The Marketer's Ultimate Guide to Link Bait. Can we please come up with some better terminology for the concept of 'link bait,' already? It just sounds so ... slimy. For me, it conjures up thoughts of those evil bait-and-switch advertising schemes. But I'm going to say it loud and proud -- "Not all link bait is bad! " So while it may get a bad rap as low-quality, lazy, or misleading content, I'll admit that I support the creation of an awesome, white-hat link bait post from time to time. And heck ...
What Is Link Bait? According to Matt Cutts, you can simply think of link bait as "something interesting enough to catch people’s attention...And that doesn't have to be a bad thing," he adds. Now, if Matt Cutts' endorsement isn't enough to convince you that you don't have to feel like a sleaze ball to create some link bait, I'm not sure what will. The term seems to have originated from the SEO world, referring to content that is effective for attracting inbound links to your website, thus boosting your off-page SEO. How To Actually Get Links From Your Linkbait. The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz. I like talking about link building - it is, after all, one of the most important rankings factors (hey Rand, when's that going to be updated?)
And also one of the things people struggle with the most in the SEO industry. So here are some more tips and tricks you can use to get links. This week I'm talking about how to actually get links from your linkbait. For anyone that's launched linkbait you'll know that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. 1. Ok, ok - I know I said this post was about how to get links AFTER submitting to social media sites, but actually this is a very important step in launching linkbait and getting links. Don't know where to start? As an aside, don't forget foreign language social media sites, especially if your linkbait is visual. 2. Another example - we recently launched a quiz about beds and dust mites. 3. Link Bait. Link baiting (or linkbaiting) is the latest buzz word in the SEO world and has come to be the preferred way to natural link building.
It means to create something that naturally attract backlinks for your web page by getting people to talk about it, discussing it on forums, blogging about i, posting it on del.icio.us/Furl/Digg/Shoutwire and linking to it from their sites. It also attracts a lot of visitors. Here is a list of ideas: Useful resources on Link Baiting (many of the tips above taken from here): Please comment if you have more info on link bait. About the Author Jim Westergren is a web entrepreneur from Sweden now living in Bolivia. Hard Thoughts About SEO & Link Bait. Is creating link bait good SEO? Emphatically, yes! If it does not get links it is not link bait. If it does, then people are finding value, which is exactly what the search engines want to reward. Whether you call it white hat or ethical SEO, link bait fits the bill.
But what is link bait, what makes it work and why does it fail? What Is Link Bait? Link bait is content designed from conception to go viral. In theory, if you to create the perfect viral link bait, people keep sharing and sharing until everyone on the Internet sees your creation. In the diagram above, you send your link bait to four people.
Great link bait earns links. Just like SEO, making link bait work is difficult. Link Bait Strategies Over the years, link builders have identified a few common link bait strategies. News StoriesDebate ArticlesAttack ArticlesResource Lists, How-to Articles and InfographsHumorous StoriesIncentive Pieces (Contests, Awards) Link Bait Is About Links For SEO purposes, we are interested in sharing. When Promoting Link Bait, Twitter is King! A few weeks back we were promoting a link bait article on digg. Before long, the submission hit the front page but in a matter of minutes was then buried. In the meantime, however, it was quickly picking up steam on Twitter. Within a few hours, the article got picked up by a major online news source, retweeted, and it exploded from there.
(and is still going 3 weeks later) As of today, the link bait article that went viral on twitter has 32K backlinks (according to Aaron Wall’s SEO toolbar) many from highly trusted websites and news sources. While I don’t usually give much credence to pagerank, after the recent PR update, the article’s page has a PR 6 while the site’s homepage remains a PR 4. Because it’s a client, I can’t link to the site or link bait piece (trust me, I REALLY want to). The goal of link bait First, some background…If you’re well versed in the art & science of link bait, you can skip this section. Social Bookmarking & News Sites Why Twitter is King.
SEO Guide to Creating Viral Linkbait and Infographics - Distilled. Www.distilled.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Linkbait-Brainstorm-Workbook.pdf. LinkBaiting Idea Gathering. Linkbaiting for Fun & Profit Linkbaiting is one of the most universally effective tactics for promoting a site, both for search engine rankings and short-term traffic boosts.
There’s no special list of guidelines that sets linkbaiting apart from normal content building or promotion except the knowledge that you’re creating something that’s specifically designed to appeal to link-savvy bloggers and web content creators. Understanding what content, features, and subjects are “in” with the technorati (the web-literate individuals, not the blog aggregation site) is a subjective, but important piece of the linkbait creation puzzle. Right now, for example, one could search through del.icio.us/popular and digg.com to find examples of sites and pages that are getting lots of press. Blogs like Lifehacker, Threadwatch, Gizmodo, and others can also serve as inspiration when you’re searching for the latest crazes. The second step in creating linkbait is the initial promotion.
How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic – The Ultimate Guide. 10 Extraordinary Examples of Effective Link Bait. Despite what most SEOs will tell you, it’s not easy to create outstanding content that people will want to link to. So many “SEOs” make it seem like there’s a key on your keyboard that magically turns what you just wrote into something link worthy. In reality, it’s never that simple. I'm not one to keep throwing mud at the wall until it sticks. You can continuously tell someone to go create exceptional content, or you can actually show them an example. Because, being the sensible person I am, I'd rather choose the second option, here are 10 fantastic examples of link bait and what makes them so spectacular. Note: PA stands for Page Authority, LRD stands for linking root domains, and TL stands for total links. Also, I didn't include .gov, .edu, or any other pieces of link bait from SEOmoz besides the first one below. 1.
What is it? This is an article on the different search ranking factors by your very own SEOmoz. Why was it so successful? 2. Why was it successful? 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 10 Extraordinary Examples of Effective Link Bait. 4 Tips for Creating Link Bait. The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz. While link bait is frequently seen as more "fun", and it's definitely more creative, than doing things like guest blogging or emailing people asking for links, it has its challenges. I wanted to share a few things I've learned about creating link bait from my experiences.
If you have other insights, I'd love to hear them in the comments. Keep a Tight Scope In most cases you will want to keep your content extremely focused around your target, or the person that you are going to get to link to you (Justin wrote more about this process here). While it’s tempting to try and cast as wide of a net possible, typically you will be more successful focusing on targeting one or two targets (and shaping the content around these demographics) rather than trying to create content that targets everyone. Keep the scope tight especially with revisions and additions. How to Turn Your Content into Link Bait - YouMoz. This YouMoz entry was submitted by one of our community members.
The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding an unlikely case of hypnosis) and may not reflect the views of Moz. In late December of 2011, HTML5 cheat sheets, which we originally created for WebDesignLedger (WDL), were shared by Google on their Google Developers profile. WDL has 74k+ Twitter followers. Google Developers has 65k+ users in their circles. Together, their promotion increased our referral traffic for that day by 300%. I want to share with you how I turn content like our HTML5 cheat sheets into link bait. The Brainstorming Session Inviting creative outside-the-box thinkers as well as pragmatists to the brainstorming pow wow can help you come up with more exciting content ideas and effective ways to getting it pushed to the right audiences. Don’t feel like you have to recreate the wheel every time.
Actually, the HTML5 cheat sheets are a perfect example of improving something already created. Linkbaiting or Link Baiting Strategies? 70+ Best Linkbaiting Guides On The Internet | SEOzy. SEO Services SEO Forum SEO Articles SEO Tools Directory SEO Videos Contact Us 70+ Best Linkbaiting Guides On The Internet in Share 5 I have read tons of stuff on linkbaiting over the past few years, I thought I would put together a list of the linkbait best best ones I’ve come across.
But let me tell you this. I’d love to hear your suggestions on linkbaiting techniques that you’ve seen used (or used yourself). Problogger What is Linkbait An introduction to linkbaiting Time wins linkbaiter of the year award 20 Linkbaiting Techniques How to Cut Through the Clutter of an OVERLY BLOGGED STORY and Get Noticed Factors for Successful Linkbaiting How to Think Outside of the Box and Develop Attention Grabbing Content Attention Grabbing Blogging – Persuasive Blogging Part I 7 Ways to Get to the Top of the del.icio.us Popular Page Linkbaiting with Attack Motivations for Linkbaiting – Why Links are Good for Your Blog SEObook.com Linkbaiting or Link Baiting Strategies? Digging for Links Linking for Conversion SEOmoz Graywolf. 17 Ways to Accelerate Links to Your Link Bait (and Other Highly Linkable Content) Linkable content often does not receive the attention required for substantial link acquisition. This article outlines a simple process for identifying link prospects for any content that hasn't accelerated link acquisition the way you had hoped.
Before outlining the process though, here's a quick overview of 16 methods for acquiring attention from potential link prospects. They're aggregated from the top linkbait promotion articles we found during researching (see links at the end of the article). 1. Link out from the linkbait to known, relevant linkers 2. Mention content in your email newsletter/blog/press release 3. Here's one that we didn't see discussed anywhere… 17. In this method you begin with your already-created piece of linkable content – linkbait or otherwise – and gather backlinks to pages with relevant, related content. Yahoo Site Explorer's (YSE) per-page inbound link data evaluated in our Link Qualification Work Sheet makes this simple. Identify Similar, Linkable Content. Look at the Related Posts. Link Bait is simply creating a piece of viral content that people will want to link to and share across the web, typically through forms of social media.
There are a number of differ formats that link bait comes in, however they all have one thing in common. People WANT to share it! In order for something to be considered “Link Bait” it must have one or all of these qualities ~ Original, Viral, Compelling, Comprehensive, Conceptual/State of the Art, Highest Quality, Controversial, Funny, Breaking News…and the list goes on. The point is that it cannot just be any ordinary piece of content. There needs to be a new angle or way of presenting information for it to be worthy for people to share. Link Bait comes in all different shapes and sizes. Link Bait Techniques Examples of Great LinkBait Everyday there is a new piece of linkbait that is published on the web.
ElfYourself JK Wedding Dance Entrance (Chris Brown - Forever) Hubspot - Grader Tools Doodlebox Compare the Meerkat SEO Book Tools. SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting. (just a quick post.) On a meta-level, I think of “linkbait” as something interesting enough to catch people’s attention, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There are a lot of ways to do that, including putting in sweat-of-the-brow work to generate data or insights, or it can be as simple as being creative. You can also say something controversial to generate discussion (this last one gets tired if you overuse it, though). Sometimes even a little bit of work can generate a reason for people to link to you. Example 1: Danny Sullivan actually sat down and checked the spam filtering accuracy of SpamCop, Yahoo Mail, and Gmail. Example 2: You can be creative.
Example 3: Saying something controversial. Example 4: Back to something creative: the Google: Evil or Not? Linkbaiting sounds like a bad thing, but especially if it’s interesting information or fun, it doesn’t have to have negative connotations.