Link baiting is a powerful marketing method used via the Internet to spread the word on a particular business, product or subject. It uses the viewers to distribute the link for a page on their own site. Using this strategy means convincing another site to link back to yours, often raising your rank in search engines. Because another party is enticed into linking back to your site, the strategy is called link baiting.

Today, the Internet has become a wide source of information for people all over the world. People who browse the 'Net can get information from a variety of sources. Searching on the Internet for information is a very popular way of researching topics, products and businesses. Therefore, if you are a Website owner, it is advisable that you get your Website ranked and indexed by these search engines.

Search engines like Google have advanced algorithms that rank websites for specific keywords. A parameter of this is known as link popularity. Link popularity of a website is measured by the search engines by calculating not just the quantity of the links pointing back to the site, but also the quality. For instance, if a site on dog grooming is linked to from a large, popular site on pet services, it means far more than a link on a site featuring a wide variety of services. , but also the quality of the inbound links (i.e. links to the website from other sites).

Although there is no clear way of classifying link baiting as a while, it can be categorized broadly on the basis of different types of “hooks”. These hooks are the various reasons users choose to link back to other Websites. Here they are:

A common way of getting links back to a site by link baiting is by placing news hooks. These hooks provide information that not many other sites offer. If your site can provide some news that is interesting and relevant, then people will happily put up a link to spread the word for you.

Useful information is the key to any Website’s success. As they say in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) business, “content is king”. If a Website provides useful information to visitors that they can share with others, many site owners will happily provide a link back to the site providing the information.

A joke or a humorous cartoon sketch can also attract viewers to let others know about the site from where they got it. If the joke is funny, many people will simply link back to the original site just to spread the good cheer.

Controversy sells and everyone in marketing knows that. If you say something controversial on your site, it could turn out to be beneficial as people will want to let others know about it. However, you should not overdo it as it could turn out to be damaging to the reputation of your Website as well.

Offering some sort of additional tool could help to gain links as well. These tools could be in the form of tool bars, widgets or software. If your tool is good, you can gain popularity via these tools. Tools could also be in the form of service or animation.

Although these five hooks are broad and can vary in their success, many business owners can use them to their advantage. And if you have a site that needs more popularity, link baiting is a good way to gain it.