What Is Link Bait? Seo Guide To Creating Link Baits & Examples Of Effective Link Baits
What is Link bait ?
Let’s be real: despite what many fellow SEO’s tell us, it’s not easy to create outstanding content that people will want to link to.
It works the same way as how a fish is selective on only taking a certain type of fishing bait –
And get HOOKED!
That’s where Link Bait comes into play.
Link bait is one of the most effective link-building techniques that earn a lot of backlinks when done right. It involves creating insanely good content that readers find useful and are willing to link to in the different pieces of content they work on.
In other words, your ultimate aim is to get your “linkerati” BAITED!
What’s the recipe for attracting links, you ask? Well, it’s oh-fish-ial that:
- Working with the linkbait strategy will require you to consider creating linkable content from case studies to long-form content that will facilitate backlinks from authoritative sites increasing your organic search traffic and visibility tremendously.
Think of it as creating a gold mine of valuable information that will pay off and earn hundreds of backlinks. You are using one bait to get as many “linkerati” hooked at the same time!
It is a great addition to your SEM strategy that will see your website start performing well on the search engine.
Table of Contents
Linkbait vs Clickbait
Linkbait basically refers to content created to attract backlinks and social shares and is mainly a success when the content created offers great value. [1]
On the other hand, clickbait is content that is designed to attract more click-throughs, increasing the website’s click-through rate.
When it comes to clickbait, you’ll often find the use of catchy headlines that evoke the reader’s curiosity to want to learn more.
The content covered may either be good or bad depending on the aim of the website.
However, these two techniques can be used to further your agenda and earn you great backlinks.
You could use catchy headlines that act as clickbait and direct readers to the incredible content you have created.
The content and information covered will determine the success of the link bait strategy.
Why Link Bait is an Effective Link Building Tactic
Linkbait is an effective link-building tactic mainly because it is one of the few techniques that give you full control over how successful you are. [2]
Other link-building strategies feature different factors that may hinder the success of any backlinks to your site such as link quality, domain ratings and content score.
However, with link baiting all you have to do is work on creating linkable content – Provide value and you’ll get incredible backlinks that will improve your Google rankings significantly.
So, How Does Link Bait Work?
Creating content may feature different options including infographics, long-form articles, videos, and case studies among others.
When creating such types of content, you must aim to offer quality.
Think of your content as the go-to guides and offer incredible information that your readers will enjoy and benefit from.
For instance, if you work with website development, you could cover the different tools that your readers would find useful for their creations.
When your readers love the content created, they then link the post to the content they create or share it on social media.
Advantages of Link Baits Into Your SEO Strategy
Linkbait is an incredible link-building strategy and comes with additional benefits for your business. Some of the advantages of using link baits for your business include:
1. Making Your Web Resource More Recognizable
Link baits allow you to get more backlinks to your website which over time accumulates and gradually boosts your search rankings.
Having a lot of backlinks to your website or post signals that more people would enjoy access to the information.
This trickles down from the posts gaining the backlinks to other pages on the website.
With this, you find your website ranks higher and is more recognizable by visitors in search engines.
Linkbait is a great complementary tactic that goes well with SEO content writing.
It allows your piece to continue ranking higher with the help of SEO and the backlinks you get from your readers.
2. Providing a Quick Traffic Boost
When you create link-worthy content that is so good readers can not help but link to it, you are bound to get a lot of traffic. [3]
This traffic will be generated both organically and from the social shares and mentions your piece gets.
Linkbait paves the way for easier ranking on Google which is important especially when it comes to growing your traffic.
You get to increase your website visits and completely reduce any google penalty that comes with relying heavily on SEO.
When people search for what your business does or covers, you’ll be among the top pages allowing you to get more clicks and visitors.
3. Establishing Useful Business Connections
Given the fact that link baits allow your website to rank higher, you get the required exposure to align you with the perfect connections.
Potential business partners will learn about you and reach out to you to work with you in different capacities.
This is a great way to get your name out there and be recognized in your specific industry.
This exposure could lead to worthwhile collaborations that will result in amazing products created.
Additionally, such partnerships will allow you to continue offering your readers more quality content they can consume.
4. Reinforcing Brand Image Online
When you create linkbait content, you position yourself and your brand as an authority in that particular field.
People love to interact and share content that is useful and offers readers actionable content and valuable information.
With more people linking to your work, your brand image soars and you become a recognized authority in the industry. [4]
More people can then turn to your website for more topics, services, or products that you have.
What Makes A Great Link Bait? Get to Know The Best Practices of Link Bait!
Now that we have covered what is link bait and the advantages of it, we now need to look at what makes a good linkbait.
At this point, a lot of factors come into play that lends to each other’s success – think of these as your linkbait checklist for creating awesome content.
Here are the main aspects you’ll need to consider when creating a great link baits!
Use an Attractive Title
Attractive titles are an incredible way to get people to click on the content you create.
They work to offer first impressions which matter when looking to get people to read your content – the title works as clickbait links attracting more clicks to your post.
This is one of the ways you can take advantage of clickbait to earn more backlinks with link bait.
Taking your time to come up with the best link bait titles that are clear and concise is the best way to take advantage of this.
Let the readers know what they can expect from the get-go when they start engaging with your content.
This can be done by curating a title that is attractive and that attracts more clicks to your posts.
Make it Visual Appealing – Content Visualization
Most content that performs well especially with the linkbait strategy will always feature the use of high-quality visuals. Visuals come in handy to break up long chunks of text and also make it easier to digest information.
Adding an infographic to your content that drives home the message you are communicating is a good idea. Additionally, if your content is a how-to post, consider including screenshots of some of the steps or resources you mention. [5]
Including visuals in your content makes it easier for people to consume and enjoy your work. These two factors are essential to get the reader to link to or share your content.
Incorporate Complete Guides & Resources or Go-To Resource
The best way to get people to link to your website or content is by being a resource of quality information.
Generally, readers tend to seek out content that will help them get from point A to point B.
This is why offering great content that is jam-packed with a lot of value is more likely to get more backlinks.
When creating content that offers value, you need to be mindful of your target audience.
Long-form content and case studies will work well for some industries while a visual post featuring a curation of design examples can also do quite well in a different industry. [6]
Value is highly dependent on the industry you are in and the exact topic you intend to cover. T
ake your time to research what kind of content would offer the most value and create that.
Make it Controversial
One of the best ways to get more people to click, consume, and enjoy your posts is by riding on the trending news.
Weaving what is currently happening to fit in with your brand and message is a great way to do this.
Strive to create newsworthy content that readers engage with and can easily link to or share with their audience.
There are different ways to take advantage of the trends and news when creating content.
Do your research and create a quality piece that readers actually want to read and that will perform well.
Data, Surveys, and Studies
Offering in-depth information covered in the form of surveys, data, and studies is a great way to take advantage of link baits – such content is filled with extensive information that most readers find useful. [7]
This allows them to cite your findings to support some of the arguments they carry when creating their posts.
Doing this is an incredible asset because it also positions them as authorities in the sight of their readers.
Creating such resources is essential to working with link baiting successfully.
Get Influencers Involved or Ego Bait
Different influencers in different industries pull massive crowds in their respective fields.
Covering a topic with or in collaboration with such influencers allows your pieces to get more traction.
This is the case mainly because of their status in society and also because they have valuable information to offer.
They are experts in their respective fields which has seen them gain a great following of people who want to learn more. Take advantage of such connections and create content featuring such incredible influencers.
Additionally, you could rely on ego baiting and mention some of the influencers in your posts.
Mentioning an influencer in a positive light may result in them sharing the post which will promote its reach and performance. [8]
Source: Business 2 Community
Emotional Hook
When creating your content, think of the best way to evoke some kind of emotion from your readers.
You could do this by adding humor and making your content lively.
You aim to trigger the right kind of emotions and ensure that your content is delivered positively.
This is especially true with humor and excitement where they enjoy the content and have to share with others to brighten up their day.
Give Away or Give Free Stuff
Giveaways are incredible ways to improve your link baiting strategy and take full advantage of the opportunities presented to you.
You could offer a free ebook, webinar, or physical product in the posts that you create.
If the free stuff is something that improves the lives of your readers, they will be more inclined to share and link to your posts. [9]
Effective Ways of Link Baits: 8 Effective Types of Link Baits Strategy
If you are wondering how to conduct linkbait and make it work for your business, there is one major key component you’ll need to stay aware of.
This is with regards to the kind of content you produce.
So, what are the types of linkbait you can work with? Well, there are specific linkbait content types that are effective and will perform incredibly well when produced right.
Here are some of the contents you can create for effective link baits.
1. Guide & Manuals (Useful Niche Content)
I’m sure you have come across how-to guides that have taken you from being a complete novice in a subject to knowing enough to pursue it.
Well, such in-depth guides and manuals perform quite well and are designed to be an all-in-one powerhouse.
These guides and manuals can be written for different industries and are designed to be incredibly well-received.
People yearn to have a piece of content that covers all the basics in one.
As a marketer, creating link bait user guides and manuals for your business is a worthwhile investment.
It allows you to cater to all your reader’s needs who later want to share the incredible resource you have offered to them.
When creating such guides and manuals, you want to aim for long-form content that is well researched and presented.
Additionally, include links to other resources and tools that help your readers execute on the information you are offering.
Adding visuals to break up the texts and give actual examples with screenshots is also an important aspect.
For instance, ‘The Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Moz’ is a great example of a quality and well-researched guide that takes you from being a beginner to learning more about SEO.
2. Humorous Content
Adding humor to content pieces is also a great way to build your link bait strategy.
It allows you to offer incredible write-ups that are relatable and bring joy to the readers you are writing for.
Humor gives the perfect ground for you to be creative with the content you produce.
Additionally, it allows you to connect more with the readers and allows you to better get your message across.
I know for a fact when I see or read something humorous that makes my day, I’d want to share it with friends and family.
This is the same case when it comes to your readers. You’ll find that such content will attract a lot of social shares and backlinks from different sources.
Consider using effective CTAs to better direct your readers on what they should do after enjoying the great content.
A good example of this is a post created by Clickhole.com that featured an insect-infested PC photo with a catchy headline announcing their site will be unavailable for a while.
The words used in conjunction with the photo brought the humor to life and attracted a lot of backlinks to the same post.
3. Content That Provokes Emotion
When creating linkbait articles, consider the kind of emotions you are evoking from your readers.
There are different emotions you can play at from excitement to anger.
It all depends on the kind of attention you want to attract and the message you are trying to send.
This is an effective strategy that allows you to give your 2 cents on a controversial or sensitive topic.
As a marketer, using such content will help you connect with your readers and present them with a unique way of looking at things. This will attract a lot of shares and allow your content to be linked back to with ease.
One great example is a post that was written on the Upworthy blog covering the sensational story of Zach Sobiech.
Zach was a teenage musician who was suffering from a fatal and rare cancer that unfortunately claimed his life.
However, before then, Zach got to check so many boxes off the things he wanted to do in life and got to fully enjoy the experience.
The sheer willingness to continue striving for his goals and dreams despite the illness is what evoked the most emotion from people. The piece has been cited in different blogs and continues to be shared given the uplifting story it covers.
4. Polls and Research Results (Statistics)
Basing your content on facts and actual figures is a great link-baiting strategy.
Consumers of content are growing more aware of how easy it is to fabricate news and stories making it more important to back up your claims.
If you can conduct polls and research on relevant topics to your field and offer such content, then your site will get the necessary shares and links.
As a marketer, consider what your readers would like more stats and data on and work to present actual figures to them.
This will result in your piece being cited especially when other creators cover content that is in line with your research.
The statistics from the World Health Organization on the Covid-19 pandemic is a great example.
The statistics have been cited a lot of times and gained shares from different creators in the field. When working on such poll and statistic pieces, invest in your headlines and make them catchy.
5. Topical and Relevant Subjects
Finding topics that are currently hot and relevant in the world or your particular field is essential.
It allows you to curate and create content that goes well with the topics and allows you to offer on-point content for your readers.
As a marketer, there are different topics that readers want to learn more about daily.
These topics feature aspects that affect them directly and influence their lives.
For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic has been and continues to be a relevant subject that a lot of creators are relying on
In relation to this, the Worldometers website has become the go-to resource for updates on statistics and offers verified facts and figures.
This has allowed them to continue gaining more backlinks and social shares from their readers.
6. Prizes and Special Offers
Offering prices and special offers in the content you produce is a great way to improve your link baits.
This strategy involves you offering your reader’s a gift when they complete a small commitment task for you.
This task could be sharing your work on their social media platforms or sharing the gift offer to attract more shares and links to your website.
It is a viable strategy that requires you to have a clear understanding of your social media target audience.
Once you have this in check you can better determine the kind of prizes or offers that resonate the most with them.
An example is from the humble bundle site where they use this strategy to get thousands of shares and backlinks to their posts.
7. Visually Attractive Content
Blocks of text with no images to break them up and add character do not appeal to anyone.
This is why you need to factor this in and ensure that you feature quality graphic images that depict the topic you are covering.
These images could include screenshots, stock photos, and infographics among others.
Using such visuals in your content allows you to ensure that it is appealing to readers.
Not to mention the fact that reading text that is filled with images makes it far much better to scan through and understand what is covered.
With such visually appealing content, creators are more likely to link to your posts and share the graphics on social media.
8. Content That Became Viral on Social Media
Social Media is a source of a lot of news and people like to stay updated on the recent happenings in the world.
You can take advantage of this and cover upcoming relevant news in your feed first to get the best of this link baiting strategy.
Covering viral content can get you recognized and earn you quality backlinks.
However, this strategy is a bit of a stretch given that you need to stay constantly updated on every relevant happening in your industry.
4 Ways to Find Your Link Bait Prospect
When looking for the best content to create as your link bait and potential linkers, there are a few options you can consider working with.
Some of the options to find prospects for your link bait campaign includes the following:
#1. Use Link Prospecting Tools and Advanced Search Queries
With tools such as Buzzstream, SEO MOZ link acquisition and juicy link finder, you can easily work on prospecting for links.
These tools also allow you to come up with advanced search queries from a single keyword.
Doing this allows you to see what content your competitors covered that was linked to and performed well.
This will educate your choices on the kind of content to work on and fine-tune. Maybe add a different twist to it and create a content piece that will be linked to and shared as well.
#2. Competitor Research
Competitor research involves you checking out what your competitors are doing and seeing what works for them.
When creating content, it is best not to reinvent the wheel but rather focus on what has been done before and what worked.
This will give you a roadmap of the kind of content that works well in your industry and allow you to create more of that.
There are different tools to help you conduct accurate competitor research including Ahrefs top pages. This is a tool that will let you see potential linkers that you can potentially contact for outreach.
#3. Find Top Blog Lists
There are top blogs in your industry that have an established following and have grown their platform quite well.
Finding these blogs will help you reach out and see if they can link to the quality resources you have created on your website.
Top blogs in your industry will result in much better conversions in terms of boosting traffic. Additionally, once the readers read and like your piece, they can then share on their social media or link it to the content they provide.
Read also: Best Digital Marketing Blogs To Follow For Marketers
#4. Social Platform
There are different social platforms where you can get prospects for your link baits.
Platforms like Twitter, forums and quora offer a great way to see what people are talking about.
This allows you to create quality link bait content that addresses their concerns and answers their questions.
You can then share the content as in-depth coverage of the discussions taking place and gain a lot of traction that way. Your readers will find it helpful that you took the time to cater to their questions and in turn share your content.
How to Promote Your Link Bait Content: 3 Ways to Maximize Reach for Sharing and Getting Likes
Working on creating high-quality link bait content is all great but it is honestly wasted effort if people don’t get to see it.
This is a major reason why you need to promote your linkbait content on as many different platforms and avenues as you can.
You could also rely on SEO services to get your website ranking high for organic searches.
Here are some of the best resources to take advantage of to promote your link baits content and maximize it’s potential!
Social Media
There are different social media platforms that you can leverage and share your content to help it reach your target audience.
The best way to take advantage of this is if you have built a following leveraging social media management. It allows you to have a wide range of people ready to consume and share your content.
However, you can also boost your posts to help you reach a wider pool of people who are not already in your following base.
Take advantage of all the platforms from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin to share the content you’ve created.
Press Releases
Press releases are a great option if you published a study that is worth looking into.
People will get to consume the content and share it to different avenues allowing you to get more backlinks to the content you created.
Email Outreach
Email outreach is a great option especially if you don’t have a huge following on social media.
It involves reaching out to bloggers who have shown interest or share content related to what you shared.
With incredible insights on the piece you produce, most bloggers will willingly share it and link to it in the content they work on.
Questions to Test Your Linkbait’s Usability
What’s next?
When working on your linkbait, there are a few stages you need to go through to ensure that you get the best from this strategy.
Going through these stages will help with testing an effective link bait to ensure it performs well.
Here are some of the stages and the aspects you need to cater to.
1. Brainstorm Ideas
The first stage involves brainstorming ideas for the kind of content you plan on creating for your linkbait. Here are a few questions you’ll need to address at this stage:
What’s the topic for your link bait campaign?
First, look at the topics you would like to cover and their relevance in your respective industry.
What type of linkbait content to use?
Determine the type of content that would best suit this kind of content. This may include linkbait articles, infographics, linkbait listicles, and studies, among others.
What is the key message?
Generate the idea of the content you’ll be working on. Figuring out the general idea of your post will help you structure and allow you to offer incredible value.
Is the visualization easy to follow?
Add visuals and ensure that they communicate accurately and they are easy to follow.
Is the title clear and easy to understand?
The title should be clear and easy to understand what the content covered is all about.
Does the title convey the story you are telling?
The title should feature aspects of what you intend to include in your content giving your readers a clear view of what to expect.
2. Production
In the production phase, you need to figure out the creation of your content. Here are some of the questions that you should consider.
What will you need to help you deliver the best content for your link bait?
You can then set out to seek help and work with the people suited for this particular purpose. This will also allow you to consider all the tools and resources you’ll need to invest in.
What timelines will you be working with?
Keep your timelines in check to help you avoid allocating too much time and resources when you could have finished the piece earlier. When your team is clear on the dates, they can deliver the finished results on time to allow for the branding process to take place.
What will your branding entail?
Branding your content is an important aspect to consider and ensure that you invest wisely in. This is where your brand is allowed to shine through the content depicting the exact image you prefer.
3. Publication and Promotion
When publishing your work, there are a few aspects you need to cater to. Some of the questions you should answer at this stage are as follows.
How will you go about achieving your ideal content placement?
Content placement is an important aspect to consider and ensure that you get right. It allows you to also consider how easy it is for your readers to share your content and ensure that they can easily do that.
How will you promote your content?
With your content well established and published, it is time to start promoting and getting people to your piece. You have different options as we discussed earlier for you to take advantage of.
4. Reviewing & Enhancing
At this stage, your concerns should be directed towards the progress and impact of your content piece. Consider the following questions.
How often will you review and edit your content?
Getting back to your content to review and enhance its performance is an important initiative. This is especially true when tracking the links and shares you get.
What are your outreach tactics and how can you refine them?
You can add to your outreach efforts and continue refining your offers to different people. This will allow you to get all the links you deserve and enjoy having a great boost of traffic to your website.
4 Examples of Link Bait – How to Find Good Examples of ‘Link Bait’ and Come Up With ‘Link Bait’ Ideas of Your Own
There are different types of link baits that will perform in different ways.
Paying attention to what has been done before and measuring the performance is a great way to get started.
Here are some of the best linkbait examples to draw inspiration from.
The Psychology of Colors
The Psychology of Colors is an infographic created by Web FX that is visually appealing and offers well-presented pieces of information.
Infographics are a great investment provided you do them right. Web FX managed to get great shares on this particular one mainly because they focused on an evergreen content piece.
This will see their engagement and social share continue to rise – they are currently at over 2,157 likes, 2,341 tweets, and 86 linking domains.
Link Building Strategies: The Complete List
This is another great example that features the different link strategies that are explained in detail.
This is an in-depth article written by Point Blank SEO and is one of their most popular content pieces.
It has garnered over 292 social likes, 1,412 tweets, and 228 link domains.
Such a content piece offers the perfect option when looking to cover a similar topic without going too much into detail. You can just link to it.
100 Ways to Conserve Water
This is a list article created by Water Use It Wisely that covered over 100 ways to conserve water.
The article was written with the readers in mind offering an easy-to-understand writing piece.
The different ways are covered in 1 to 2 lines of brief and concise content.
This has contributed to its success with more than 2,331 likes, 1211 tweets, and 596 links.
How Americans Die
The data collected by Bloomberg on how Americans die was presented in such a visual creation that took away from what would have otherwise been boring data.
The page has continued to get more shares with over 3317 likes, 2520 tweets, and 116 link domains.
More people continue to link to this resource because it offers great data that is presented in an easy way to understand.
Conclusion
Link baiting is an incredible strategy when looking to scale and boost your website’s traffic.
Yes, it requires an investment on your part but when done right it will offer incredible rewards over time.
As a business looking to work with such a strategy, a digital marketing agency is the best option to consider.
They will offer a customer-driven marketing strategy that will play into the link baiting strategy and offer incredible results.
In addition, working with qualified professionals reduces the stress and frees up your mind to focus more on your business.
Written By: Jonie
Jonie is One Search Pro’s wordsmith aka copywriter. A curious minded individual, she loves toying with words as much as poking around random facts and quirky ideas. She writes during the day and when she’s not writing, she’s off dancing and looking for her next adventure in the world of digital marketing.
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