Link Building: A Free SEO Guide
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If you string many strong links together, eventually you’ll have pulled together a mighty chain. More specifically, if you implement or string along a number of strong techniques together, you’ll eventually end up with a strong and fierce plan. It’s a plan that’ll serve you well in the present, short and the long term. Link Baiting can be your plan to lap up the success you deserve. All it takes is to gear yourself up with some lucrative knowledge of the golden rules and, some spirit to keep you going. There are quite a number of types of link baiting techniques around; those that are known as controversial and, those which are informal or comprehensive. The common thread amongst these two kinds is that they both evoke emotions and more importantly, links. Links are what you want.
Link baiting- The Concept
The core idea is to create a piece of content which is centered on a set demand from a specific audience. So, it is important that you establish the following. Who do you want to relate to? Why would they care? What would make them likely to spread your idea? Some of the most common link baiting techniques are; to talk about a specific community, give people a way to feel important about themselves, someone they care about, or something they feel should be important.
Wikipedia defines link baiting as:
“Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Attempts to create link bait are frequently employed in the overall task of search engine optimization. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything "... interesting enough to catch people's attention."
Link Baiting Techniques
The tactics that people use vary quite a bit in terms of what they see as ethical or acceptable behaviour. Some people use these techniques with the motivation of getting links where as others do not. Many of these techniques are activities that bloggers and webmasters use in their day to day work
1. Identify and connect
Human emotions are your motivation. Tap into the sense of empathy. Make sure that your idea is done in such a way that it especially appeals to one group and or especially offends another. Consider this; if other people are fighting over guessing your intentions you will get quality links. Make your link bait look comprehensive. Remember, perception is more important than reality.
2. Create belonging/community
It’s human nature to want to belong and to be a part of a community. Give your readers a place where they are part of a community and you will find that they’ll quite often link to it from their blogs. People quite often link to the comments section of posts, or comment threads that they themselves have participated in rather that the post itself. Many bloggers also participate in and link to discussion forums. Use this to your advantage.
3. Scoops
Most of us look a good scoop. If you’re related to being the first to break a story in your niche, use the opportunity. The amount of others that link to you giving you credit for being the source of their own news post can be quite massive.
4. Go the extra mile
To further your progress, cite research, further reading, and link out to related resources from within your content. You won’t realise it at first but it makes your story look well researched and associates your work with other trusted names or brands in your field. Consider cite-ing a few people that you want links from. Then dress up your link bait using quality design and or relevant images from sites like Istockphoto.
5. Free Tools
We all require tools, or would just like to have them to make life a little easier. Give other website owners a useful, fun or cool tool that they can use on their blog. Make sure it links back and points back to your own.
6. Quizzes
We’ve all completed a quiz, or at least attempted it. Quizzes, surveys and tests are widely popular on the web. So, why not make great use of it? Moreover, if you’re smart you’ll make provision for a botton – it can be quite viral.
7. Humor
Laughter is the best medicine but can do so much for your linkbaiting too. Some of the best and most effective linkbaiting techniques have a humorous edge to it. It can be a cartoon, a funny photo, a story or even a title that gets a laugh. People enjoy humor and are always ready to pass it on. This is your key to success.
8. Design
Designs can do wonders when it comes to generating incoming links. It’s a clever move to design something that others use in large numbers. A good blog theme/template with an inbuilt link to its designer, and that is picked and used widely can create a huge number of incoming links. So, aim for your designs to be picked up as default themes.
9. Rants
A well written, well argued and passionate rant is very link worthy. The reason is that people get stirred up easily when you get passionate and the links will often flow naturally as a result. On the other hand, when you write a rant you need to expect that people will react both positively and negatively. So, be ready on both accounts.
10. Attack
Offend someone. Another way to get attention is to pick a fight with another blogger. Your aim is to tempt them and others to bite back. You need a reaction. This approach is noted for getting a number of emerging bloggers. However, be warned that if you want to give this a try you’d want to build your reputation around you desired characteristic. If you’re going to build a blog purely on offending people you’ll nee to be ready to be offended too. You should also realise that this approach can be rather difficult to sustain.
11. Shock
When you use shock tactics you have ventured onto the land of yet another link baiting technique. It’s a technique that some people use quiet effectively. In fact, it’s been done for years in other mediums. So, it is no wonder that people are using this technique on the web too. You can illustrate shock via language, extreme views, showing controversial or titillating pictures or video etc. This is definitely a tactic that some use with real effect.
12. Research and Stats
If you research a topic that has popularity and can be used by people, you’ll be able to generate incoming links effectively. Links are made when you have interesting statistics that directly apply to something people are passionate about.
13. Give a Freebie
When Oprah has her giveaway shows, there a loads of women screaming her way. That’s the power you get when you give things away. There are people who love receiving. In fact people love to receive. Actually, some people don’t give a hoot what you’re giving away, as long as they don’t have to pay for it. Remember, the giving of gifts can create the buzz you may just need to give you that edge.
Conclusion
There are a number of techniques that you can use to boost your SEO efforts and give you greater success. Besides being clued up on the techniques you should also keep in mind that the most effective techniques are usually the simplest. For example; writing something ‘useful’ is a pretty general thing to say. Yet, the more useful your content is to people the more likely they are to want to pass it on to others. Word of mouth is your most effective weapon. Give your readers something to talk about. Make them sit up and take notice and you’ll soon be amazed how your chain of success will become increasingly stronger. It’s all about knowledge, and techniques, of course.
