What really is link bait?
Link Bait is something interesting enough to catch people’s attention and that does not have to be a bad thing. By creating something on your website that is funny, controversial, informative, or creative, it will gain natural links which is the key to top search engine rankings. You do not have to be a big brand or have a lot of money to create link bait. Many people have created link bait on purpose and many have created link bait without even knowing it. It does not have to cost that much to create something that people will link to. It is sometimes difficult, if not impossible to get your competitors to link to you.
There are a lot of ways to do that; including insights, or it can be as simple as being creative. You can also say something controversial to generate discussion (last one gets tired if you overuse it). Sometimes even a little bit of work can generate a reason for people to link to you.
One way to create link bait is to get ranked well for phrases that will become popular in the future. The term link bait is a good target in the search engine marketing industry. By searching on Google for the following: allintitle:”link bait” you can determine about how many web pages on the internet are targeting that search phrase. As of now, Google returns 3,890 results.
Link Baiting sounds like a bad thing, but especially if it is interesting information or fun, it does not have to have negative connotations. Content can be both white-hat and yet still be wonderful “bait” for links. And generating information or ideas that people talk about is a surefire way to generate links. One should lean towards producing interesting data or having a creative idea rather than spouting really controversial ideas all of the time. If everything you ever say is controversial, it can be entertaining, but it is harder to maintain credibility over the long haul.
Link Bait, Link Baiting, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization