Posts tagged Linkbait
How to Create Ethical Linkbait from Public Information
Jul 8th
There are limitless opportunities to create things for your Web site from public information that people will link to. It’s all about finding the opportunity, repackaging it to a specific group, and promoting it.
Let’s explore how this can be do…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Using Linkbait to Create a Strong Online Presence
Oct 26th
Linkbait is one of the crucial types of Internet marketing. Linkbait takes some time to create, but the results can be both viral and effective. However, with all types of Internet marketing methods, publishers must be willing to spend a significant amount researching, prepping, formatting, and creating linkbait that is going to be strong enough to attract the attention of the masses. This includes creating fresh linkbait on a regular basis, making sure links are still live, and ensuring linkbait is being used properly. Ideally, your website and/or company should aim to become known for its linkbait, whatever type you choose to create. Consistency is key.
Linkbait can come in many forms, including articles, widgets, multimedia, quizzes, badges, and more. A website can specialize in one or use several types of linkbait. This depends on the type of website, the available resources, the target audience, and what needs to be accomplished.
Viral Video: Requires Genius For Great Potential
Producing videos to publish online can be a relatively low cost and effective link building method. However, creating the perfect formula of a viral video can be difficult. Look for original ideas, a current event or pop-culture icon to coattail off of, and above all, give viewers something they can’t resist sharing. Some great examples include online only commercials, extended scenes from television commercials, and guerrilla videos that look like they were done by amateurs.
Videos need to look organic and the ideas need to be ingenious, unlike most Hollywood produced videos. Some great examples of viral videos that were created with the intent of promoting a product, business, or website include “The Landlord” (contains some strong language), which was posted by funnyorDie.com and starred Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. This video, which starred Adam McKay’s toddler daughter as a vicious landlord was uploaded to funnyordie.com right as the site had been launched. Other examples include the series of Mr. T. Snickers commercials (one example: The Speedwalker) and the Old Spice commercials with “the man your man could smell like”.
Besides commercials, videos of people performing extraordinary feats were being placed in awkward situations with the intent of promoting a brand slogan or concepts are also quite popular.
Infographics: Difficult Creative Process, Easy to Share
With a good graphic designer, infographics are one of the easiest pieces of linkbait. Users appreciate being able to digest complex information and statistics in a graphic format. Because of this, infographics on all kinds of topics are growing increasingly popular, especially if they are easy to share (e.g. placing the HTML code to share the infographic at the end of the display page).
Infographics must contain relevant information and statistics that have been published fairly recently. Users that are online a lot are more likely to share content that is enjoyable to them, so they appreciate statistics about things they are interested in, like social media use, Internet activity around the world, or how technology has affected everyday life for the human race.
The following are a few good examples of effective Infographics. Besides being a useful info byte, infographics can also be humorous, as illustrated by The Oatmeal’s example.
A s you can see from the link, effective infographics need to flow information well, have an interesting subject and statistics, and have a great design. To reinforce this point, the above “17 things worth knowing about your cat” infographic has been shared on Facebook over 53,000 times and has been tweeted over 5,000 times.
Content: Easy to Create, Great for SEO, Exposure, and Establishing Credibility in Your Industry
Articles are one of the original types of linkbait. Publishing great blog posts, articles, and other online content will not only keep readers coming back to your site but will also increase the probability that they will want to share what you’ve just published. Make any content that brings something into a new light, voices an opinion, teaches how to do something relevant to your industry, or makes a compelling point in a strong argument.
Besides having the content itself be strong and well written, it must also be chunked accordingly (with headers or sections) and contain applicable statistics, photos, or graphics. Make sure to validate any argument with evidence and always cite your statistic and photo sources.
Along with posting on your own website’s blog, being a guest author on other industry blogs and websites is also a great way to create content linkbait. In addition to providing a link back to your website at the end of the guest post (usually an author bio), blog guest authors also have a chance to establish their online presence, increasing credibility and overall industry influence. Seeing a professional’s work published on respected websites makes them more trustworthy to potential customers or clients.
The most important aspect of content is to make sure that it is updated regularly. Website blogs should be updated once a week at minimum and should always be about current news in the industry. Furthermore, creating a dedicated guest blog image means writing posts for other websites at least once a month, if not more.
The Grand Finale: Sharing Your Linkbait Online
Once the linkbait has been created, it must be shared online in all available mediums. This includes posting to social media profiles and bookmarking sites, dedicating a blog entry to the linkbait (if it is a new video, infographic, etc.), including it in a regular E-newsletter, and promoting it on the main website homepage, if possible, etc.
Encourage and make it easy for users and current customers to share your content with their network. Include sharing buttons or widgets (such as the free buttons like AddtoAny.com or ShareThis.com)
A July 2009 online study by econsultancy reports that 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. This shows that internet users are more likely to read or recommend something online that has been recommended to them from a friend or online contact. Making online linkbait easy to share means that there are more recommendations online which will attract new users and potential customers to your website. Make high-quality linkbait a priority in your Internet marketing game plan and be rewarded with steady traffic.
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Using Linkbait to Create a Strong Online Presence
View full post on Search Engine Journal
A simple guide to creating linkbait
Aug 9th
Posted by Melissa at Distilled
So you want to get links, but don’t know how to start creating linkable content? Well, don’t worry; I’m going to take you through my process for creating awesome linkbait.
1. Identify your target niche.
Start by looking at your competitors’ links.
They are probably more edible than these links.
This is a basic step for SEO, so really it’s something you should have on file already. Look back over your competitors’ links. Have they done anything that was particularly link-worthy? Look at deeper pages. What sort of things are people linking to in these pages? This should start to give you some idea of what sort of niches are interested in what you do.
2. Identify your angle.
When you look at your competitors’ links, you’ll see which bloggers and websites linked to them.
What did they link to and in what context? What else are they linking to? And what’s going to make them link to your stuff? That is, what can you add?
Well, have you ever asked? Obviously, you won’t get an answer from all of your target bloggers and websites, but the ones you get a positive answer from will already be interested in your content before you begin creating it. And people with a vested interest in your content will only be a good thing.
3. Create your content.
There’s not much I can say here. Just create something that answers the above questions. If infographics do well, do that. Photo essays? Well, get your camera out – or get a freelancer to do it if you’re not confident in your own photography skills.
If they want creepy monkeys, well, maybe they’re not worth targeting…
4. Promote your content.
Start with the bloggers you’ve already talked to. As I said above, they helped out with your content, so they have a vested interest. Be sure to point out which bit of their suggestion was used in the content. That way, they can brag about how awesome they are. And let’s face it: the best way to get people to link to you is to massage their egos.
After you’ve got a few links from the people you’ve talked to, then you can go to other bloggers and websites, saying that buzz is building for this content. When you can show that people are interested in your content, it creates a desire within other people to join in. No one wants to miss the boat, after all.
In my own experience, I find less explicit requests are better, that is, saying "I think you and your readers would like this", rather than simply asking for a link, is more effective. I find that it’s better to suggest you’re doing someone a favor instead of asking them to do one for you.
So I’ve done all that. What next?
Let’s say you’re targeting ‘tents’. You’ve already done some linkbait based on what has been successful for your competitors. But there are loads of people who use tents besides hardcore camping bloggers, so how would you go about targeting them?
Well, camping has undergone a bit of a resurgence in loads of markets thanks to the recession, so maybe you can target women who aren’t super into camping. What to these women link to online? Well, loads of things, but there is a bit community of knitters online, and coincidentally, one of your employees loves knitting (isn’t that handy?) Why not create patterns for knitted tent sculptures or other camping-related stuff? Whatever it is, just make sure it’s interesting enough to get attention and useful enough to be worth sharing.
But don’t forget: at this point, you don’t know that knitters are going to link to content like that.
But if they like knitted cake, they probably will like knitted flashlights.
You don’t want to waste your time creating and promoting content that won’t work. Check that the knitting bloggers link to outside sources. Make sure knitting websites include content from outside sources.
Make sure the niche you are targeting will not only like what you do, but will LINK to what you do.
At the end of the day, that’s what this is all about.
Image credits
Vienna sausages – Changlc on Wikimedia Commons
Creepy monkey – kevsunblush on Flickr
Knitted cake – freeform by prudence on Flickr
View full post on SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog
Of Linkbait And SEO Bank Shots – Search Engine Land (blog)
Jul 19th
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Of Linkbait And SEO Bank Shots
Search Engine Land (blog) There's a subtle, but meaningful, connection between billiards and SEO. How so, you ask? Well, when I was younger I was a pretty good at billiards. … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Of Linkbait And SEO Bank Shots
Jul 19th
There’s a subtle, but meaningful, connection between billiards and SEO. How so, you ask? Well, when I was younger I was a pretty good at billiards. I could see all the angles really well, and I understood when to use bank shots (using an indirect shot off the bank of the table rather than [...]
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View full post on Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
