Mystic Liquid

Everyone is constantly on the prowl for the next great piece of link bait. What website owner or SEO wouldn’t want that boom in traffic and links to their site? It also doesn’t hurt that all those links also come with some great keywords as anchor text. The only SEO’s I know that don’t think about linkbait are the bad one or the ones that aren’t worth giving money to.

Luckily, I don’t consider myself a bad SEO but that doesn’t mean I hit the nail on the head every time I try to generate some popular linkbait. Creating one that works is hard work combined with a little bit of luck and timing.

I’ve learned a few tricks from reading other people’s blogs but mostly through trial and error. I’ve created some good linkbait pieces for Mystic Liquid and I also came up with my fair share of bad ones. I won’t link to these because it’s my blog and I would rather not embarrass myself.

But what makes something linkbait? I’ve read some industry people claim that almost anything can be linkbait as long as it elicits a need for people to link to. That’s only somewhat true. Yes, the idea behind it is to get a great amount of website owners to link to in a short period of time but it also needs to be on topic, not just any post you feel like throwing together.

Here a few other thoughts I have of what makes a great linkbait post:

·Create content worth reading - You can have an awesome looking website full of images and flash but if there is no useful information on it, then what’s the point? Your website’s content not only needs to be well thought out but also amazing. It needs to be something so incredible that everyone will be talking about it. If you can do that for your audience then the links will keep coming.

·While you’re at it, make it unforgettable and compelling - The better the quality of your content, the better your chances are for finding return visitors to your site. Sure it’s great to get people to read your blog post initially but the true sign of a successful site is by getting them to come back. You should start to see a return from your effort by seeing a greater number of links back.

·Tell something interesting - No one wants to link to your blog if it’s just another ordinary post that is so dull it will put you to sleep. I found that one of the more effective techniques in linkbaiting is by telling a story, better yet telling an interesting story. Give someone a reason to read it and like it so much that they recommend it to a friend to read. That’s the type of response you want from your linkbait post.

·Target a subject that’s hot right now - What are people talking about in the blogosphere? These are the topics you need to address. That means you need to be constantly informed of the latest industry news no matter what the niche market may be. Quickly scan through popular social sites or even browse the pages of StumbleUpon or Digg to see what everybody is talking about.

·Know your audience - Your linkbait should be targeted to those potential visitors. It needs to be written for people who want or are interested in what you offer. If you specialize in website design and your linkbait is about kittens, don’t expect any favorable results from your effort.

The simple fact is that linkbait is just like any other article, blog post, or picture on a web page. The only difference is that it is specifically done for the sole purpose of gathering as much links from as many different sources as possible.

Everyone always talks about their best linkbait ideas but I want to hear about some of your worst. Let us know some of the stinkers you guys have come up with.