Linkbaiting: Beginners Guide to Effective Linkbaiting Techniques

There is nothing wrong with linkbaiting when done correctly. It can be a major plus for your websites SEO. Competition on the internet is not only fierce but plentiful. Without good SEO, your luck if you get even a trickle of traffic. One aspect of SEO is linkbaiting, a powerful way of improving your page rank. Coming up with good linkbait is not an easy task.

Effective linkbaiting offers stellar results. The key to good linkbaiting is knowing your audience and being able to grab their attention.

• "In reality the term ‘linkbaiting’ is a new term for something that webmasters have been doing for many years. From my earliest days of blogging four years ago I know I saw people doing lots of things to get links (even though the term was never used)......I guess in part we each need to think about our priorities, values and even ethics as we go about our blogging and explore this topic." (problogger)
• "The idea of link baiting is to create a piece of content which is centered on a set demand from a specific audience. Who do you want to relate to? Why would they care? What would make them likely to spread your idea?" (seobook)
• “Linkbait is the website content that targets link-friendly audiences. Its goals include high levels of traffic, visibility, branding, numerous links. Linkbait combines the practices of viral marketing with popular tech brands.”(SeoMoz)

• Linkbaiting is good content. “At the end of the day, it boils down to this one thing. Your content needs to be amazing." (2007 Guide to Linkbaiting)
• Make your content valuable and memorable. “The higher quality the content you create and the more targeted you make it, the better your chances for keeping a percentage of the traffic you initially attract and getting a higher number of links from your effort.”(SeoMoz)
• Great video linkbait tells a story. No one tells it better than Grasshopper. (Grasshopper)
• Offer useful content. The less useful your content, the less likely you are to ever receive a link to it." (Eric Ward)
• Practice being humble. “Don’t forget your roots, be humble: sometimes it can be easy to get carried away being a BlogStar or industry talking head. Remember those who helped you along the way, and that respect will help all involved.” (13 Rules of SMO)
• Brainstorm title ideas. Brainstorm title ideas for magnetic headlines. You can use the Copyblogger Cheat Sheet.

• News Hook. Fast, up to date news on breaking topics with expert commentary on the topic. Think niche. Jen did it with "Brian Mark is becoming the Oneboxer."
• Contrary Hook. This is when you refute a common myth in your niche.
  

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• Resource Hook. A helpful piece of content that everyone wants to link to. Write an extensive guide to anything. "Must Read Search Marketing Blogs"
• Attack Hook. This works much the same as the contrary hook, you just get to be much, much ruder. "Aaron Wall Gets Sued For Blogging."
• Humor Hook. People love to laugh. These seem to always get links. "Top 21 Signs You Need a Break From SEO."
• Then Interview Hook. Interview someone related to your niche.
• Incentive Hook. Give something away. Contests have worked for decades. Blogging Scholarships

• Edit, Edit, Edit
• Make sure content is easy to read.
• 50 Tools can help you with any kind of writing. Fifty (50!) Tools Which Can Help You in Writing