What is linkbaiting?
Linkbaiting: definition
Linkbaiting, which means “link bait,” is an SEO technique that aims to create high-value content so others make natural links to the site that hosts it. The goal is to increase the number of inbound links pointing to your content in order to improve that site’s ranking.
Linkbaiting, or creating viral content
The heart of linkbaiting is of course the creation of content that is convincing, relevant, original, and/or high value. To run a linkbaiting strategy, you have to put yourself in the reader’s, customer’s, or prospect’s place and ask the right questions: is this content interesting enough to share with my contacts, on my social pages, or on my site? Does the article have real added value? Linkbaiting raises many questions and expectations that matter a great deal to SEO agencies and companies looking to improve their organic search.
Go fishing for links
Linkbaiting, by definition, really is this “fishing for links.” In that context, attracting links to your site means going through a monitoring step. You have to watch trends on social networks, follow the news closely, or follow what is happening abroad (new techniques, new products, new fashions) so you can draw on it and create unique, original, high-value content. Always keep your buyer persona in mind so that content stays targeted and close to your (future) customers.
Linkbaiting examples
There are hundreds of linkbaiting techniques that take more or less resource and time. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the best known: create an infographic. People love numbers, but they are much easier to digest and much more shareable in graphic form, which is why infographics fit every linkbaiting strategy so well. Another example is tutorials. They are very much in fashion, whether on YouTube (for example Leroy Merlin) or purely for linkbait (for example How to secure your WordPress blog or How to file your income tax return online). Complete guides are also link magnets. Covering a given topic thoroughly in a specific sector (yours) will give you legitimacy and will earn you links. Rankings of people or companies are also very effective at collecting links. A last example that can illustrate the definition of linkbaiting is running webinars. That lets you stay proactive in online prospecting and in evangelizing your services or products, and it also gives you a steady stream of links over the long term if you keep a dedicated webinars page on your site.