Linkbait – four types that are proven to work
First of all, let’s start by setting the premise of linkbait. It is a term associated with a piece of website content, not necessarily written, which (possibly accidentally) has the effect of driving traffic and links to said website.
Linkbait has a huge potential, not just for SEO reasons, but for raising brand (or website) awareness. Linkbait is being heavily employed by viral marketers to promote everything from the latest games and movies to new products and services.
There are many different forms of linkbait (videos, images, text etc.), each of which can also be categorised differently. For instance, the following are often big genres of linkbait:
Funny/Interesting: This has quite a fine divide between being done skilfully or just being lucky. The good thing is, because of the luck factor, pretty much anyone can stand a chance of having a success with this one. Just find a funny picture or topic and exaggerate it. People also seem to love those “Top 10 tips…” articles.
Current Affairs: What’s the latest trend or celebrity gossip? Whether it’s Jedward (Annoying British X Factor twins, John and Edward) or Modern Warfare 2, there’s nothing wrong with fanning the flames of popularity.
News: As the overused proverb says ‘The early bird gets the worm’, so does the first and exclusive news breaker. Get the latest news out there first and watch the links pour in; everyone loves the original source of big news.
Argumentative: Find a topic that everyone agrees with, and disagree with it. Try to have a sound justification to back your argument up. There’s nothing better than provoking community interaction than a good old fashioned argument.
Stefan Crowe
Content Developer
I think to be ahead of your competitors delivering unique content and linkbaiting opportunities you need to expose all ideas and be creative.
1) Solve a common problem
Prediction Posts
2) Technical Reports / Experiment Findings
3) Product or Service Reviews & Critiques
4) Comparison Charts or Products and Services
5) Insider Stories / Secrets
6) Polls and Surveys
7) Teach someone how to do something
9) Debates
10)Ask your readers to answer a question
11)Top 10… – Most Popular, Favourite, Reason, Tools
12)Build a useful tool (like justsearch tools)
13)Online Competitions or Contests
14)Test/Do something new that has not been done before
15)Write something controversial
16)Disagree with an authority
17)Produce something that others can put on their sites but that links back to you
18)Write an outrageous hypothesis and back it up with logic
19)Write something hyphothetical, what if?
20)Create a virtual club attracting only the best of customers, smartest people, etc
I agree that link baiting can be useful, although I have yet to come up with something that has produced a sizeable return – will keep trying though…
And therein lies the problem David Moore, finding the right subject for the linkbait.
Link baiting is certainly a vital component of SEO however some forms are better than others. In short, you will gain visitors and links to your site by having good, up to date content. News is often a very effective method of link baiting.
Deliberately writing argumentative or controversial comments that are known to be wrong purely to gain links, justified solely by logic, will build links and increase visitor numbers in the short term, but will do little to build a trustworthy reputation. Long term it is likely to reduce visitor numbers and therefore it is not recommended.