Infographics have existed for decades, even centuries. However, the somewhat recent proliferation of social media has launched this complex medium into a whole new level of popularity. Infographics provide a visual representation of information & research using color graphics, branding and typography in a way that can be easily understood. Humans are, by nature, visual learners. Seeing data illustrated can not only assist in the reader’s general comprehension of the topic, but significantly increase the overall impact as well. Online communities such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit have introduced the ability to discover and share Infographics with like-minded people. The extremely viral quality of these images has proven to be a highly-effective marketing tool for their publishers.

Creating an infographic from conception to completion is a grandiose task, to say the least. Between countless hours of research, planning, illustrator management and distribution, the project’s burden can often outweigh its benefit. Services like visual.ly have made it simple, efficient and affordable to join the ranks of infographic publishers with their expert marketplace of specialty talent.

People want information quickly, hence the enormous success of Google. The algorithm of search engines is constantly evolving and a website’s ranking can fluctuate significantly as these changes are released. One constant that a webmaster can always depend on is backlinks. It’s how Google, Bing and Yahoo determine how important a particular website is. Infographics are perhaps one of the most effective ways to collect backlinks from other websites and social media. There’s a reason it’s called link bait! If an infographic is interesting enough for people to pass on, share and distribute, the result will surely be plenty of inbound links to its original source.

Infographics have come a long way over the past few years and their popularity as an educational medium of interest continues to soar. This tool should be a part of any company’s web marketing strategy. It attracts a massive new audience, pleases the Google Gods and sends a unique message across the Internet.

Our friend Walter Apai from WebdesignerDepot needed an infographic covering the most popular design tools ever, so we did the research, then compiled the results in the piece below. Check it out in fullscreen glory here

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