Eric Brantner
SEO Content Writer

Are you having a difficult time getting others to link to your content? Does it seem like no matter how well you write, no one is paying attention to you? You’re not alone. One of the most common complaints from internet marketers is that generating backlinks is a seemingly impossible task in some cases.
While there are literally hundreds of different approaches you can take to create linkbait, here is a list of 5 common ways to generate more backlinks.
1. Controversy- This is sometimes referred to as “flamebait.” The general idea behind this is that having a controversial opinion on a popular topic in your industry will generate tons of online publicity for your company. Of course, this begs the question: should I be controversial just to get links? I don’t think you should ever say something you don’t mean just for the sake of getting links because you do have a reputation to uphold. However, there is nothing wrong with questioning popular opinions in your industry if you can back up your position with solid reasoning.

2. Breaking a Story- In today’s 24/7 internet world, this is almost impossible. There is always someone else who gets to a story just before you do. However, it’s not worth discounting this technique altogether. You never know when you’ll stumble across a breaking story by keeping in contact with other important figures in your industry.

3. In-Depth Analysis- Since you probably won’t be able to consistently break important stories, another thing you can do is give deeper analysis than anyone else. By going beneath the surface with detailed insight not found anywhere else, people will link to your content as the authority for a particular topic.

4. Tools- By creating a unique tool others find useful, you’ll have a potentially endless supply of inbound links. The best tools keep users coming back because they offer a valuable service. A recent example of this is the SEOmoz linkscape tool that allows users to get the most in-depth analysis of their site’s backlinks. If you build it, they will come (cheesy, I know.)

5. Contests- While some people see running a contest as gimmicky, I disagree. If you come up with a contest that requires the participation of your users, it has a great chance of taking off. People love to compete with others; especially when there is something of value on the line. More importantly, they love telling others about the contest and linking to it.

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By Herb Firestone
Marketing Coordinator

The following are recent posts on the subject of link building in no particular order. Most, in fact, were posted during the last three months. Several older posts, however, are included, either because they were written by a link building authority or are part of a link building series in this post.

SMX New York 2008

Link Building Fundamentals

Maine SEO Internal Linking Tactics SMX East

SEO Roundtable Internal Linking Tactics SMX East

External Link Building

Eric Ward’s SMX East Boot Camp: Link Building Fundamentals

More Eric Ward

Actually you’ll never go wrong with any of Eric Ward’s posts, for example:

Link Building Best Practice Series

If you have an interest in link building and don’t know who Eric Ward is, have you been hiding under a rock? That would be about the same as having an interest in the Beatles and not knowing who John Lennon was.

Outlinking Best Practices - Rule 1

Reply to Link Building Best Practices Question: How do I determine good link targets?

More Anchor Text Best Practices

What Are the Best Practices for Submitting to Directories?

I didn’t realize there were any best practices for submitting to directories.

Link Building Group Interviews

Five Link Development Experts: A Group Interview

Search Engine Ranking Factors Version 2

Eleven Experts on Link Development Speak Out

Jim Boykin

What if a Human Reviewer Looked at your Backlinks?

Jim Boykin’s Favorite Link Posts

Why That Site With 50 Backlinks Beats Your Site With 1000

Hubspot

One Way Linking - Building Massive Web Links For Free

Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet?

If you were to read every one of the link building blog posts in this list, you would probably qualify for Link - Building graduate school.

Why You Need to Build Links to Your Website and What a Good One Looks Like

Wiep

Link Value Factors

Four Different Types of Authority Links & Eleven Ways to Get Them

How to Use Google Adwords to Find New Links
http://wiep.net/talk/link-building/need-good-links-use-google/

Link Building This Week

One of A Kind

Five Ways to Discover Link Building Ideas

Natural SEO, Reciprocal Linking & Interlinking

Free Links to Your Site

Link Building Versus Content Promotion for Links

Link Building: The Future of Relationships

Or should it have been Relationships: The Future of Link Building?

Search Engine Land Link Building Week

Search Engine Land Link Week looks at “building and nurturing those all-important inbound links to your web site.”

SEO 101 Link Building MP3 and PDF

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writing

 

 

If you haven’t noticed, the theme of this week is the importance of content. All internet marketing efforts are rooted in content in some form or fashion. Without quality content, your website will never earn the attention it needs to succeed.

That’s why I believe it’s necessary to remember that content is the key to a successful link building campaign. Sure, there are tips you should follow to increase the number of inbound links to your website, but if your content isn’t worth linking to, you won’t get many links.

Here are a few ways to create link-worthy content.

• Know Your Target Audience- Why is it that certain Digg users can have their submissions go hot on a routine basis? Because they understand who their audience is. By submitting content that the Digg community craves, they have a high success rate. If you want to earn inbound links, you have to create content that your target audience will enjoy. If you don’t know who your target audience is, you might want to figure that out. Like, now.
• Be Unique- Too many websites are full of the same old, boring content that can be found anywhere. If you really want people to link to your content, you need to have a voice that stands out from the crowd. Don’t just parrot everything you read on other blogs. You are a unique individual. Use your natural creative abilities to develop your own opinions and ideas. People respect distinctive thoughts, and that’s how you will earn attention online.
• Write a Catchy Headline- The internet is overflowing with content on every subject imaginable. What can you do to grab the attention of a potential reader? Write a compelling headline. With so much demand for their attention, internet users need to have a reason to click on a link. You can motivate them to read your content by giving it a catchy headline that piques their curiosity. Before you publish your content, ask yourself, “If I saw this headline, would I want to read the article?” If not, come up with a better headline.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writer

If you have Gmail, you’re probably familiar with the targeted advertisements that are constantly thrown your way every time you check your mail. Admittedly, some of these links are of great interest to me. Recently, there was one advertisement that really piqued my interest. It was an ad promising over 1,000 one way links to your website.

The ad reeked of spam, and I just had to dig deeper to find out more about it. Essentially, the site said that if you paid around $100 per month, you could get all the free links you want.

From what I understand, the way it works is everyone submits their website to this directory. Businesses then go through the directory and choose the sites they want inbound links from. To those who don’t know better, this seems like a great way to build backlinks quickly and easily.

But there are several things wrong with this link exchange system.

• Quality of Links- I’ll take 10 high quality links over 1,000 bargain basement links every time. It’s not the number of links that’s so important. Quality trumps quantity nearly every time. It’s fairly safe to assume that the links on this website aren’t from high quality sources. If you’re a site with lots of trust from the search engines, you probably wouldn’t feel the need to sign up for a link exchange scam. No, the websites in this link building directory are more likely low quality, spammy pages trying to take shortcuts.
• Link Relevancy- The relevancy of your inbound links is another important factor in determining how effective they are. A site with a bunch of random, irrelevant websites linking to it looks a bit suspicious. It screams “I’m trying to manipulate the search results” to the search engines. Furthermore, irrelevant links send irrelevant traffic to your site. A quality link will send targeted, quality visitors to your website who are more likely to become customers.
• Paying for Unnatural Links- The bottom line of this advertisement is you are paying for links. Paying to have people link to your website is dangerous and a poor link building strategy. The best links are those you acquire naturally from having great content that people want to link to. Always focus on natural link building, and you’ll be better off for it.

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Eric Brantner

Content Development

The importance of acquiring inbound links can never be overstated. High quality inbound links build trust with search engines perhaps faster than anything else. But in today’s highly competitive online market, it seems harder than ever to obtain these precious inbound links. Thankfully, there are still several link building tips that are effective.

 

Find Out Who’s Linking to Competitors- If you’ve been in business for any period of time, you probably know who your main competitors are. One effective way to build links is to find out who is linking to them. There is a good chance that whoever is linking to them will link to you as well. The best way to find out who is linking to your competitors is to type this into the Yahoo search engine: linkdomain:www.yourcompetitorssite.com -site:www.yourcompetitorssite.com -site:yourcompetitorssite.com (replace “yourcompetitorssite” with competitors domain.)

 

Use Article Directories- Article directories are great for several reasons: they rank well, they expose your brand, and as it relates to this blog, they build your inbound links. By submitting a relevant article to a directory like ezinearticles.com, you will earn inbound links to your website. Most article submission websites allow 2 links per piece. Remember to use keyword rich anchor text when linking back to your website.

 

Guest Blog- Aside from the authority it builds, guest blogging is an effective way to get links from external websites. Whenever a blogger allows you to post on his blog, he will also usually allow you to include a link back to your website. Again, take advantage of the opportunity to control the anchor text of your inbound link.

 

Offer Special Promotions- Contests and other promotions can generate a lot of inbound links in a very short time. If your prize is something people truly want, websites will jump at the opportunity to link to it. You can also be a sponsor in contests held by other companies. As a sponsor, you will still earn many links pointing at your website.

 

Publish Online Press Releases- The concept behind submitting online press releases is similar to that of creating content for article directories. However, the main difference lies in the actual content. Press releases need to contain timely, newsworthy content. Follow these tips for writing your online press release, and you will maximize the number of inbound links you receive.

 

Create Evergreen Content- Evergreen content is content that never grows old. It’s always relevant. Create articles for your website that offer helpful tips that users can take advantage of for many years to come. While it may not be the fastest way to gain links, it’s a great long term link building strategy.

 

Partner with Non-Competitors- Regardless of your niche, there are surely several businesses in it that you don’t compete with directly. For instance, if you offer website copywriting, you could ask for links from web designers. Identify these non-competitors, and explain to them the benefits they could receive from linking to you (i.e. could ear referrals from you in the future, helps them be seen as a resource, etc.)

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 Author: Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writer

We all know about it and we all want it, but what role should linkbait play in our SEO strategy? Is it something we should always be seeking? Should we base all of our SEO efforts into creating it? Or should linkbait take a backseat to other SEO techniques? Let’s take a look at some of the positives and negatives of linkbait to determine how much time and energy we should put into it.

What is Linkbait?

For the sake of any readers who might be new to SEO, we should first define what linkbait is. The most basic definition of linkbait is any content designed for the sole purpose of generating as many links as possible from outside sources. This idea has risen in popularity as blogs and social networking have become common tools for internet users.

Controversial content is one of the most effective types of linkbait. All you have to do is look at the front page of Digg to see evidence of this. Compelling, controversial headlines attract readers like moths to a flame. Therefore, if you can come up with some controversial content within the scope of your blog, you could earn success with the social media sites. Most importantly, success on one of these sites means you will get an abundance of inbound links to your website.

Another way to perform well on social sites is to create timely content. In other words, rehashing an old idea won’t get you far with social network users. People crave new information, and if you can give it to them, you will be rewarded. To achieve this, you must have eyes and ears everywhere. You have to know about all industry developments as soon as they happen.

Linkbait isn’t Always Easy to Create

If you think creating a good piece of linkbait sounds difficult, you’re right. Frankly, it can be very time consuming, and it’s not a guaranteed strategy for success. The vast majority of content submitted to social media sites will never make it to the front page. It’s almost like winning the lottery. You have to have some skill and mostly luck on your side to achieve success with linkbaiting.

Furthermore, creating linkbait can send the wrong message to your loyal readers. If every post on your blog is nothing more than a gimmick to attract links, your reader base will begin to shrink steadily. You must provide useful content if you wish to maintain a loyal reader base.

So, that brings us back to the original question- what role should linkbait play in your SEO strategy? Personally, I think there is a lot of value in linkbait. However, you must seek after it sparingly. Don’t fill your blog with a slew of posts that add no value to the reading experience. Instead, only create linkbait when you have a truly compelling idea you believe could win you the linkbait lottery.

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