Linkbait: Tasty morsels to entice readers

September 07th, 2007 | Category: Content,Heidi's Entries,Recommendations,SEO,marketing
written by: Heidi Cool

bait.jpg
As restaurants display fresh seafood to
entice diners, you can create linkbait
to increase your readership.

This is the fourth in a series of posts that discuss Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and other Web marketing strategies.

What is linkbait?

It sounds nefarious doesn't it? Makes one think of "bait and switch" or that run-down old bait store by the lake—the one where they store the containers of nightcrawlers in the same cooler as the egg salad sandwiches. Blech.

In reality linkbait is simply online content designed to attract an audience who will link to your site. But isn't all content supposed to do that? In theory yes, but linkbait goes one step further. Instead of supplying the usual insight that your readers have come to depend upon, linkbait reaches out beyond your core audience, offering content that is topical, controversial or in some manner more exciting than the usual fare.

Linkbait is like your favorite birthday present. While you appreciated and needed the new sweater, books and CD's, the Wii/Xbox/bicycle/train set/new puppy/or other object of desire was the one you told your friends about. Linkbait is the content that people tell others about through their blogs, Web site, Facebook pages, Twitters, Pownces, StumbleUpons, etc.

Examples of linkbait

Linkbait is more than supercharged content. It's content with an edge, this edge could be something like a Top 10 list on a popular topic, a controversial opinion such as a vilification of Firefox (who would do such a thing?!), or a contest offering a popular prize. For example, Fetch Softworks has just announced their Take Fetch Back to School, Win a MacBook Contest (4 runners-up win new iPod Nanos). This contest should be great linkbait because it is geared to students, staff and faculty just beginning the academic year; offers great prizes; and is happening at a time when some of those prizes, the new iPods, are making a lot of news. As a user of their product I've already started pondering what to write, and as a blogger I've already linked to them. So I think it's working!

When to use linkbait?

Like your birthday present, linkbait is for special occasions, meant to add to your content rather than replace it. The bait is only part of the overall mix. If you tried to use linkbait in every blog post you would soon end up with a site lacking in continuity. That wouldn't really serve your goals. But on occasion, if you come up with a clever idea that is related to your goals, adds value to your regular content, and attracts attention, then go for it. Strategic bits of linkbait can help you expand your readership, acquire more incoming links and raise your rankings while adding a bit of excitement for your regular readers.

I could proceed to bore you with more details, caveats, pros and cons, but plenty of others have already written on the topic. If you are considering adding linkbait to your marketing toolkit, the following resources should give you much of what you need to know.

Linkbait Resources

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32 Comments »
  1. I've tried linkbait myself in the past and it didn't work. Having looked at the key ingredients — in terms of broader success — the content itself is actually a minor player. From what I've seen, it's not what you know (or even what you write), it's who you know. I've seen some pretty abysmal stuff succeed, all because of an army of friends on Digg happy to vote them up. But that said, you've written a good linkbait primer, Heidi...

    Comment by Wayne Smallman — September 10, 2007 @4:23 pm

  2. Thanks Wayne, I've not yet tried it myself, but I like it conceptually. I just haven't come up with some killer idea. Your point is well taken about networking. If you post in a vacuum, no one will notice no matter how wonderful the bait may be. Thus bait should be but one element of a broader marketing strategy.

    Comment by Heidi Cool — September 10, 2007 @4:53 pm

  3. I used to read your articles whenever you sent message via pownce. Keep it up your posting!

    Comment by Myo Kyaw Htun — September 10, 2007 @8:58 pm

  4. hrm. I wonder if I have used linkbait and didn't know it. I always try to write good articles mainly because my blog is pretty new.

    Comment by ob81 — September 11, 2007 @3:23 am

  5. Howard, I think you are right, you have produced some linkbait. I just checked http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ob81.com and it shows that your Do You Remember Your First Experience with the Internet? story received quite a few links. Actually many of them reposted the whole story, some in ways that make it hard to tell where it originated, though most mention you as the writer and include the link. I guess that's the price one pays for getting Digged.

    Comment by Heidi Cool — September 11, 2007 @12:09 pm

  6. I was just perusing Wayne Smallman's RSS feed in Streamy, when I saw a link he posted to 3 Ways to Get Screwed by Social Media Marketing. This article adds an interesting twist to our discussion as the author, Aaron Wall, provides examples of linkbait gone astray, campaigns that were so successful that their results made Google suspect their validity. Now I don't know how many of you are planning mega-sized linkbait projects, but this article is worth a read. It's a good reminder that linkbait should only be used in conjunction with, and in proportion, to your other marketing efforts.

    Comment by Heidi Cool — September 11, 2007 @8:11 pm

  7. I use linkbait and its working well for me. In my opinion, quality content is must to succeed in linkbait.

    Comment by Himanshu — September 12, 2007 @1:49 am

  8. Heidi, I'm glad you picked up on that SEO Book article, because that's exactly the kind of thing that concerns me when discussing linkbaiting with clients, who could potential trigger something like that with their marketing reach. It's also interesting to note that Google effectively penalize you for good guerrilla marketing strategies, which is lamentable. Sometimes, I don't think Google keep the pace of change as well as they could. And it's not like linkbaiting is all that new...

    Comment by Wayne Smallman — September 12, 2007 @3:07 am

  9. I think it's like trying to catch fish with a net while making sure the dolphins don't get caught in the process. While they are trying to penalize the spammers and Black Hat types, a few legitimate folks get caught in the process. When sorting at a certain level of detail, you still need to involve humans in the process...until the algorithms become far more sophisticated than they are now. (And they're pretty impressive, as they stand.)

    Comment by Heidi Cool — September 12, 2007 @11:58 am

  10. I just noticed that your post title in the url is different than the title of the post. In WordPress speak I think this is called the slug. It's the end part of the url - in this case '/linkbait'. How did you accomplish this? Is this a MT plugin? I spent a little time over at the MT community site and couldn't find any tricks to accomplish this. Do tell ;-)

    Comment by dave — September 20, 2007 @3:28 pm

  11. Dave, The short url option is included in our installation of Movable Type. When you go to your entry page, look for the short name field. Whatever you type there will show up as the end of your url. I didn't even notice it at first, but once I found it I never looked back. It beats the heck out of those 12 mile long urls one can get.

    Comment by Heidi Cool — September 22, 2007 @2:04 pm

  12. Brilliant Heidi! Just brilliant.

    Comment by dave — September 25, 2007 @11:00 am

  13. I just mentioned on another post that we are searching for excellent SEO & SEM offerings at higher ed institutions. Not much luck. But glad I stumbled across this site. Some excellent info. Say hi to everyone in Cleveland!

    Comment by Arnie — November 16, 2007 @10:45 pm

  14. Enter the Secret Amazon Web Pages: http://bargains-hunter.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-find-bargains-at-amazons-secret.html Amazon Secret Web Pages

    Comment by IndutleBeatte — November 19, 2007 @11:42 am

  15. Thanks for the link bait article. It looks like this article can be linkbait itself.

    Comment by uGuX SEO Blog — December 17, 2007 @12:54 pm

  16. I love linkbait- use the method all the time. Typically we run blog swaps where highly respected industry bloggers swap blogs with one another- we'll announce the event in a press release and watch as the rest of the industry links to each of us. I consider that a mass linkbait campaign because more than 1 blog benefits.

    Comment by REBlogGirl — March 5, 2008 @9:04 am

  17. Well, when we talk about Linkbaiting, it is often written about in negative terms. ‘Baiting’ can be regarded as a sense of trying to trick or trap an unsuspecting person or thing into doing something that they don’t really want to do. While this is accurate with some forms of linkbaiting it is not true with others.

    This is the area of the debate around the term ‘linkbaiting’ and some of the practices that people talk about it incorporating. Some argue strongly that it is just a by-product of quality content, others argue that many linkbaiting strategies border on spam, others seem to talk about linkbait as being the answer to all web promotional problems (increasingly SEO companies are offering linkbaiting services).

    Quite frankly, its always been a difficult term to be definitive about as it covers a lot of different practices ranging from running awards or competitions, through to writing attacking posts on high profile bloggers in the hope of them biting back and linking to you, through to providing other bloggers or site owners with tools (with embedded links back to your own site) that they can put on their blogs… In reality the term ‘linkbaiting’ is a new term for something that webmasters have been doing for many years.”

    Comment by SEO Philadelphia — March 18, 2008 @1:50 am

  18. Can developing widgets help with linkbait? I am hearing that widgets are now starting to become devalued by Google. Any thoughts?

    Comment by Dan — March 22, 2008 @1:29 pm

  19. I had a completely different concept of "linkbait" - I don't know that I've ever tried it, but I can see where it could be beneficial

    Comment by ines — March 30, 2008 @10:15 pm

  20. Linkbaiting isn't something I've tried yet. Seems like it would be most successful if you have a large network already. I'll have to brainstorm some great linkbait ideas. Thanks!

    Comment by Christopher Myers — March 31, 2008 @10:43 am

  21. Heidi - I love your thoughts that it's for special occasion - I've been nervous about doing it but you've inspired me. Thanks

    Comment by Cyndee — April 18, 2008 @2:25 pm

  22. Linkbait is useful but the article must still be compelling..IMO..but great info.

    Comment by Robin — May 2, 2008 @10:35 pm

  23. Hmmm this gives a whole new perspective of how to write an article... thanks

    Comment by Utah SEO — May 8, 2008 @1:23 pm

  24. So far, I do not think I have had any of this happen, but I do see A LOT of power in this. In learning about SEO I am often very hesitant since I really don't know how Google is going to react.

    Comment by Stephen Wolfe — May 21, 2008 @9:07 pm

  25. Grat information from the perspective of how we write in the real estate blog world. Thanks.

    Comment by Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog — May 25, 2008 @1:50 am

  26. The word 'linkbait' just seems to conjure up negative things for me. I keep reading things about linkbaiting that make it sound like it's a bad thing to do. And yet, it might not be after all.

    Comment by Ann Cummings — June 8, 2008 @5:25 pm

  27. Link bait seems to be a huge debate lately in the blogosphere. I have yet to find something great to write about, be linked to, and create some solid linkbait.

    Comment by Hunter Jackson — June 17, 2008 @8:09 pm

  28. I think the term in and of itself makes this sound like it is a sub standard thing to do. If we called this "search copy" or "websmart copy" it may be perceived as something more innocuous like "call to action" or "tagline", etc. My two bits.

    Comment by Minden Real Estate — June 21, 2008 @2:57 pm

  29. I haven't tried link bait, and never really understood it that well. Your article helps with my understanding of it. One thing that concerns me, being in real estate, is that I have a lot of potential clients reading my blog (at least I hope they are), and I would be concerned about offending some people who would otherwise use my services. I'm not sure how to get around that. I do appreciate the good info. It is great food for thought.

    Comment by Karl Burger — June 21, 2008 @10:55 pm

  30. Karl, As with anything it depends on your content. What you include should still be relevant to your readers. If it is not then it won't be successful linkbait anyway!

    Comment by Heidi Cool — June 22, 2008 @8:05 pm

  31. Great information. Very useful and inspiring.

    Comment by Tom — July 25, 2008 @1:46 pm

  32. Can anyone suggest a very good seo book?`';

    Comment by Leo King — June 24, 2010 @12:49 am

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