Linkbait Tactics That Actually Work
I’m horrible at linkbaiting and I’ve certainly read plenty of articles about linkbait, but which ones actually work? These writers try write the stuff to try to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but do they actually tell you linkbait tactics that work? That’s what I’m about to find out.
Linkbaitable articles
The follow are articles that actually acquired links through their use of their linkbait tactics. Now, don’t just read the following articles, but rather analyze the following articles on how they used their linkbait tactics to actually acquire links.
Linkbait is the New Reciprocal Links Page (seobook.com) 2,330 Yahoo! Links
Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM
(tropicalseo.com) 2,090
SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting (mattcutts.com) 1,680
The Art of Linkbaiting (performancing.com) 1,410
2007 Guide To Linkbaiting: The Year Of Widgetbait? (searchengineland.com) 1,120
Methods of website linking (wikipedia.org, linked to with “nofollow”) 506
An Introduction to Linkbaiting (problogger.net) 350
Rand Fishkin is Brilliant or Linkbait’s Characteristics (pandia.com) 348
Linkbait Articles (cornwallseo.com) 534
Linkbait, Linkbait, Linkbait (jimboykin.com) 281
The History of Link Bait (copyblogger.com) 203
What is Linkbait? (problogger.net) 154
The Resource Linkbait - Using Lists to Build Authority, Traffic and Links to Your Website (doshdosh.com) 69
The Two Kinds of Linkbait (seomoz.com) 62
How To: Linkbait Your Blog (brandon-hopkins.com) 50
Linkbait (golod.com) - 10
Analysis
Can little guys make linkbait too?
As you may have noticed, the sites that tended to acquire the most amount of links are actually fairly well-known websites/blogs. This shows that even if you wrote perfect linkbait, you probably wouldn’t reap the benefits over-night.
Linkbait tactics I know that work
Since this blog doesn’t have tons of credibility (yet), it is very difficult for me to make use of linkbait tactics effectively. So, here are some of my ideas that work effectively:
- Design a free template (usually something simple and easily customizable works best) - then submit it to oswd.org and few other freebies like this.
- Develop a script for websites (related to your website; i.e., Ajax, PHP, etc.) - then submit it to hotscripts.com and a few other script directories.
Keeping the links on the script or template can be difficult, but if you include and enforce licensing info., then more people should keep on your link. Also, a hidden link can be quite effective when used by only displaying the link when a part of the site is hovered over (slightly confusing — but can work very well).
I think the big trick to getting links to your website is to serve interesting content. Like the article written here, it’s good, so it attracts visitors, so it could generate the creation of a few links. Don’t focus on the links/seo/google, focus on the content.
You’re absolutely correct. I’m mainly trying to focus on good content while using SEO. You could have tons and tons of links (because of you’re good content), but then still rank poorly because of not using SEO properly. That’s why…
SEO + Good Content = A MUST
BTW, thanks for liking the content here — I appreciate it.
Here is an idea… Similar to the one’s suggested above. Design a desktop utility, that is a simple exe file… eg ‘click once to go direct to Ebay’ - other ‘go direct’ website ideas are endless…
Then submit the ‘exe’ software to all the software directories. If its free each and every family member will want one to go direct to their favourite site. Most people will list it in their favourites for bookmarking purposes… Backlinks galore!
Needs tweaking… But the concept should work.
Once again Good content… few (including myself) can be bothered to offer ‘current’ content. HAT off… Well deserved.
Phil