I have heard of the term "link bait" a few times but never bothered to look it up. I know that it is some sort of SEO technique and automatically assumed that it is black hat. I mean, we all know what happens to fishes when they take the bait, right?

Anyway, I did promise to do a series of hubs about basic SEO techniques in my hub about Anchored Backlinks, so I looked up the term on Google. It turns out that linkbaiting is a legitimate SEO technique and is widely used to get backlinks to your hub, website or blog.

In short, link bait is simply content that encourages surfers to bookmark your site, or webmasters to link to your site - without asking. :)

There are many different types of link bait but in general, they can be divided into the following categories:

Humour

This is one of the more common types of bait. The idea is to write or present something so funny that your visitors will thank you for writing it because it made their day.

An example could be this hub about American travellers titled, "Why Americans Should Never Be Allowed To Travel". Those stories are real stories told by travel agents about American travellers. I won't laugh too hard at the travellers though, as I'm sure we have all been gulity of one or more of those gaffes at one time or another.

Resource

A resource bait is always a good idea. It can be something along the lines of a list of websites in a common category or a how to guide or simply, great content.

My hub that lists sites that pay you to write might qualify as a resource bait.

Tool

An online tool is always a good bait. You know, the kind of tools that calculates your BMI, or converts a .doc file to a .pdf file, or converts between metric and imperial measurements. You will definitely get some links if you host such tools.

Controversy

Such content never fails to get attention, debate and ultimately, backlinks. But do be careful not to cross into territory that could land you in court, and cost you a lot of time and money.

Conclusion

Traffic generation is as much an art as it is a science. And your ability to generate and attract traffic is unique to you, your personality and your resources. Spend a little time trying out the various traffic generation techniques and see what works best for you. And then do more of that.