The term link bait, sometimes written as linkbait, refers to a placement on a website for the strict purpose of tempting other web pages to link to that website. Link baiting is a viral marketing form, and can be extremely powerful, as it draws traffic to a website without keyword searches or specific searches for that web page. Anything can be link bait, as long as it causes links to be built to the web page and draws visitors to the page. Link baiting is also used in search engine optimization, as it is a powerful tool and can help a website that has fewer popular keywords than usual. Linkage with other web pages signifies that the original page is worth reading.
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The most important element of linkbaiting is creating compelling content, something that the reader finds value in. Examples of link bait, in this context, include breaking news, striking images, infographics, controversy, humor, educational material and applications. If your content has value for readers, they are likely to share the link.
There are many different elements on web pages that can be considered link bait, as long as someone links to it. There is no specific definition of what exactly link bait has to be, as long as it is interesting enough to draw visitors and to be linked to other websites. Some of the elements used aslink bait include:
Humor Hooks – Funny stories, practical jokes, pictures, or videos
Informational Hooks – News articles, ezine links, and anything else that carries important information, especially frequently updated information
News Hooks – Like information hooks, news hooks provide current information and can even follow big news stories
Tool Hooks – Useful tools that can be downloaded or used on the web page
Evil Hooks – Mean, inflammatory, or unpopular editorial comments
Both linkbaiting tactics can be used either well or poorly. A well-crafted title grabs the reader's attention and accurately represents the content. However, one common misuse of linkbaiting is the creation of catchy -- but misleading -- titles for articles. Similarly, if you share links to high-quality content, you, your readers, and the content creator all benefit. However, if you frequently share links to content that is not intrinsically valuable, your own content will lose value for both readers and search engines.
Blogs are also frequently link baited, mostly because they can touch on a number of topics and change regularly. Link baiting is a good way to begin a mini marketing campaign without spending much money or time.
Here are linkbaiting tactics that can work very well indeed…
1. Lists
People cannot get enough of the easy-to-digest, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin list format. Lists often fall into one of two camps: educational or amusing. As such they’re perfect linkbait fodder.
2. Create an infographic
Like lists, the world cannot get enough of infographics. We regularly aggregate infographics into list-based posts… the best of both worlds!
3. Have an argument
Hunt around for a target. Lock on. Attack! Make sure you wear a thick coat.
4. Say something controversial or stupid
We have established a few rules for the Econsultancy blog over the years. One is: “Never link to John Dvorak”. Dvorak is a veteran tech journalist who regularly posts nonsense about SEO, thereby attracting links and scorn from the outraged SEO community. Intentional linkbait or not, it works, as word spreads. We’re now wise to it…
5. Be a contrarian
This isn’t the same thing as having an argument or saying something controversial. It is about taking a position that might be seen as counterintuitive, or against the grain, or plain ridiculous. I rather like people who go against the grain, whether I agree with them or not. Like Perry Farrell says, “ain’t no right, ain’t no wrong”.
6. Build tools
Oh boy, does the world love a useful tool. Keep your eyes on this space folks!
7. Launch a competition
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Competitions can create lots of interest, and tons of links. Consider the Best Job In The World competition. It attracted tons of links, a vast amount of earned media (online and offline), 36,000 applicants and an estimated $100m in tourism.
8. Get an exclusive
It goes without saying that being first to a story can drive lots of links. Don’t think of exclusives in purely ‘news’ terms.
9. Release a whitepaper
Thought leadership works. Informative whitepapers can spread around the network like wildfire, and bloggers will often write about them.
10. Be helpful
The Econsultancy business is pretty much entirely based on helping people, via practical and time-saving research, training, events and consulting. Educational blog posts help us raise awareness of what we do more broadly as a business, and they attract lots of links.
11. Amuse and entertain
Creating compelling content that brightens up somebody’s day is always a good idea.
12. Involve the crowd
Crowdsourcing content automatically provides you with a bunch of people who has some kind of vested interest in your article / research / content. As such they’ll be more likely to make a noise about it, as and when you publish.
13. Say something bad about Apple
Honestly, it never fails.
14. Write killer headlines
The first step to creating linkbait is thinking about the headline, not least because you want people to use your headline text in order to link to you. If you're doing the linkbait thing properly you should have a Google goal in mind. I’m going after ‘linkbait techniques’ here, as we’re not on the first five pages of Google for that term. Let’s see how I get on!
15. Do something new
Harder than it sounds, I know. We live in a world of me-too. Being original is more difficult than ever. I mean, there are hundreds of linkbait articles out there already, but I bet none of them have ever signed off with a Link Wray video…
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