Linkbaiting – SEO Technique or Publicity for Good Content?

Linkbaiting – SEO Technique or Publicity for Good Content? (0)

James O`Brien | 28/11/2006

Linkbait can be defined as any piece of content specifically designed with the intention of generating as many links from as many sources as possible.

The emergence of linkbait as an actual SEO technique can be directly associated with the adoption of web 2.0 technologies and the growing influence of social networking pages such as Technorati and Digg. Thus it is possible with the correct content placed in the correct place with the right audience to create a tremendous influx of traffic.

The question then emerges, what is the right content? Obviously this question cannot be answered with 100 per cent accuracy but here are a few thoughts. Firstly, controversy is a killer. If you can generate a convincing point of view that runs against the grain of what is put forth by the mass media or other accepted doctrine, then people may choose to link to you.

Secondly, timely and current content. With the explosion of constantly updated news blogs, if you can cover a news story while it’s still a current event and spread the word rapidly enough traffic may increase and thus generate more links.

Finally, any content that is funny, quirky, crazy or just plain cool will always generate interest. This is finely illustrated by Youtube, who have generated masses of links through posting video feeds on just about any topic you can think of. Creating cool content that people will refer their friends to is a surefire method of increasing the count of your inbound links.

In conclusion linkbait, on the surface can be described as publicity for good content, however when a web author researches and presents quality content that generates an interest among the public and this was his/her intention then a technique is born, linkbaiting.

Wiliam are vastly experienced in all forms linkbaiting and the SEO benefits associated with its implementation.

tags: Technology