The role of image backlinks in increasing your website’s visibility, ranking, and credibility, as well as determining its success, cannot be understated.
People can say whatever they want about building backlinks to image URL. Without them, you have little to no chance of driving traffic to your website or making sure that people actually buy your products or services.
While a lot of people have a common misconception that in order to build backlinks, you need a powerful social media profile or you need to hire an SEO marketer, that is actually not true!
There are plenty of other diverse options that you can use and still get the results that you want without spending too much or having too much strain on your energy reserves.
That’s where image link building comes in!
High PR image backlinks do not take too much effort, and they can be surprisingly effective in driving traffic.
We have created this comprehensive image link building guide for you to tell you about image backlinks, their benefits, types, and the image link building process you can use to boost your search engine rankings and increase your traffic without breaking a sweat.
What Are Image Backlinks?
The process of making shareable photos that, when utilized, will be linked to your company or website and, therefore, earn you a link is known as image link building.
It’s a fantastic approach to gradually building up natural, diverse, and high-quality links. As a matter of fact, it is the pinnacle of passive link development strategies!
Alt text optimization for your photos can make them more discoverable and is a wonderful strategy for generating high-quality picture backlinks to your blog, brand, or website. However, it is not the main focus of image link building. Nonetheless, it has immense importance.
Finding an image that is both trendy and relevant enough to be used over time is essential for effective image link building.
How Does It Work?
Think of this process as viral TikTok dances. If a specific song and a dance start getting a lot of traction from people and accumulate a high search volume, TikTokers start optimizing the chances of their content being discovered on the platform by joining in the trend and doing dances on the song. As a result, they create something that is highly relevant to their niche and is in demand as well.
Here’s an example of a TikTok dance trend that went viral in 2020
Who says that you cannot do the same?
You can apply the same technique when it comes to building picture backlinks.
Apart from recreating the dance that is going viral, TikTok content creators also use relevant hashtags that help their followers and other users discover their content and share it on their profiles.
This use of hashtags is similar to using alt text to describe an image or an infographic in order to gain links and attributions to your blog website or business.
Although this may feel a bit non-orthodox, TikTok trends are an amazing example of creating viral, relevant, and optimized shareable content for the sole purpose of growing an engaging audience.
However, that does not mean that you should also start adding random alt text or stuffing your image with keywords in order to get immediate backlinks to your website. If you follow the wrong image backlinks strategy, you may end up getting penalized.
6 Amazing Image Backlinks Benefits
Image backlinks offer several advantages for website owners and marketers. When other websites link back to your images, it not only enhances the visibility of your content but also contributes to improving your website’s overall SEO performance. These backlinks can drive referral traffic, boost your search engine rankings, and increase your online brand presence.
So, let’s not waste another minute and explore the key image backlinks benefits and how they can positively impact your website’s reach and authority.
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Increased Referral Traffic
When websites other than yours link back to your photographs, it allows consumers to discover and explore your website via those backlinks. These picture backlinks have the ability to provide targeted referral traffic, thereby increasing engagement, conversions, and purchases.
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Offers a Lot of Opportunities for Link Building
As an author or marketer, creating images can enable you to improve your image link building game by offering valuable assets to bloggers, authors, and websites all over the world.
If and when their visitors like the image they have used in their articles or they want to use it for their own blogs, they can easily trace the image back to you. As a result, you will get more traffic and more opportunities for link building.
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Image Backlinks Improve Brand Visibility
Image backlinks improve brand visibility. As we have mentioned above, backlinks acquired via images can express your brand or your website to a broader and more diverse audience. When other authors and websites feature your image in their blogs, their readers who come across these images can become curious about your business or brand. Moreover, they may also want to explore your brand further.
This increased exposure can not only lead to more traffic, as we mentioned above, but it can also increase your brand awareness and recognition among the masses.
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A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
We all have heard this saying before.
However, as cliche as it may sound, it is incredibly true when it comes to image backlinks.
If you are writing a blog for your website, especially something that is more than a thousand words using images, infographics, or gifs can improve the quality of your article. They can help you drive your point home and make sure that your readers do not abandon your article and keep reading. For example, here is a blog with images:
Instead of using someone else’s image, creating your own image can increase your chances of driving more traffic to your web page as well as decreasing your bounce rate.
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Better Search Engine Rankings
When you are building backlinks to image URL, you have better chances of improving your website search engine optimization. When credible websites link back to your website because of the images you have used, search engines like Google consider them as votes of relevance and credibility.
As a result, your website’s ranking in search engine results pages is positively impacted, leading to better organic visibility.
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Picture Backlinks Build Authority
If you are able to create high-quality captivating images, you are basically sitting on a trunk of linkable assets that can increase your website’s traffic.
Since using someone else’s images without asking for permission is a breach of copyright laws, any website that uses your image will have to link back to you.
If you allow other authors to use your images, you can increase the probability of getting more traffic while building your website authority. You can also create quality picture backlinks to different image-sharing websites to boost your web page’s authority and get high-quality links to your main website.
Image Backlinks Types You Must Know About
Image backlinks come in various forms, each offering unique opportunities for website optimization and promotion. These types of backlinks can be categorized based on their format and use. From editorial infographics and maps to product photos and graphs, understanding the different image backlinks types is crucial for developing an effective image link building strategy.
Let’s explore the various types of image backlinks and how they can contribute to enhancing your website’s visibility and authority:
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Infographics
Readers love to see and read infographics.
Why shouldn’t they?
They are fun to read, visually appealing, and informative as well. These qualities or perks of infographics explain why infographic link building has already been a thing for quite some time now. And while infographics as a form of image link building are less popular as compared to other forms of high pr image backlinks, they get the job done.
If you use them strategically, you can build amazing image backlinks with them and attract plenty of backlinks.
Let’s take a look at this infographic on planet fitness machines by Frugal Reality:
According to Ahrefs, it has 3.5 thousand backlinks of all time on its article. Let’s take a look:
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Graphs
Graphs are another great way of getting image backlinks. People looking for statistics, reports, surveys, or just simple research to back their point up, love to use graphs. So, you can create simple graphs and sit back and watch as they fetch picture backlinks for you:
For example, here is an article by Orbit Media that features multiple graphs throughout the article to drive the point home:
This article has received a whopping 64.9 thousand backlinks in all time, according to Google. So, let’s see the result of the image link building effort delivered to this website:
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Photos
If you want to know about the image link building process, you cannot ignore picture backlinks. And no, we are not talking about random pictures, such as the picture of your brunch at a nearby bagel place. That picture is not the image backlinks strategy step that you need for your website.
However, that being said, if you can take pictures or share images that people are searching for, they can get you a crazy amount of image backlinks.
For example, let’s search for football images on Shutter stock. This bank of 2,228,602 football stock photos, vectors, and illustrations of things related to football and football players on Shutter stock has 730 backlinks in all time.
Source: Shutterstock
Let’s take a look, shall we?
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Maps
There are several types of websites that like to use maps. Some of these websites belong to niches or websites such as community and social networking websites, outdoor and adventure blogs, event and venue business websites, and transportation websites. Some other niches include directories, review blogs, delivery, and logistics services websites, travel and tourism companies, and real estate websites.
If you have a team that can design maps for you, or you can design maps yourself, you need to use them as a part of your image link building guide. Maps can get you a decent percentage of image backlinks.
Here is a page featuring links to multiple maps by the Library of Congress Blogs:
This web page with all the maps it has (given above) has 97.4 thousand backlinks in all time, according to Ahrefs:
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Product Photos
If you run an ecommerce store or you sell a service that can be photographed, you can leverage them to obtain image backlinks. So, if you take your own product photos instead of sourcing them from Shutterstock, you should use them as an image backlinks strategy.
We can assure you that if your product images are good, people will use them without asking for permission. Therefore, they will give you multiple opportunities for building backlinks to image URL.
For example, let’s look at Starbucks and its products. The famous coffee brand takes its own product photos to market its coffee beans and grounds instead of outsourcing it to someone else:
Source: Starbucks
Since they are not the only website or ecommerce store selling these products, other websites, ecommerce stores, and Pinterest blogs have seemingly used their photos without their permission. It has 1.2 thousand backlinks in all time:
Tried and Tested Image Backlinks Tips
Let’s take a look at image backlinks tips that are going to ensure that you get the results you want from all the infographics or images that you create:
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Design High-Quality Images
The most important aspect of acquiring high domain authority backlinks from images is to create memes, infographics, or images that are attractive. If aesthetics are not an option for you, make sure that your images are relevant to your niche.
We highly recommend making evergreen images that have the potential to stick around for a long time and preserve your content’s credibility. On top of that, if your images are supported by textual content, you’ll have a higher chance of people discovering your website because they will search for it using the corresponding keywords.
Moreover, another great strategy to acquire picture backlinks is by offering your infographics or images for free. Let people share your images as long as they add a link that please people to your blog. This way, you’ll get even more backlinks.
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Reap the Benefits of Image Sharing on Social Media
One thing that we all can agree on when it comes to social media is that people love sharing jokes, rumors, memes, information, and even reels. You can take advantage of this common social media behavior by letting people share your pictures, provided that they give you a link.
For instance, let’s suppose you have a small business and you sell different sorts of coffee beans online. On your company’s social media page, you have shared different infographics showing coffee brewing methods, and you have several pictures of different coffee machines, coffee beans, and coffee plantations.
You can find different coffee enthusiasts and weight loss websites that are looking for images of coffee for free. Send them a DM or an email telling them that you can offer them your images from your archives, provided that they give you a backlink.
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Publish Your Infographics Using Press Releases
Digital press releases are an amazing way of spreading your information to the world.
Do you know what else is an amazing way of reaching out to your target audience and increasing the traffic to your website?
You’ve guessed it right!
It’s infographics!
Infographics are a great way to increase your audience. However, creating infographics is time-consuming. Therefore, we recommend hiring a graphic designer who can create your images for you.
There’s a catch, though!
The person might not know that much about your business, and you might not get the design you are looking for.
So, we always recommend that you create your own images or hire an infographic designing company that is related to your niche.
Once you have cleared that obstacle, publish your infographics through press releases. Lastly, monitor how well your infographic performs and whether your traffic has increased with the help of the press release or not.
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Use Image Bookmarking
Image bookmarking is a popular image backlinking strategy among SEO professionals and content marketers. It acts as a great source for acquiring image-based backlinks.
So, how does it work?
Long story short, you publish your images on third-party websites such as Shutterstock or Flickr. You add your photo and write a little description for it, along with a keyword-optimized title and your blog or website’s link. People who like your images can download them and post them on their website and give you a backlink.
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Use Statistical Data and Create Charts
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing like images, and they also like statistical data!
So, why not combine the best of both worlds and tap into a goldmine of backlinks?
If you want to optimize your website and make sure that it ranks high in search engine results pages, make sure you create graphical images. Don’t forget that it is extremely important that your charts and graphs are relevant to your niche and your keywords. Plus, it should be clear what they are displaying.
Here is an example:
For instance, if you create weight loss products that help people lose weight and improve their overall health, you can create infographics and graphs showing how your products have helped your clients improve their BMI percentages and lose weight over time. Here is a sample:
This link building strategy creates a lot of image backlinks because search engines give a lot of value to statistics and prefer websites that include them.
A useful tip: Do not just include one image. Create several kinds of images and graphics that focus on different areas of your business so you can get more visibility. If you need ideas for infographics, you can look at what your competitors are making and create something that is better than what they’re publishing.
Another thing that you need to keep in mind is that you need to make sure that your infographics are related to your keywords and are highly niche relevant.
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Use Badges and Awards
There are hundreds of thousands of websites available that are devoted to particular companies, brands, goods, or services. If you are in charge of one of those websites, you might use tools like badges or awards to build trust with other industry-specific specialized websites. By bestowing accolades or trust seals, you certify that certain websites are worthwhile.
It’s a win-win situation because you receive a hyperlink to your website in exchange.
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Look For Unclaimed Images and Ask for Credit or Backlinks
A fantastic tool that lets you do a reverse picture search is Google Images. With the help of this application, you can easily locate information about visual content by uploading a picture, graph, or drawing.
You can use this tool to locate every website that posted your photographs, either with or without citations. This is how original photographs should be tested, and you should look for ambiguous links. When you locate the desired sources, respectfully ask them to mention your business and include a link to your website.
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Write “How-To” Guides and Include Illustrations
Many websites feature “How-To” articles with instructions and eye-catching pictures. You can write and publish such articles as well. Here is an infographic from an article by Venngage:
Since other content providers can share your photographs and include backlinks in their captions, this presents a fantastic image backlinking opportunity. You’re more likely to receive references from influential people and other organizations if you’re creating quality material.
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Do Not Underestimate the Importance of Memes for Link Building
Who doesn’t love memes?
They are the perfect example of evergreen content because they are just as popular as they used to be in the early 2000s.
You can find memes about anything and everything on the earth, be it politics, social issues, or your favorite drama series.
However, memes are not as much utilized as they should be. People who do not use memes to market their content are missing out on a golden opportunity. They are easy to create, and you can use them freely without any credit.
All you need to do is do some research on Google and find out if a certain meme template is going viral. Then use that meme in your content. Find out the people who are using your meme. Write them an email and ask them to give you a backlink.
You will be surprised to see the number of backlinks you are going to get without creating new infographics or charts.
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Guest Posts Always Come in Handy
Almost every guest post that you write for a website has multiple images for reference. You always link back to the original source from where you have sourced your images in order to make your guest post look appealing.
Instead of using other peoples’ images, make your own image and add them to any guest post that you submit.
So, when people come across those guest posts, they will be able to visit your website by tracing back to the source of the image.
Choosing the Appropriate Type of Images for The Image Link Building Process
Knowing what type of image to choose when working on link building strategies using images is a crucial part of an image link building guide. By choosing the appropriate type of image for image backlinks, you can ensure better, more relevant, and more significant backlinks and mentions for your website or blog.
However, it is easier said than done. It is not quite simple to know how to choose and which kind of image backlink to choose for the image backlinks strategy.
You can either outsource to a company or hire a freelancer. Or you can do some brainstorming and guesswork and select images that fall into one of the following categories:
- GIFs
- Memes
- Typography
- Brand Mascots
- Employee Images
- Infographics
- Logos
And That Is a Wrap on Building Backlinks to Image URL, Folks!
Images are not just used for aesthetics. Neither do they serve the sole purpose of enhancing your article or website, or domain. They come with a plethora of link building opportunities if you know the right image link building process to follow.
Images have the unique quality of going viral faster than any other piece of content (for example, the Drake meme that is still going viral even after years or the Winnie the Pooh meme). This is because images have a natural share-worthy characteristic. Therefore, using different types of pictures to obtain high pr image backlinks and increase SEO through backlinking is a clever idea. In fact, image backlinks and reverse image searches are a match made in heaven.
Whether it’s typography, animations, memes, or infographics, a clever marketer will make the best use of every piece of content collateral related to image backlinks to conduct the best link building. Being skilled at creating multi-link chains with the available picture resources will offer you the extra edge you need to succeed in digital marketing.
We live in a time when software and digital tools are constantly being developed. There are many tools you can utilize to build practically any form of picture backlinks, including word clouds, memes, maps, infographics, charts, GIFs, graphs, and other types of content you can think of. These different picture formats can allow you to produce amazing visual material that will undoubtedly be used and shared widely to your advantage. So, you can reap image backlinks benefits to the fullest.
Best of luck!
