Most link building strategies fail because they are one-sided. You’re asking webmasters to link to you while offering nothing in return, other than “great content”, something everyone claims to have. Guestographics flip this dynamic by giving publishers something they actually want: professional visual content that makes their existing articles better.
The concept is simple: You create a custom infographic for someone else’s article, they publish it, and you get a contextual backlink in return. But simple doesn’t mean easy, fast, or guaranteed. As a matter of fact, if you’ve read other guides that promise “easy backlinks with this one weird trick,” you’re about to find out why that’s complete nonsense.
This guide breaks down what guestographics actually are, why they can work (despite the challenges), and how to execute them without wasting weeks on rejections.
What are Guestographics?
Guestographics take two proven marketing methods, infographics and guest posting, and put them together. The term was coined by Brian Dean from Backlinko, who came to realize that offering visual content was a better pitch than offering written content (which every site already has too much of).
The big idea is pretty simple: instead of offering to write a guest post for someone’s blog, you offer an infographic that supplements their current content. Find site owners that have articles that would be much better with some visuals, pitch them on adding your infographic to their page, and ask for a credit backlink in return.
Key Difference from Traditional Guest Posting:
- You’re not creating new content competing for attention
- You’re improving something they already published
- You’re offering immediate visual value
Think of it as giving someone an upgrade to their already-existing asset, rather than asking them to publish something entirely new.
But let’s address the elephant in the room: in 2025, everyone has access to AI design tools. Business owners can create passable infographics themselves in Canva within 30 minutes. So why would anyone accept your guestographic?
Because “passable” is not “professional,” and most business owners would rather spend that 30 minutes on activities that actually make them money. The strategy still works, but your execution needs to be significantly better than what someone can throw together themselves during a coffee break.
Why Guestographics Can Still Work (If You Do Them Right)
Okay, let’s get real about the challenges first. Guestographics are:
- Time-intensive to research, design, outreach, and follow up
- Not guaranteed – many pitches get ignored or rejected
- Harder than they used to be – AI tools have lowered the barrier to entry
But they still possess advantages over other link building methods:
You are providing real value. Most outreach emails ask for favors, but you give them something valuable in return. The publishers receive professional visual content that will help raise engagement, explain complex information better, and give their article a nice refresh without needing to write anything new.
You control the quality. With traditional guest posting, you’re at the mercy of editorial standards and publication timelines. With guestographics, you create the asset on your terms, pitch it when it’s ready, and either the publisher accepts or rejects it. No endless revision cycles.
Visual content still works. Yes, anyone can use Canva now. But not everyone has the design sense, time, or inclination to create truly good visual content. If your infographic is actually well-designed and data-driven, it stands out.
Less saturated than guest posting. Every site owner gets bombarded with guest post pitches daily. Fewer people pitch infographics, which means less inbox competition – though this is changing.
The real question isn’t whether guestographics work, but rather whether you’ve got the time, design skills, and persistence to execute them properly. For the majority of business owners, the honest answer to that is no, which is why outsourcing your link building to specialists who handle the tedious parts makes more sense than DIY.
When Guestographics Make Sense (And When They Don’t)
Not every situation calls for guestographics. Here’s when this strategy actually makes sense:
Good scenarios:
- Your niche involves content-heavy articles with a shortage of visual elements
- You have access to original data or research worth visualizing
- You’re targeting publications that value design and user experience
- You have the time to create quality visuals or the budget to hire designers
Bad scenarios:
- You need backlinks urgently, and this strategy takes weeks, sometimes months
- Your design skills are mediocre: poorly designed infographics get rejected
- You’re targeting smaller blogs that don’t have much traffic to speak of
- You’re in a niche where infographics feel forced or unnecessary
The biggest mistake business owners make is treating guestographics as a quick win. They create a generic infographic, send five pitches, get ignored, and conclude that the strategy doesn’t work. The reality? You may have to create 10 infographics and send 50 pitches in order to get 3-5 placements.
If that math doesn’t work for you, consider whether your time is better spent buying pre-vetted backlinks from our marketplace rather than playing the outreach lottery.
Guestographics: How to Actually Do It
Most guides make this sound straightforward: Create infographic, send emails, get links. In practice, it’s messier. Here’s what actually happens:
Step 1: Create an Infographic Worth Publishing
This is where most people go wrong: they create subpar visuals and then wonder why no one responds to their pitches.
Your infographic must be legitimately good: not “good for someone without design experience,” but actually professional-looking. Here’s what that means:
- Data-driven content: statistics, research findings, survey results
- Clearly visually structured information – readers should gain clarity in 10 seconds
- Professional design: consistent colors, readable fonts, proper spacing
- Branded but not promotional – your logo shouldn’t dominate the design
Types of infographics that tend to perform well:
- Statistics compilations (industry benchmarks, survey results)
- Process visualizations (step-by-step workflows)
- Comparison charts: this vs. that, pros and cons
- Timeline infographics: historical developments, projected trends
Tools like Canva work fine if you have design sense. But if you’re spending an inordinate amount of time trying to make something that doesn’t look like a high school presentation, hiring a designer is well worth the investment. A poorly designed infographic wastes your time and damages your credibility.
Step 2: Find Articles That Need Visual Content
This is more strategic than it sounds. You’re not looking for any article in your niche; you’re looking for certain characteristics:
- Content-heavy articles without any images, or just stock photos
- Published on websites with real traffic (check with Ahrefs)
- Articles ranking but with room for improvement – positions 4-10 are ideal
- Topics that match your infographic, obviously, but good to be said
Use Ahrefs to find relevant keywords in your niche, then filter it by articles published in the last 1-2 years, and manually go through which don’t have visuals. Research takes time, but that’s important. Otherwise, irrelevant site pitching wastes everybody’s time.
Quality trumps quantity. Ten researched targets are better than fifty random websites.
Step 3: Pitch Without Being Annoying
Your outreach email will determine success or failure. Most pitches are ignored because they sound like any other link request.
What works:
- Specific subject lines – mention their article title
- Sincere compliments (mention something from their content specifically)
- Clear value proposition – describe precisely what they will get
- No strings attached – don’t demand specific anchor text or placement
What doesn’t work:
- Generic templates that could apply to any site
- Longwinded explanations of why infographics are great
- Ignored once and then follow-ups by many
- Acting entitled to a response
Keep it short. Explain that you designed an infographic which complements their article, show them what the infographic looks like, and just ask if they’d be interested in adding it. That’s it.
If you’re targeting well, expect response rates to be around 5-10%. If you get less, your infographic probably isn’t as good as you think, or you are pitching irrelevant sites.
Step 4: Respond Professionally to Responses
If someone agrees to share your infographic, make it ridiculously easy for them to publish:
- Provide multiple file formats: PNG, JPG, PDF
- Include embed code if they want to host it elsewhere
- Write suggested alt text and image caption
- Specify your desired backlink – but be non-demanding about it
Some publishers will request edits. It’s a good idea to decide in advance how much customization you’re willing to do. Small tweaks? Fine. Completely redesigning it? Probably not worth it unless it’s a high-authority site.
If someone says no or ignores you, move on. Don’t take it personally. They may have internal policies against outside content, or they just might not care. Persistence is good; being pushy is annoying.
Step 5: Monitor Outcomes, And Refine Your Strategy
Once your infographic gets published, monitor:
- Backlink status: is it actually linking to you?
- Link attributes – is it followed or nofollowed?
- Referral traffic – is anyone clicking through?
- Ranking changes: did it affect your SEO positively?
Use tools like Ahrefs or our backlink monitor to track your links over time. Sometimes publishers remove infographics during site redesigns, and you’ll want to know if that happens.
After 3-5 placements, step back and assess if the time was well invested. If you used 20 hours for the process and got two mediocre backlinks, that is most likely not a good use of your time. If you landed five high-quality contextual links from authoritative sites, that’s a win.
The Brutal Truth About DIY Link Building
Nobody says it out loud, but here’s the thing: link building is tedious, time-consuming work. Most business owners just hate doing it. You didn’t create your business to spend afternoons crafting outreach emails and designing infographics.
Guestographics work, but they require:
- Design skills (or budget to hire designers)
- Research skills: finding the right targets
- Writing skills – specifically, the ability to construct convincing pitches
- Follow-up discipline: managing outreach campaigns
- Patience – dealing with rejections and silence
If you have all that and like the process, well, great. DIY away.
But if you’d rather focus on running your actual business, our link building marketplace exists for this very reason. We connect you with vetted publishers who are actively seeking quality backlinks. No cold outreach. No rejections. No spending weeks designing infographics that might never get published.
You get measurable results without the headache. We handle the complexity while you focus on what actually grows your business.
What Makes a Guestographic Actually Work
Let’s talk about what separates successful guestographics from the ones that get ignored.
Original or well-researched data: If your infographic is just a rehash of commonly known information, why would anyone publish it? Find unique angles, do your own research, or present existing data in genuinely new ways.
Quality design on par with the publisher. Take a look at the target sites: What does the design feel like? Your infographic should be designed to feel at home on their site, not jarringly out of place from their brand.
Relevance to their existing audience. The infographic should augment their article, not whisk attention elsewhere. If readers finish looking at your visual and think “that was useful,” then you have succeeded. When they think “why is this here?”, you have failed.
Proper attribution without being obnoxious: Yes, you want credit and a backlink. But your logo shouldn’t be the dominant visual element. Find the balance between getting attribution and being tasteful about it.
The business owners who succeed with guestographics understand that this is a value exchange, not a favor request. You’re giving publishers something they could theoretically create themselves, but probably won’t, because it’s time-consuming. Make that exchange worthwhile.
Should You Actually Do This?
Guestographics are not a magic bullet. It’s a valid link building strategy, but it works only when executed well, with “executed well” being the operative phrase.
If you’re a business owner with limited time, the honest answer is probably no, you shouldn’t DIY this. The opportunity cost of investing 20+ hours in a strategy that might yield 3-5 backlinks doesn’t make financial sense when you could spend that time on revenue-generating activities.
But if you’re determined to build links yourself, guestographics offer a less saturated alternative to traditional guest posting. You’ll face rejection, spend time on designs that never get published, and question whether it’s worth it. That’s normal.
For everyone else who’d rather avoid the frustration, we’ve built a marketplace specifically designed to eliminate the guesswork. You get pre-vetted publishers, transparent pricing, and backlinks that actually move the needle on your SEO. No cold outreach required.
Link building works. But it doesn’t have to be painful.
