SEO is an ever-changing field with countless practices for promoting products, content, web resources, and services. For search optimization to be truly effective, experts need a certain level of SEO expertise to identify the most effective techniques.
Link baiting has become an efficient method of promoting content. With this technique, the goal is to generate large amounts of links and traffic, creating useful and highly shareable content. Let us now focus on what it is and its practical application.
What is Link Bait?
Link baiting is an SEO practice aimed at generating backlinks to a web resource, such as a blog post. The links come from relevant external sources, such as other websites. More specifically, it creates viral content that is willingly shared by strangers on its web platforms (websites, blogs, or social networks).
With link bait, the goal is really to create content that is:
- Very useful;
- Extremely topical;
- Visually attractive.
Combine these three qualities and you have something that excites and holds the attention of general users or niche audiences. You need someone qualified for this task and not just any copywriter.
Soon, we’ll be sharing 6 foolproof examples of link lures. But first, let’s look at the four main advantages of this SEO technique.
Advantages of Link Baits
In fact, link baiting is not an easy procedure. Why choose it over much simpler and less complicated techniques to apply? Well, compared to many other SEO methods, link baiting is more useful because:
Makes your web resource more discoverable: As the backlinks to your website accumulate, it gains popularity even beyond the target audience.
Provides a quick traffic boost: Unique, genuinely useful, and relevant content is quickly shared on social networks and blogs.
Make useful business connections: It’s simple: the more backlinks a resource accumulates, the higher its position in search results. Now it’s easy for potential business partners to find out about you. They get closer and form new connections.
Strengthens the brand image online: Of course, when other trusted sites or influencers cite you, it has a positive effect on your overall credibility in the web space.
While this method of SEO requires resources, its potential is hard to deny. Now it’s time to learn how this can be applied in practice.
Effective Types of Link Baits
Use these approaches to instantly implement link baiting:
Guides and Manuals
Think about the last time you came across articles like “How to look 10 times younger at 20?” Now imagine, every day these trivial links generate thousands of clicks. Even if the article with the tabloid title is actually useful (which is not the case here), the tabloid can generate a lot of backlinks to the original source.
In fact, really useful content is a rare find these days. It is true even when people suffer from information overload. Therefore, create a high-quality manual and you are guaranteed to get many links to the publication from external sources.
Let’s consider a successful guide case: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
Content that provokes emotion
When was the last time you came across controversial discussions online? In light of the current pandemic, the forums are dominated by clashes between conspiracy theorists, believers in “God’s will,” and realists. You can use this to your advantage by posting an opinion piece that reflects your thoughts on the matter.
This is the case of a piece that not only provoked real emotions but also generated an overwhelming number of backlinks.
Polls and research results (statistics)
In the early 2000s, people would believe any false media story like “Shock! Christina Aguilera admits to having visited Mars.” Today, most of us try to filter incoming information. Therefore, any publication based on facts requires confirmation.
Dedicate your site to statistics or add citable data. Make sure stat posts have killer titles. For example, the headline “British scientists find that 76% of men have cheated on their partners at least once.” It is a magnet for the fairer sex and, as a result, generates a new stream of backlinks.
Here is another case that garnered several thousand backlinks: https://www.who.int/hiv/data/en/
Tops and ratings
The game here is to publish the best lists or reviews of products, companies, tools, movies, etc. For example, posts like “Top 10 Travel Bloggers of 2022” always rack up a lot of backlinks.
There are two reasons why lists are so successful. With information overload, they make searching for information more efficient. They are easy to read without actually reading them.
In general, if your featured listings or rankings are truly relevant, they are guaranteed to be used by other web resources.
Here is a highly successful case with 10+ thousand backlinks. https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/erotic-movies-ranked-worst-to-best/
Topical and relevant subjects
That is exactly what the example above leads to. Site visitors always react strongly to relevant topics (for example, coronavirus news, upcoming elections, etc.). This makes this form of content suitable for link baiting.
Here is a revealing case that demonstrates the popularity of the coronavirus topic.
https://www.worldometers.info/
Visually attractive content
Content-rich in beautiful and unique images, infographics, timelines, and interactive lists always attracts a large number of visitors. People happily quote you on their web resources, helping you get lots of new backlinks.
In particular, link bait works especially well on websites with custom and recognizable graphics.
Here is an excellent example of such a site, the famous WikiHow resource:
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Gel-Alcohol-Hand-Sanitizer
Why is Link Bait so important?
We hope that the examples above have enabled you to understand the details of link baiting and identify the most effective method for your situation. And now, here is a summary:
“Quality content does not guarantee backlinks”
Keep in mind that regularly updating a site with high-quality informational content does not guarantee backlinks.
The use of link baits is not at all complex when explained, but it certainly requires sufficient knowledge from SEO experts. This means that relying on just one in-house writer is a bad idea.
To get the most out of link baiting, you need to find real professionals who are well versed in search engine optimization and viral content creation.
Conclusion
Obviously, given the abundance of resources on the web today, attracting users is not easy. Asking them to share a link to your site is even more difficult. However, proper link capture will quickly drive traffic to your website and make it discoverable in the web space. One of the most effective SEO methods, link baiting can push almost any web resource to the top of search results.
