‘Link Bait’ is one of those SEO buzz words that’s been around for a while now – but what exactly does it mean?
Link Bait is content that’s designed to go viral. The goal is to produce something that’s interesting, funny or unique so that it will catch people attention, gain links and be shared across the web.
The major benefit of link bait is links. If you manage to create content that’s shared across the web, you’re going to get thousands of new links from websites, blogs and social media sites that will help build your domain authority and overall rankings.
A good example of a website with tons of link bait is YouTube. Think about how many times you’ve followed links to interesting videos from blogs or social media sites. These links generate a huge amount of traffic for YouTube and they also contribute to the sites overall domain authority.
So how do you go about creating your own link bait?
Well the sad truth is that it’s not easy. It often takes several attempts to create that winning piece of content that will get attention. To succeed you need to be in it for the long haul – remember it only takes one success to open the flood gates.
To help get you started, here’s a list of content ideas from Jim Westergren,
- Make a valuable resource (lists, special reports, history of, how to, etc.)
- Interview (e-mail/phone) prominent people and publish it.
- Build a useful tool
- Write an interesting article
- Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest
- Test something new that has not been done before
- Be the first in doing something on the internet
- Write something controversial
- Be the first to write the latest news in your niche
- Be the first to expose a scammer
- Disagree with an authority
- Write some funny humor
- Make an interesting picture
- Be the first to research and document something
- Make a theme, plugin or piece of software
- Make a tool that others can put on their sites but that links to you
- Make a joke about a known person
- Make a resource that is just in time for a major event
- Write an outrageous theory and back it up with logics
- Write useful comments on something that is happening
- Give something valuable for free
- Coin a new acronym in your niche and get people to talk about it
- Become an expert in your niche and write valuable information
If you’ve had your own link bait success or failure, let us know in the blog comments below.
