What is link bait?

Link baiting?! Link bait?!

I subscribe to a job board that lists companies who want to hire SEO Managers and SEO Gurus of one type or another. One of the job qualifications that seems to be popping up more and more these days is:

“..must be proficient in link baiting strategies…”

Like much SEO jargon, link baiting is simply a new term for activities that people have been doing for some time already. Link baiting are the activities of creating online content to which other people want to link. - i.e do something great that other websites will link to.

Here’s a brief list of some link-baiting techniques.

Note that for businesses, some of the techniques might require ongoing internal efforts - such as a marketing intern or in-house staff blogging on a regular a basis.

Create a valuable resource for your industry or niche and post it online.

The resource could be a top 20 list, a special report, how to guide, or story about your industry (or people in it) that few know. Keep in mind - your goal is not to sell but to inform and entertain - provide something of value that others will want to link to and share with colleagues.

Interview prominent people in your industry and publish the interviews.

You could interview someone via phone or email. Or record the interview and publish it as a podcast. There are “rock stars” in any niche. No matter how small the industry or group, some people stand out. Talk to them. And when someone searches for that person’s name on google? They find your website and your interviw.

Tie some of the interviews to specific industry events. Is there a conference coming up? Interview the organizer or one of the keynotes. They will be happy for the free publicity and you will get conference goers to take a look at your website. They may even link to your interview.

Write regular blog posts and articles.

You have experts on your staff, do you not? Let them share their expertise online. Have them write interesting and informative articles or publish technical information that few people know.

They could be the first to write about news and developments in your niche. Do it often enough, and you will get repeat visitors and, um LINKS.

Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest.

Do you have a new product or product line coming out? Offer a prize to the person that gives you best name for it. or who can write the best description, or gives the most unique use for it.

Use Your Imagination: Do something new that has not been done in your niche.

Be the first to research and document something in your industry and then post it online. Or be the first to doing something on the internet - could the CEO in your company be the first in your industry to blog? Do you have someone on staff that could create a free tool or application and give it away?

Coin a new acronym in your industry and get people to talk about it.

This one should be fairly simple. Ever heard of the Nagy Method? Me neither. But let me see if I can make it up. N = NEW. A= AND G=GREAT Y=?? Yodelling? Yoda? Y2K? Aha! How about YouTube? Nagy stands for another link-baiting technique: Create a New And Great YouTube video. In other words, C. Nagy.

On a cautionary note, you may want to view a brief post and discussion on some possible limitations to linkbaiting on the SEOMOZ website