Use Link Bait to Catch Better Search Engine Rankings
I first heard of the term "link bait" from Aaron Wall (www.seobook.com) at SEO Book
(http://www.se
obook.com/archives/001113.shtml) when he mentioned it back
in a post on his SEO blog back in August of 2005. He says in his
post that if "you are in a field that can't build links
naturally create linkbait". What really is link bait? It's
something on your web site that causes someone to link to you.
Aaron gives some examples in his post, but a classic example of
link bait would be the Subservient Chicken web site by Burger
King. So many people ended up talking about that web site that
they linked to it--it currently enjoys about 29,300 links
according to Yahoo!, and ranks number one on Google for the word
chicken. By creating something on your web site that's funny,
controversial, informative, or creative, it will gain natural
links--which is the key to top search engine rankings.
You don't 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 doesn't have to cost that much to create something that
people will link to. For example, it's sometimes difficult--if
not impossible--to get your competitors to link to you. But,
consider this--take, for example, the case of Andrew. He works
for a high tech company with a lot of competition. Andrew
recently took his digital camera to an industry convention where
he took photos of many of the attendees, the booths, and some of
the after-hours events. He posted the photos on his web site
after the convention, sent out a few emails to his colleagues
and other industry insiders he met at the convention. Before he
knew it, most of Andrew's competitors were linking to his web
site and the photos he took.
One way to create link bait is to get ranked well for phrases
that will become popular in the future. As I sit here writing
this article, the term "link bait" might be a good target if
you're in the search engine marketing industry. By searching
Google for the following: allintitle:"link bait" you can
determine about how many web pages on the internet are targeting
that search phrase. Right now, as I write this, Google returns
25 results. Since that's not very many, writing content about
link bait would be a good thing for your web site. By informing
the search engine marketing industry about link bait--and
because the term is new, there's a chance that others will
search for it as it becomes a more popular phrase. As that
phrase becomes more popular, others will need something to link
to--and by ranking well for that phrase there's a good chance
that your web page about link bait will get links from other web
sites. This is a phenomenon that I've been following since 1996
when I created my first "link bait" type of web site. If you're
a search term innovator, people will link to you--and links from
other web sites mean better search engine rankings.
One of my 'pet projects' over the years (since I started doing
search engine optimization in 1996) has been to follow the
news--and if there's a topic that I am passionate about I
usually create a web page or a web site about the subject within
minutes of the 'breaking news'. In the cases where I have a web
site about a particular topic and there's breaking news about
that subject, I immediately post it on my web site. Since I'm
one of the first to have information about that subject, I end
up ranking well fairly quickly--sometimes within 24 hours. Other
people follow suit and post information on their web sites about
that topic--but since my site is already ranking well for that
search phrase, they end up linking to me. What they don't
realize is that they've fallen for my "link bait" which catches
them--they're actually helping me by linking to me and I end up
ranking well in the search engines for a very long time,
sometimes even many years. How can you take advantage of this?
If there's news in your industry, be the first to post it on
your web site (or add a new page to your site). Be the first to
get it to show up in the search engines and other people will
link to it naturally.
Create an entirely new web site on a new topic. The new site
could be funny, controversial, or just informative. Take, for
example, Paul English's IVR Cheat Sheet that he recently created
(http://paulenglish.com/ivr/). Mr. English is now enjoying thousands of links to his web
site because he created a web page that's helpful to all of us.
Not only that, because of his cheat sheet that he's posted on
his site, companies are now seeing a backlash according to an
article posted on Yahoo!
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060118/tc_nf/40949). "Companies
that rely on automated call centers have been weathering a
consumer backlash in recent weeks..." reports the article. I
don't have access to the number of visits to Mr. English's web
site, but I would suspect that he's getting a lot of traffic
based on all the high-quality links that he has--and I would
suspect that he hasn't requested any of them.
Although the term "link bait" is fairly new, the entire concept
of link bait has been around as long as the internet itself.
People have been creating controversial, funny, and informative
web sites and web site content that others naturally link to.
And with the ever-increasing popularity of blogs nowadays, the
bloggers need something to link to and talk about--why not
create some link bait on your web site so it too, can enjoy
better search engine rankings--just reel them in.