What Exactly is Link Baiting?

The World Wide Web is far from a click, view, and enjoy system. The number of intricacies is mind boggling. In the race for supremacy techies have developed and fine tuned several ways to gain and retain No 1 slot. It is all about ranking, spiders, SEO, and more.

To be successful one needs to be popular and accessed. And, to be accessed or get hits one must tease the surfer with enticements in the form of content. Webmasters use hooks to bait, it is the World Wide Web version of fishing. Hooks can take the avatar of news hook, contrary hook, attack hook, resource hook, or humor hook.

Basically its innovative ways to "get attention." And it could be anything from gossip, to hard news, to generating opinions, to asking for suggestions. To be effective it must have use, that is provide content which interests others.

So in terms of definition linkbaiting is web content that is placed on web pages in order to gather links from other web pages. All it really needs is to "capture" attention and this sets the ball rolling and in an instant the website has a huge number of links. All it establishes is that in the World Wide Web content retains its position of NO1.

Second is the though whether content results in links or is content generated just to produce links? So the question is whether linkbaiting is an SEO strategy? Over the internet opinions vary but all acknowledge that content and links are important to good business.

To be an effective linkbaiter you need to:

Keep your hand on the pulse of the World Wide Web. Know what is popular, what works, what methods are ineffective, and so on. The best way to do this is to read blogs, RSS feed, and forum on the Internet and SEO. Check with regularity sites like Technorati, PC world, and Google Zeitgeist. Read reviews as well as headlines and keep an ear open for whispers and excitement.
Create link-worthy content and "spread the word" through blogs, interactive forums, and reviews of your work. Tease the innate curiosity in internet surfers and techies.
Remember its news that gets views. The content must be current, juicy, and informative. Study what works on sites like Digg and Newsvine.
Attempt to be unique. Bring facts that are refreshing and not rehashes.
Conversations and dialogues work. People love to opine and give advice so write content that invites reactions. Start a flow of though and let others take over. A heated discussion on a current topic of interest to webmasters, designers, techies, ecommerce sites, and users works wonders and draws people like bees to honey.

According to a post by Jim Westergren what can work is: valuable how tos; special reports; profiles with special insights of prominent news worthy people; useful tools; contests; product reviews; new wars among giants like Microsoft and apple; scams; jokes; new software; trendsetters; or in depth research on something of universal interest.

Linkbaiting is integral to site building and promotion. To find out what works experts recommend keep in view sites like http://del.icio.us/popular/ and http://www.digg.com/ and blogs such as Lifehacker and Gizmodo. Other great sources are e-zines and web 2.0 applications.

In reality the WWW seems to have come full circle!

About the Author : Aaron Brooks is a freelance writer for SeoServices, the premier website to find Seo consulting, link buildings and professionals seo training, online marketing tips, seo tools and more.

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