Linkbaiting is an SEO technique that consists in creating contents to bait Internet users and naturally bring backlinks to a page or a website. But to succeed in this technique, the content created, considered as a bait here, must be sufficiently convincing with a real added value to please Internet users and other sites (of the same niche) and encourage them to share
Success on the web does not happen overnight and is sometimes hidden behind unknown concepts
Content creators who understand this, implement different kinds of strategies to get the best out of the web.
Among these are
- The use of internal links to reinforce the value of the pages of a website;
- The use of click baiting to generate clicks;
- The quest for backlinks to improve the positioning of a website in search results;
- And so on.
Among these strategies is hidden a rather formidable concept: Linkbaiting
I explain in this article why it is important for the referencing of a website as well as the best tips to create it.
Chapter 1: Linkbaiting – What is it and why is it necessary for SEO?
Link baiting is a very deep concept that all content creators need to understand in order to succeed online. Although it does not appear directly in the indicators of success on the web, it actively participates in this success.
In this first chapter, we will discover the essentials about linkbaiting and its importance in the referencing of websites.
1.what is linkbaiting?
You have certainly noticed that there are websites that insert links to some of your pages in their pages
It is probably because these websites find one of your contents interesting to quote as an example in their articles. Or, because your content clearly explains a topic or a term that they used in their content without wanting to go into detail.
The process of creating content like this is called linkbaiting. It involves creating valuable content on your website so that other websites will naturally use it as a reference.
Because of its high value, website owners link their sites to this content
Linkbaiting aims to attract many possible links to your website without you ever having to ask.
That’s why it has to bea content of great value that people will not be able to resist. Thus, they will share it around them. In addition to Internet users, websites and blogs also refer to these types of content and cite them as sources.
It goes without saying that the promotion of these contents requires less effort and they sell themselves.
1.2) Why is linkbaiting necessary and what does it have to do with backlinks?
The vast majority of the contents put online gain practically no backlink in a natural way
Moz and BuzzSumo, for example, analyzed 1 million pieces of content and came to the conclusion that 75 % of them did not attract any backlinks.
It is obvious that not all content is developed with SEO intent. But if the objective of most of the content created and published is to occupy the first places of Google, you will have to review your strategy.
It is in this logic that you can use linkbaiting in order to have sufficiently interesting contents to naturally attract backlinks
But what is really a backlink?
1.2.1. What is a backlink and why is it so important in the definition of your linkbaiting strategy?
The backlink also called backlink is a link created when a website redirects to a web page of another site. The site that redirects will say external link and the site that receives will say backlink.
The search engines perceive backlinks as votes for a given web page. Thus, the value of a page increases when it receives many votes or backlinks
It is essential to know that backlinks influence your website in three ways
- Improve its authority;
- Generate traffic to it;
- Positively influence its referencing.
We will see a little more details on these three points:
1.2.1.1. The increase of the Authority
Websites and web pages have a value in the eyes of search engines. This value is called domain authority or page authority and measures the “power” of a website.
When a website includes a link that redirects to your web page, it also passes on some of its authority to your web page
The more sites that link back to your web pages, the more authority your website has.
The effect of this authority is even more interesting when the sites that cite you have high authorities.
1.2.1.2. The increase in traffic
Links allow Internet users to explore their interests on the web
The users of the websites that cite you easily discover your website by simply clicking on the links.
In addition, by improving the positioning of a website in search results, backlinks undoubtedly increase the traffic of this site.
1.2.1.3. Search engine optimization
Backlinks play very important roles in the ranking of websites
They are a proof of the popularity of your website and are indeed an indication for search engines that other websites consider your content worthy.
When several websites link to your page or website, search engines conclude that your website provides high quality information
They then consider that your website deserves to be rewarded with a high ranking. This is how backlinks improve your website’s ranking in search results.
1.2.2. Linkbaiting, an alternative to Clickbaiting
Unlike linkbaiting, which relies on the creation of valuable content, clikbaiting is the creation of a title that intentionally abuses with inaccurate statements or excessive promises to attract visitors. It relies on catchy and sensationalist headlines.
It arouses the interest of visitors to click on a link with the intention of improving the positioning of a web page in search results
However, it causes great dissatisfaction among Internet users and thus affects the user experience
It creates high expectations for content that unfortunately does not meet those expectations. This can create a high percentage of bounce rate which is a signal to search engines that the user experience of the site is poor.
For this reason, clickbait affects the brand’s image, as users associate it with fake headlines as well as content without credibility
In this case, click baiting alone does not do the creators of web content any favors and does not really attract backlinks.
This is totally the opposite with linkbaiting. But before we start with its creation, it is important that I introduce you to the different types of content that can be considered as link bait
Chapter 2: The different types of content to create as linkbaiting
Linkbaiting by baiting backlinks is still beneficial for your website’s SEO. That’s why you need to use it effectively to get great benefits.
Creating an effective link bait consists of creating high quality content and as complete as possible. For this purpose, there are several types of content that you can create to succeed in this technique.
2.1. Viral content to stimulate sharing
2.1.1. What is viral content?
A viral content is a content that has the power to spread very quickly online and especially on social media. It often triggers an extreme emotion such as sadness, joy, fear or anger
It can raise controversy and attract people’s curiosity.
It is thus shared by many people on social media where it gets its power of propagation
It should be noted that Internet users generally share around them what they like.
However, before a content goes viral, it must have something special that interests Internet users.
When your content meets the criteria of quality and relevance, website owners will not hesitate to redirect their readers to your website.
This is how viral content becomes an incredible backlink generator. This is one of the reasons why you should seek to create viral content in your linkbaiting strategy
Even though it is not always possible to predict whether a content will go viral or not, there are some characteristics that do not lie.
2.1.2. The characteristics of a viral content
To work as a link baiting, a viral content is often of high quality to unite people around it
In addition to being posted on your website the content must be shared on social media without any restriction.
When content is shareable, it generates more backlinks to your website. This is when viral content behaves like linkbaiting and becomes backlink bait.
2.1.3. Some examples of content to create in your linkbaiting strategy
We remind you that the main objective of creating viral content in our context is to generate backlinks to your website
Here are some examples of content to create:
2.1.3.1. Trends and news
One of the best ways to get content noticed is to follow the trend and adapt the content to it.
You can write something about current trends or the upcoming year.
These types of content become popular quickly and can lead to web content creators quoting you on their page.
2.1.3.2. Research Data
You can research a topic and write about it based on real facts and figures.
This kind of content easily goes viral. But the choice of the topic should be something that will attract people
It is easy to make popular an exciting revelation that can animate debates.
2.1.3.3. An ultimate guide
These are long articles that cover a topic as thoroughly and completely as possible. They give readers, comprehensive content that they won’t find anywhere else
Here are two examples
- “Everything you need to know about SEO in 2021
- “Complete Guide to a Healthier Life”
These types of articles are often mentioned as sources of information in shorter articles on other related sites
Thus, they quickly go viral on the web and can attract important backlinks to your website as a result
But for this to really happen, you need to make sure that it is a well-detailed guide with a mix of text, infographics, and custom images
For example, Oli Gardner created a great infographic-enriched marketing guide for Moz in 2011 that not only got thousands of backlinks, but was downloaded over 150,000 times.
2.1.3.4. Controversy and debate
Controversial content works great as bait when you have relevant arguments and necessary sources to back them up. They are a great way to naturally attract backlinks.
For example, you can take a quote from an influential person in your niche and put together an opposing opinion. It is also possible to put together two contradictory opinions and present yourself as an analyst.
2.1.3.5. Opinions on new products
People like to know about everything, whether it is technology, fashion, art… So you can write critical opinions about new products or services in your market.
Establish well-founded and with criteria detailing their advantages and disadvantages, and you will have content that many users will link to and maybe even the brand responsible for the product or service in question.
2.1.3.6. News
Normally, this type of content receives a lot of inbound links from social networks, however, its popularity declines quickly when the event or topic is no longer trendy.
2.1.3.7. Tutorials, tests and quizzes
This is content that is intended to impart practical instruction or solve a particular problem. The tutorials and quizzes that get the most inbound links are those that best meet the needs of the Buyer Persona and their community
2.1.3.8. Infographics, images and photos
The infographic appears simple enough to summarize a series of steps or present data. It is still perfect for data visualization and is often a mix of text and graphics
The image above is a perfect example of an infographic on backlink building :
Shocking, hilarious and stunning photos and images can also be used to attract backlinks if they are of good quality
They circulate quickly on social media and you can add short stories to them.
2.1.3.9. Videos
The video allows to seduce users and has the advantage of being easily viral when shared on the right platforms. It constitutes the bulk of the world’s Internet traffic and Internet users consume a lot of it.
Videos are easily created and can be edited using free software. You have the advantage of controlling the quality of the stream and the content
You can put them directly on your website or publish them on large audience platforms like YouTube.
YouTube allows you to add links in the description of a video. This link will get great visibility when the video goes viral and thus traffic generation.
2.2. Ego-baiting to get the attention of influential people
Ego baiting is a type of linkbaiting designed specifically to gain the attention of influencers. It is a strategy that consists of mentioning a person in a positive way in a content.
The intention in this case is to get them to promote the content by redirecting visitors to it and sharing it on social media. The ideal target in this case is a content creator who has a web page and an active social network.
However, care should be taken as online celebrities should be avoided as their egos are already well fed and well maintained.
2.2.1. Some examples of ego-baiting
2.2.1.1. The simple mention
Any form of positive reference to a person usually works and gets the person’s attention. The simple act of embedding a tweet in content, a quote, a link or a photo can bait the ego and provoke a response.
2.2.1.2. The solo interview
Few people turn down an interview, this makes it an effective ego bait. In addition, interviewees do not hesitate to share the interview in which they participated.
Thus, they integrate the link of the interview in their pages to redirect their visitors to your website.
To have a quality content, interview an expert. Conducting the interview is simple
You just have to ask for permission to the person concerned and send him a series of questions. When he sends you his answers, you will only have to copy and paste them to have your interview.
Chapter 3: Creating linkbait: Steps and essential tools
Linkbaiting is a step-by-step process, and there is no magic method that will turn your content into link bait in a short period of time. You must work methodically and diligently to achieve this.
3.1. The steps to create an effective linkbaiting
3.1.1. First step: Define your objectives
From the outset, it is essential to clearly define the objectives for which you wish to create a linkbait
Although the main objective is to attract backlinks, there may be other objectives behind it
It can be to increase the authority and strength of your domain or to improve and maintain the ranking of a web page.
3.1.2. Step 2: Research and define your target
Before creating your linkbaiting, you need to decide who it is for
To do this, you need to define which community of content creators will be likely to create backlinks to your site.
The definition of the target must correspond with the objectives you have set for yourself
For example, if your objective is to reinforce the authority of your domain, you should target sites that have a high authority.
3.1.3. Step 3: Choose the right type of content for your linkbaiting
Among the types of content that go viral, you need to opt for what best fits your topic, but also your target
Moreover, you should observe the linkbaiting that worked in your niche to refine your baiting strategy. In addition to choosing a worthy topic, take care of the design of your content and make it shareable.
3.1.4. Step 4: Develop your linkbaiting title
The quality of a title determines whether your content will be read by Internet users or not. In reality, 8 out of 10 people take the trouble to read titles, but only 2 of them actually read the content in question.
During shares, it is also the title that becomes the anchor text and links to your website
However, only 70 characters of the title tag are displayed in the search results.
So it’s still essential to compress your best ideas into a succinct sentence to get clicks. Good titles and bad titles determine whether people will read a piece of content or not.
To do this, try to determine what’s important to your target audience so you can tailor your headline to them
People are interested in headlines for a variety of reasons:
3.1.4.1. Personal interest
When the title awakens the personal interest of your target, it gives them a reason to consume the content
For example, we can have a title like this: “How to gain the trust of your friends?
3.1.4.2. News
Informing people is an effective way to gain their attention and generate backlinks
You can announce something new in your title. It can be something exciting that you have discovered or a new way to use a tool.
3.1.4.3. Quick and easy help
Headlines that advertise quick and easy help promise a lot of clicks. This is because people don’t want to wait months or years to find a solution to their problem.
They are often tempted to look for headlines that announce a quick and easy solution to their problems through a magical strategy.
3.1.4.4 Curiosity
Humans are inherently curious and are able to imagine scenarios in a given context. You can raise questions in your headlines to provoke your target audience to think and question.
For example, “5 scientific reasons why a zombie apocalypse could really happen” is a headline from Cracked which generated 17 000 links with over 10 million views.
3.1.5. Step 5: Move on to creating your linkbait
At this stage, you know how to create your linkbait, but it would be better if you take action. To do this, go through your different ideas and discard the bad or less relevant ones.
Try to organize your ideas in a coherent structure and keep in mind the objectives for which you are creating your linkbait
You should also focus on creating powerful content to attract not only lots of backlinks, but also quality backlinks.
3.2. Some useful tools for effective linkbaiting
There are different tools that can help you to achieve your link baiting.
3.2.1. Title generators for linkbaiting
If you are having trouble finding a catchy title, you can use Link Bait Generator to automatically generate titles
This link baiting title generator provides you with titles around which you can build your content
Just enter a keyword to start using this tool.
Here is an example of a title proposed by Link Bait Generator around the keyword “money”:
3.2.2. Backlink checker
Ahrefs is an efficient tool to check a domain. It mobilizes in a database, 25.08 trillion links and 170 million domains. This tool allows you to monitor the evolution of your website’s backlink profile.
It is useful not only for observing the backlink trends of your domain, but also those of your targets
The use of the tool also appears simple. Just enter the name of your domain or your target and click on “check baclinks”.
As shown in the image below, the checker reports the incoming links to your domain:
Chapter 4: Other questions asked about Linkbaiting
4.1. What is linkbaiting?
Linkbaiting or “link baiting” is a “passive” link building practice that seeks to get as many inbound links to a site as possible, based on the creation of high quality, interesting and/or relevant content
It should not be confused with “clickbait”, which is a practice that seeks to get as many clicks as possible on content, and often uses unethical strategies, such as headlines that don’t deliver
4.2. What is the difference between linkbaiting and linkbuilding?
The goal of both techniques is the same, to get inbound links. However, link building actively seeks them, i.e. through actions such as publishing guest articles, spreading on social networks and collaborating with influencers in the niche.
Linkbaiting, on the other hand, obtains them “passively” and directly from the quality of the content. In other words, it seeks to create content that people will find worth sharing or mentioning
4.3. Why is linkbaiting important for SEO?
Well, simply because you get links and, moreover, without having to ask for them. And links, as you know, are one of the main factors to boost the ranking of a page or a website or a website.
In summary, getting links via linkbait will help you a lot in your link building strategy. And, with this, you will improve your SEO, because Google will receive signals that the page is relevant.
4.4. how to do linkbaiting?
The linkbaiting strategy will depend on the type of inbound links you want to achieve
There are certain types of content that people are more likely to share on their social networks, while other content is more likely to appear as references in business blog posts
For example, comprehensive guides and research data (statistics) are often referenced by bloggers, while controversies and news are mostly relayed by influencers on social networks.
4.5. What is the best link building strategy?
The most foolproof strategy to build links is called linkbaiting. It consists in gaining links through the creation of unique, relevant and catchy content that other websites will want to use as a reference.
4.6. What is the difference between linkbaiting and clickbaiting?
In simple terms, clickbaiting is a technique that consists of using a catchy title that can make the Internet user curious about content that does not necessarily meet the requirements of this title
Linkbaiting on the other hand aims to create high quality and valuable content in order to naturally attract backlinks and visitors.
4.7. What are natural links?
Natural links are all those that are produced organically, i.e. when other pages decide to link to yours on their own. While the most beneficial links are those that are obtained organically, content promotion is necessarily required at the beginning.
In summary:
In short, linkbaiting participates in website successes by helping content creators capture high authority backlinks
So you need to get used to this practice and start taking action now to implement your link baiting strategy.
Think about implementing a linkbaiting strategy and your content will inevitably be successful. If you have already created a linkbait once, share your experience with us in the comments.
If not, I will be happy to know what kind of content you want to create for your linkbaiting in the near future.
See you soon!
