Is getting views to an infographic through Imgur beneficial to SEO?

[MattHolden]

I'm considering posting infographics to Imgur in addition to hosting them on my site in an effort to leverage Reddit a bit more this year.

My concern is that, if all goes well, we'll get a ton of views through Reddit to Imgur, maybe a couple clickthroughs to the site, and links to (probably) the Imgur page. I don't see that Imgur gives your profile a followed link, so how would any of this help SEO.

I assume it would, because respected guys like John Dougherty espouse the benefits of Reddit, but I can't see how and I need to justify the effort to my department head.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

You can post to reddit without using imgur. Instead, post it on your website along with supplementary content, make sure the page loads fast and isn't spammy, and post that to reddit instead.

Imgur is it's own separate entity that people browse through. The main advantage imgur has is that images are "more compatible" with reddit (in terms of plugins that make loading an image easier, people are more likely to click/view because they know its a good experience).

[MattHolden]

Thanks Oleg!

My only concern with that is not appearing as too much of a "marketer" and getting shadow-banned (experience talking here lol).

For instance, I know the r/infographics subreddit only allows links to images for this reason.

So, if I did use Imgur, would it still benefit my site if people linked to the image?

Thank you!

[ChrisAshton]

Hi Matt,

To answer your question directly, yes you will see an SEO benefit from that in the form of brand recognition and potential referral traffic.

As for ranking improvements though (what many wrongly define as "SEO Benefit"), no.

You've already raised the biggest concern which is posting a link directly to your site which can have a very spammy feel to it. Particularly if you push too hard and actually start to spam, you run the risk of getting picked up by /r/hailcorporate which pretty much marks the death of your brand on Reddit!

As with most things in SEO, if you're offering a truly valuable resource in the right way, there are only positives to be had from it, albeit indirect in this case.