3 Simple Ways to Build Links With Images (2024)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to link building, a picture can quite literally be worth a thousand links.

For example, take this simple comicfrom xkcd:

According to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, it has links from over 7,000 referring domains:

While it might be challenging to replicate this runaway level of success, there are simple ways we can all build links using images. And in today’s guide, we’ll cover three of the most effective tactics.

But first, let’s cover a few basics.

• Why do images attract links?
• What kind of images attract links?
• How to build links with images

Images are embeddable. And when people embed them in their content, they usually link back to the source.

For example, here’s that password strength comic embedded in a post on Wired.co.uk:

Below the image, the author credits the creator by linking back to the image source.

Getting links from images is a strategic process. You can’t just take a photo of your cat and expect the links to flood in. You need images that people will actually want toembed.

Here are a few common image types that tend to attract links:

• Infographics
• Graphs
• Photos
• Maps
• Product photos

Infographics

People love infographics for all kinds of reasons. That probably explains why ‘infographic link building’ has been a thingfor well over a decade. And while they’re a bit less popular than once were, mostly because people went overboard with them a few years ago, interesting and well-designed ones can still attract plenty of backlinks.

Just look at this one from Wine Folly:

According to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, it has links from 153 unique websites (referring domains).

Graphs

Look at thisgraph:

It’s been featured on 150 pages, according to Google.

That’s probably part of the reason why the post it comes from is our most linked-to post:

Photos

No, that photo of your lunch on Instagram isn’t going to be the link buildingsavior you’re after. But if you take images of things people are searching for, they can attract links likecrazy.

For example, this bank of 100+ nature imagesfrom Unsplash has 349 referring domains:

Maps

Look at thismap:

The page it’s on has backlinks from 278 referring domains, including BBC, Lonely Planet, Vice, Gizmodo, andmore.

Product photos

If you’re taking photosof popular products for your ecommerce store, you can bet your bottom dollar that people will use them without permission.

For example, FireBox took their own product photos for a beer brewing kit theysell:

Yet they’re not the only site to sell this product, and others have seemingly used their photos without permission:

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty and start building somelinks.

1. Claim links from improper attributions
2. Claim links from unauthorized use
3. Use the TRUST formula

1. Claim links from improper attributions

If you’ve already created some of the image types mentioned above, then people might have already embedded them.

For example, here’s an embed of our keyword length distribution image on another site:

If you look below the image, they’ve credited us with a link. However, this link points to the actual image file itself, not the post where it comes from. This isn’t ideal because image links are a dead-end for PageRankand probably aren’t helping our page rank in Google.

Here’s how to find and claim proper attribution for these types of imagelinks:

a) Find improper attributions

Paste your website into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, go to the Backlinksreport, then search for .png or .jpg in the URLs of backlinks:

Next, filter the report to show only “dofollow” links from unique domains.

You can see that for the Ahrefs blog, 497 websites are linking directly to imagefiles.

Now it’s just a case of sifting through the report and noting any links that we want to claim in a spreadsheet.

Just make sure to check the source code of the page before reaching out because there’s always a chance they’re linking to the actual page that the image comes from. You won’t want to reach out in thiscase.

b) Reach out and request proper attribution

Find the email addressof a person associated with each website, then send a quick email requesting a link change likethis:

Hey John,

Just saw that you included one of our graphs in your post about [topic].

Is there any chance you could link to the post that it came frominstead of the image file itself?

Cheers,
Josh

It’s that simple. The hardest part is finding the right contact details, but this video can help speed thatup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA5tLHG80js

c) Automate everything

If you have success with this technique, it makes sense to keep on top of future improper attributions, too.

To do that, set up a new backlink alert in Ahrefs Alerts, then use the following settings:

Domain or URL: https://yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/
Mode: Prefix
Score: New backlinks

Note that this will only work if your site runs on WordPress. If you’re using another CMS, you’ll need to figure out where your images get uploaded then use that for the URL. Or, if you’re using a CDN, you’ll need to monitor that domain.

Assuming everything is set up correctly, you’ll now receive email alerts whenever someone links directly to an image on yoursite.

You can then sift through the links and if you want to claim any, shoot them anemail.

2. Claim links from unauthorized use

Most people who use your images will credit you with a link, but not everyone.

For example, here’s an image of ours on someone else’s page, but according to the source code, there’s no link to us atall:

Here’s how to find and claim links from unauthorized use:

a) Find images used without permission

The simplest way to do this is with a Google reverse image search. Just upload your imageor paste in the URL, and Google will kick back pages where it thinks the image is beingused.

You then just need to sift through the results to makesure:

• Your image is actually on thepage
• They’re not crediting you with alink
• You want a link from this website

If all of the above is true, make a note of the page in a spreadsheet.

b) Reach out and request attribution

Find the right email address and reach out with a simple emaillike:

Hey John,

Just saw that you included one of our graphs in your post about [topic]

Is there any chance you could add a link to the source?

Cheers,
Josh

c) Automate the discovery of unauthorized imageuse

Using Google for reverse image searches is entirely free, but it’s time-consuming if you have many images to check. Plus, you have to repeat the process every few months if you want to keep on top of unauthorized imageuse.

The solution to this problem is to use a paid tool like Image Raider.

For a monthly fee, this tool monitors the web for embeds of up to 10,000 images. Just sign up, create a list, then add the images you want to monitor.

You can easily add all the images on your site to Image Raider in seconds. Just crawl your site with Ahrefs’ Site Audit, go to the Imagesreport, click crawled images, export image resources, and paste the list of image URLs into Image Raider:

However, while this sounds like a good idea on the surface, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to monitor all these images. It’s probably a better idea to sift through your most popular pages and copy the URLs of images you want to monitor into Image Raider:

Either way, Image Raider will monitor for new occurrences of your images on autopilot. You just need to log in once a month and take a look at new ‘infringements.’ You can do this by filtering the report by ‘Result founddate.’

Just know that what Image Raider calls infringements might not actually be infringements. That’s because the tool doesn’t check whether the pages link to you. You can solve that problem by exporting the URLs list from Image Raider and running a custom search in Screaming Frog to bulk-check for links on thepages.

Just to goConfiguration > Custom > Search,choose the “Does not contain” option, and paste in thisregex:

<a [^>]*bhrefs*=s*”([^”]*ahrefs.com[^”]*)

Note that you’ll need to replace ahrefs.com with yoursite.com.

From there, go to the “Custom” tab and select the “Does not contain” filter from the drop-down. This will show all the pages without links to yourpage.

You can then paste those URLs back into Screaming Frog and use the Ahrefs API connection to pull in metrics like Domain Rating, URL Rating, etc.

It’s then just a case of sifting through the export and choosing which, if any, sites you want to contact.

All the above might sound like a lot of work, but once you get your head around it, it should only take 15-20 minutes a month. Even if you only get one or two links out of that, it’s notbad.

3. Use the TRUST formula

You can only claim so many backlinks from existing images. After that, you’ll need to create more images to attract backlinks. There are several ways you can do that, but one tried and tested formula is the TRUST formula.

Here’s the process in a nutshell:

1. Trending topic
2. Research and analysis
3. Unique (unusual, or unexpected) takeaway
4. Simple visual
5. Tactical promotion

David McSweeney explains precisely how to execute this tactic here, plus how he managed to get backlinks from high-authority sites like Yahoo Sports and FHM. But for now, let’s go through the basics.

a) Find a trending topic

If journalists and bloggers are already writing about a topic, it’ll be easier to pitch them new content about a similar topic.

Google News is one of the best ways to find trending topics. Just search for whatever your site is about, then eyeball the results for trending topics.

In David’s case, he found that many sites were writing about Tiger Woods, so he chose that as histopic.

b) Find interesting data about yourtopic

Find data, analyze it, and extract unique insights.(Here are some sourcesto get you started). In David’s case, he used Wikipedia data to find out how much Tiger Woods had earned in each state throughout his career.

His idea was to create a map with thisdata.

c) Write the headline

Next up, you need a simple one or two-line takeaway orheadline for your pitch. If you’re struggling, you can use this format:

We worked out {X}.
Did you know that {Y}?

Here’s what David wentfor:

We worked out how much Tiger Woods has earned in each USState.
Did you know that he has earned money in exactly half ofthem?

d) Create yourimage

You have two main options: make a simple image using a tool like Visme or Easel.ly, or create something custom.

David went for the second option and came up withthis:

Then he launched it on his site with a brief write-up:

e) Promote thepiece

The crux of this process is email outreachto journalists and bloggers already talking about your topic. You can find these in Google News or Ahrefs’ Content Explorer.

In Content Explorer, search for your topic, then filter for English pages published in the past sevendays.

Then it’s just a case of sifting through the results, identifying sites you want links from, finding their contact information, and sending apitch.

Here’s the pitch Davidsent:

Learn more about David’s results in this post, and more about building links with maps in this post.

Final thoughts

Images offer a powerful way to build links because they’re embeddable, and their visual nature also makes it easier to explain complex topics. That’s why infographics can work sowell.

Just remember that not everything makes sense as an image. You shouldn’t try to force your content into this format just to build links. It won’t work. Countless infographics have failed miserably precisely for that reason.

Got questions? Ping me on Twitter.