How To :: Effective Link Building through Link Baiting

How To :: Effective Link Building through Link Baiting
By Rob Sullivan (c) 2006

There is a tactic out there embraced by bloggers but rarely used
by typical websites. It is called Link Baiting.

In this article I explain what link baiting is and how everyone,
not just bloggers, can use it to build quality links.

This is a topic that's been around for a while but I don't think
a lot of people know what it is, or how to use it to their
advantage.

I think the name "Link Baiting" could be considered a black hat
technique which is why most people wouldn't consider it as a
legitimate organic tactic.

However link baiting is merely link building with a twist:
Rather than hunting out links, you are bringing the links to you
through unique and popular site content.

So how does Link Baiting work?

Link Baiting is just like fishing. You publish a new page on a
topic (I'll cover those later) and set it free on the web.
Hopefully others pick up on the content as fresh and interesting
and link to it. The article is the bait, and the link is the
catch.

A properly created page can capture huge links on its own with
little to no effort from you.

For example, on another site, about a year ago, I wrote an
article about the Florida Update. I spend the month or 2 after
the initial update analyzing results and I then published my
theory on what the update was.

That article has earned 88 links to date. And the best link, in
my view, is a link from the ODP from the Google News category
(click here).

In fact my article appears in the top 10, and is linked to as a
reference in many of the other top listings for a Google search
for "Florida Update."

So what was so special about the article?

While I never intended for it to be link bait, it turns out it
was a typical "hook" page. Performancing blog has a really good
summary on link baiting (http://performancing.com/node/38 )
which I will further explain here.

With link building there are essentially 5 types of "hooks" or
pages built to encourage links. They are: News, Contrary,
Attack, Resource and Humor.

A News hook is one where you report on industry news. But it's
not just a rehashing of someone else's post. It should be unique
� either a scoop that no one else has caught, or it could even
be a summary of various viewpoints. A news hook could also be
comprised of a story you have proved to be false.

Contrary hooks are when you contradict what someone else says.
It should be someone prominent in the industry and it should be
controversial.

For example, if I was to write an article that proclaimed that
Danny Sullivan's latest theory was bunk, it would probably
generate buzz. Especially if I could provide corroborating
evidence backing up my assertion.

Recently Mike Grehan posted just such an article on Clickz
(http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3575856 )
in which he again pointed out that he doesn't believe in a
Google Sandbox. He even refers to other posts in which the
Sandbox has been beaten to death.

Soon after he posted this article (which, by the way was posted
just one week ago) many other SEM's jumped on him purporting to
have proof of the Sandbox.

And, if you use Yahoo's Site Explorer
(http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com ) to look at who links to
this article, you will see that Yahoo! Has already picked up on
almost 80 links (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?
p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clickz.com%2Fexperts%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2F
article.php%2F3575856&bwm=i&bwms=p ) to this one article. I'd
say that Mike has done a great job of link baiting!

Attack hooks take the contrary hooks a step further, by
launching personal attacks on people taking the debunking of
theories to the next level. The original post
(http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=687 ) from SEOmoz was
close to an attack hook, but after they edited it, it became
less of an attack They reacted to the Mike Grehan article on the
Sandbox with some haste and turned it personal. To their credit
they did tone it down some, but it's pretty close to a flame.
Who knows, maybe this article will be considered an attack on
SEOmoz and will generate similar buzz.

A Resource hook is more of an informational page. It's one that
aggregates a bunch of information and distills it for visitors.

In fact this site is much like that. We take a bunch of news,
distill it to its most meaningful and then provide our
interpretation of what it means. Then, others pick up on the
article and either repost it, or at least link to it.

Finally is a Humour hook. With this link bait you post jokes,
funny stories, weird or funny pictures that you've found or
anything else that will warrant a review from others and
hopefully a link.

There are tons of blogs devoted to this such as the Obscure
Store & Reading Room
(http://obscurestore.typepad.com/obscure_store_and_reading )
and Small Town Misfit (http://www.smalltownmisfit.com ) which
scour the web for weird and funny stories and then display them,
encouraging others to link to them.

And it must be working � Small Town Misfit has over 1,600 Yahoo!
Links while Obscure Store has over 1,700.

So, if you were ever worried about the amount of link building
you'd have to do to become an "authority", consider link baiting
in your arsenal. It can be a very effective way of building
links quickly and easily. Also, it's an effective way to build
your reputation and brand online as more and more people learn
about you through these links.

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Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for
Textlinkbrokers.com (http://www.textlinkbrokers.com )
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