Link-baiting is the practice of crafting content that is designed to get other content producers to link to it. The purpose is to increase the number of inbound links to your content and thus improving its performance in search engine results.
Link-bait content falls into one of two major categories:
Timeliness Content – Create timely content that is trending. News cycles are fast and fleeting, so to take advantage of this technique, you have to draft content quickly to get caught in the updraft while the topic is hot. Generally, the content only remains relevant for a short period before it burns itself out, relegating your content to the trash heap of non-relevant content.
Evergreen Content – Create content that is everlasting and not trendy. Content such as the blog posts that summarized the key points in Roy Garn’s groundbreaking book, The Magic Power of Emotional Appeals, remains just as applicable to today as it was over 50 years ago when it was written. When it comes to creating timeless content, you must ask yourself, “Are people searching for this information, and what can I do that will make it better and accessible to more people?”
Here are some examples of popular link-bait content:
Videos have a viral component to them. I believe this is due to the fact that people are less inclined to read a story than to watch a video. Having a link to YouTube is okay, but a link to your page with the video embedded is far better.
E-books and other downloadable content make great lures for link-baiting.
Infographics are great baits for links because of their visual appeal and the concise nature of their content. Since they are so visual, they are often linked to and shared by other content creators.
Tools, such as industry-specific calculators like a Body Mass Index (BMI) or Carbohydrate calculator, can make great link-baits.
Your ultimate goal is to create content people want to share. You want to create content that provides insight a that engages your audience to such a degree that they feel compelled to share it with their network.
How do you incorporate link-baiting into your business marketing?
