactic. You create a graphic that lots of people will link to, make it inconvenient to copy it directly so they'll use your embed code instead, and score a ton of backlinks as people pass it around. This pushes your site to the top of Google, where it gets lots of organic search traffic.

    Since you've gotten all those backlinks by actually having something people really did link all by themselves, what's the problem?
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    • Profile picture of the author Adriana Copaceanu
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      ...they'll use your embed code instead, and score a ton of backlinks as people pass it around.
      And that's where I see the problem: it's one thing to get the link from my site (which I totally agreed with, since he would put in the work), and a totally different thing to tell me all you want is a link back to your site, and embed a link somewhere without me knowing.

      Have I not researched it, I would have never known how it worked. And I am not so sure this secret link embedding is kosher with Google.
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      • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
        Originally Posted by Adriana Copaceanu View Post

        And that's where I see the problem: it's one thing to get the link from my site (which I totally agreed with, since he would put in the work), and a totally different thing to tell me all you want is a link back to your site, and embed a link somewhere without me knowing.
        It's not exactly under the table. The embed code has a perfectly obvious link in it:

        Code:
         
<a href="http://www.zippycart.com/infographics/google-pagerank-defined.html">
<img src="http://www.zippycart.com/images/info...nfographic.jpg" width="925" height="1750"/>
</a>
<br />
[Via: ZippyCart <a href="http://zippycart.com/shopping-cart-ratings/shopping-cart-review-guide.html"><i>Shopping Cart Reviews</i></a>]
<br />
<a href="http://www.zippycart.com/infographics/google-pagerank-defined.html">
View Larger Image and Get the Embed Code to Add This Infographic to Your Site
</a>.
        That link back to their site isn't hidden in any way, and indeed is precisely what you apparently agreed to give the IG providers who approached you. Google doesn't have any problem with this because, well, the link is right there.

        If you're familiar with HTML and take a few seconds to look, you can see the link and go "WTF, shopping cart review guide?" - bam, you pull the link and they don't get their backlink.

        But most people won't bother or don't care. They just copy the whole string of code and paste it on their site.

        The only trick this leverages is human nature. People like pretty pictures. They want to share pretty pictures. They want to do it fast and not think about it.

        Hey presto, SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    Sounds very similar to the "best of the web" type badges and awards that sites hand out. They provide a nifty little graphic with easy embed code that also has a link back to their site and you get one of these to impress your viewers with...



    It's an old school tactic with a new twist.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    Originally Posted by Adriana Copaceanu View Post

    And at this point my Red Flag sensor perked up. So I went and searched on Digg to see what he was talking about and came across an article that said infographics were a very tricky way to spam.
    Spam? This isn't even REMOTELY like spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetSuccess001
    I would agree with CD on this one.

    While it might be 'slightly' grey hat, a lot of other people try to do the same thing (doesn't mean its 'right', just a lot of people do that). It is similar to the 'Congratulations! You've been awarded 5 stars for an awesome site! Cut & paste this image and put it on your website!'

    Now if they were using encrypted javascript, or something along those lines to try and 'trick' people, then that would be a different thing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adriana Copaceanu
    Well, the guy who approached me said he wanted a link in the post body. And when I asked for a few examples of ones he did, he stopped communication.

    Anyway, IG is not for me, and that's the end of it. It seems as others feel different about it, and that's OK.
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by Adriana Copaceanu View Post

      Anyway, IG is not for me, and that's the end of it.
      I wouldn't write off the whole notion of it. It sounds like you did have someone less than ethical there, or he wouldn't have stopped communication... but it's the marketer you should be blaming, not the entire infographic notion. And it may still not be for you, which is fine - but calling it a scam seems a little overboard.

      Don't worry, Adriana, I still love you and delight in all your posts - rare as they may be.
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      "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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