Search engines are always changing. Their algorithms improvise to give better search result for users. But there are things that somehow don't change, and link baiting strategies are one of them. The usage of the strategies have gone nowhere but up, and it's becoming more common by the day.
Link baiting is a common strategy for many popular blogs and news websites, but rarely used by typical websites. It's usage is mostly to build many quality links quickly. Despite the name "link baiting" that could be considered as a black hat technique, the strategy is just an ordinary link building with a little 'organic' twist.
Matt Cutts from Google said in his blog: "I think of 'linkbait' as something interesting enough to catch people's attention, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing."
Link baiting can sound bad. But if the article it represents is interesting or fun, it doesn't have to have negative connotations. So any types of contents from any industry can be a wonderful link bait. The strategy moves around building links by making others do the work for you willingly. Rather than hunting links on the web by your own, link baiting is to attract those links to come by themselves.
A Powerful Hook for an Alluring Bait to Make a Great Catch
Just like the name, link baiting is like fishing. The topic is set free on the web, hoping that readers will pick up the content as fresh and interesting so they'll link to it. The topic is the hook, the article is the bait, and the link is the catch.
With the strategy, a properly created article with a great topic will capture huge amount of links on its own, with less to no efforts from you.
There are typically 6 types of 'hooks' you can use to encourage links from others coming. The hooks that can make a great bait are:
- News. These are reports from the news industry. To make it great, it shouldn't just be a rehash from others' posts, it should be unique. You can also make in more interesting by summarizing various viewpoints together to make a conclusion.
- Contrary. Articles that contradict others' sayings. To make it great it link baiting, it should be controversial, and could aim for someone prominent in the industry. Provide a powerful evidence to back up your thoughts to make it even more interesting.
- Attack. Is taking Contrary to the next level. This is to launch an attack on others to prove their theories wrong. Going to this level needs your explanation down to the most detail. In some ways, this strategy can turn from public to personal and haste because it can appeal to others' ego.
- Resource. Is information. A page that is both informational and won't age is able to aggregate visitors anywhere anytime. To make it great, the information should be unique and delivered in a way that people will find it interesting to read and share.
- Secret. Secrets are meant to be covered. But there are not many things as interesting as uncovering them to know what's hidden. People are curious about things they aren't suppose to know, and that is human nature. Insider's information, government's scandals, and others can be a good place to start. A great length of research and powerful evidence are essential.
- Humor. Is timeless. Nobody can deny the effect of jokes, funny stories, funny pictures and other things that can make them laugh. Humor is a universal language, it can appeal to anyone.
Modern-day link baiting has gone up. And from the tactic that is quietly done to prevent others from doing the same thing, has become a sophisticated SEO science. This means that to make a great link baiting strategy, you need more than just depending on a 'best' resource. You need to have good writing skills, knowing the appropriate length for that post, great article design and wide network for distribution.
To make your article compelling, you need to make your article something that people like to read. You need to have a headline that immediately catches the eye, a medium that can put all the scattered things/thoughts/ideas, the confession to put more 'color' and twist, and a story to wrap everything together.
Conclusion
Creating a great link baiting content takes time. You need to do thorough research about something before starting to develop the idea. Link bait contents are heavily-influenced by trends. Despite they are not limited to it, link bait articles usually shine best when trends are upon them.
Link baiting can be a great way for you if you have difficulties in getting that "authority" you want. A great article is what people like to share, and by using link baiting strategy as your arsenal, you can effectively build links quickly and easily. Furthermore, link baiting is also an effective way to build reputation on the internet as an online brand as more and more people learn about you through these links.