SEO FAQ: Link Baiting

How do you cultivate the right kind of links and become popular? Build a site that will draw traffic by including information that other sites will want to link to. A well-designed site that's easy to navigate and has lots of high quality content will bring traffic naturally and the all-important organic links will begin to appear. Many optimizers do this by actively link building.

Create a document, a service, an online tool or widget that people are looking for, and voila: you have link bait. Examples of an online tool would be a mortgage calculator, a calorie counter, a currency converter, etc. Other ideas for link bait are product reviews, Top Ten Lists, interviews of well known persons in your industry, surveys, film clips or demos, critiques, expert advice, contests, coupons and humor.

Ask questions or post comments about Link Baiting and how it can increase your traffic here.

Posted on Fri, June 4, 2010 by Christopher Nelson

2 comments (Add your own)

1. Amanda Thornton wrote:
On Link Baiting would it be a good idea to link to companies or products that I use? If you do this do you need to contact those companies before you put their link on your site?

Thu, August 5, 2010 @ 1:03 PM

2. Christopher Nelson wrote:
Hi Amanda, good question.

When you link to other products or services, that's more of a service or resource you a providing for your viewers - and it IS link bait - but not for you. You're link baiting for those other companies or products.

Find a resource, service, or product that YOU can offer and entice people to your website by the usefulness you have to offer. You can do this through other websites, social networking, social bookmarking, etc.

As far as contacting companies before you put a link to them on your website, most of the time this is ok if you are sending them business or talking about them in a positive light. However, safer is always better - plus, it's polite to ask. If you feel like you should ask, then ask!

Thanks!

Thu, August 5, 2010 @ 1:05 PM

Add a New Comment

Enter the code you see below:
code
 

Comment Guidelines: No HTML is allowed. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Thanks.