Everybody in the search marketing industry knows the value of quality links to your website. Links to your site from other sites boosts traffic (direct and immediate traffic), brand awareness and rankings in search engines.

But do you find it hard to get other bloggers to link to a new weblog? For sure, it is not easy sometimes. Even an established blog needs to expand its traffic and influence on a regular basis; linkbating is one way to do it.

So What is LinkBaiting?

Linkbaiting is the term used to describe interesting content written for the purpose of attracting audience. It is the art of creating content on your site that other sites will link to - naturally.

What are LinkBaiting Techniques I could Use?

Most linkbaiting techniques are particularly good for SEO because the links are non reciprocal and they are generally incoming links with good anchor text. 

Ø            News – Write a genuine Scoop or make a compilation of news, as above, its a resource as well as a hook.

Ø            Resource – Write a “A How To” article based on your niche; You could give other website owners a useful, fun or cool tool that they can use on their blog that points back to your own.

Ø            Contrary - be the only one in your niche to find something to not like about a story, or like about a story/product. Then on the same theme, post “Why <insert the name of the well know webmaster, blogger> is WRONG about”

Ø            Humour – Place a bizarre picture, or you could post “5 things you want to have”, “things I hate,” or “21 thing You Have to Do Before You die”,

Ø            Controversy - controversial posts tend to get strong reactions from those reading your posts. Controversy brings in all kinds of responses. Don’t do it just for the sake of being controversial (unless you have very thick skin!) You could be sued if you make controversies pertaining to a certain person.

Recently, since linkbait causes spikes of traffic to the website which can cause Google to devalue your website.

So is Linkbaiting a GOOD or BAD thing?

Linkbaiting sounds like a bad thing when you don’t know how to properly use it. But if contains interesting information or fun, it doesn’t have to have negative connotations. Consequently, if your content is on topic, relevant to your industry, and useful, you are giving people and search engines exactly what they want; then there is no reason to devalue you site.

Example of a Bad LinkBait

I came upon this new product! I think this product could help you loose weight. . .

Bad linkbaiting happens when people click the link (new product). The landing page is not what they want since it has no content related to loosing weight.

How to Create a Good LinkBait?

First: Research your market and develop content that is relevant to this audience. Chose a title that would immediately appeal to that target market.

Second:  Create a page on the main site that looks like an ordinary article page. Use images where appropriate.

Third: Invite all your friends to check your site. Or have a pre release or post something in forum.  This is the hardest and most laborious part of the linkbait campaign. It can take hours to send out all the individual emails and chat notifications with the link embedded.

Fourth: Be patient and watch the traffic swell.

Example of a Good LinkBait

News Bait:

Brian Clark wrote about this same problem last month in his history of linkbait. It would seem the stigma of “baiting” is somewhat pervasive..

The Google: Evil or Not? site. The site takes RSS feeds that mention Google, lets people vote between Real Good or Real Evil, and adds a graph. It took a little bit of work, but probably not a ton…

What must I observe in linkbaiting?

Don’t be obsessive with any one kind of traffic. You run the risk of building a one dimensional blog. Some are obsess about generating incoming links to the point where it begins to destroy their blog. They end up forgetting about the readers they currently have and let other elements of their blog slip. Ending up devaluing your site.