What makes effective link bait?

Sometimes it is not simply enough to pen a well written and informative blog post (or other content) for your website. If you want people to actually read your post and also increase the amount of traffic
coming into your site, then you are going to need some sort of bait to encourage people to link back to the blog in question and/or your website. In the industries of web marketing and SEO (search engine optimisation), these hooks are known as “link bait.”

But what constitutes link bait exactly? And what does the most effective bait entail?

Matt Cutts – an SEO expert employed by Google – describes link bait as simply “something people want to link to.” Link bait is supposed to provide outreach (the act of hunting and securing relevant and useful contacts) on your behalf. The bait can take the form of written or illustrated opinions or facts, images, videos, advice...the options are almost endless. The only limitation is that the content is of interest to a significant number of people. It goes without saying that link bait that does not provoke back links from an array of different places across the web has failed in its role.

That’s not to say you cannot target slightly more niche groups however. A piece of web content discussing the difference levels of “yobbish” behaviour contained between two competing major league football teams (which both have large followings; for example Liverpool and Manchester United) can still attract a lot of attention. It is important to remember however, that controversy will often be greeted with questions regarding the quality and/or authority of such content. Bad link bait and negative attention are not one and the same though. Let me explain with an example:
Journalist Richard Littlejohn penned an article (Why my wife's PoW grandad wouldn't mark a minute's silence for the Japanese) telling Daily Mail readers how the world should not send money, provisions or even pray for the wellbeing of the Japanese population in the wake of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake and resulting tsunami. The controversial statements saw UK Twitter feeds erupt with peoples distaste. But was the Daily Mail worried? Of course not – the paper is known for its sensationalistic positioning and the tweets drove thousands of people to visit and back link to the site via their own tweets and retweets (RTs) as this pie chart from HashTacking.com shows;
 

Creating a storm of backlash isn’t for everyone though and there are plenty of positive ways to get people to link to your site or blog. Detailed, instructional “how to” guides can generate a lot of interest as can exclusive information or interviews from key experts in whichever industry your website relates to. Solid information sources aside, you should always offer your audience something that none of your competitors (or anyone else on the web) has done previously.

Competitions (and therefore prizes!) provide instant incentive for back linking are probably one of the most effective link baits – especially if those who want to enter them can only do so if they link back are spread the details using social networking mediums such as Twitter and Facebook.

Lastly, it is imperative to remember that a good piece of link bait is useless should it be presented in an awful way. You should ensure that the page containing the link bait is aesthetically clean, well laid out easy to read and largely advertising free. Including all of the relevant social media bookmarking buttons (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Del.icio.us...) will enable your content to be easily shared. Solid block of texts with no images does not make for an engaging page and content on such page is far less likely to read and therefore; shared.

Kat Cole has learnt a substantial amount regarding the art of link bait in her time as a marketing assistant for Easy Offices in Soho. Outside of working hours, Kat is a keen live music attendee and also enjoys (badly) playing guitar.