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Hook Linkbait With The Right Headlines

Andy Hagan has published an in-depth look at his link baiting methods. In his analysis, he finds that the “single most important aspect of a link bait piece is its title.” I have been hearing this for years, you can have excellent content but if your title isn’t link bait worthy then it won’t make it to the front page of Digg.

Andy borrows Copyblogger’s 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work to list the “title cheat sheet.”

  1. Who Else Wants [blank]?
  2. The Secret of [blank]
  3. Here is a Method That is Helping [blank] to [blank]
  4. Little Known Ways to [blank]
  5. Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All
  6. Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]
  7. Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]
  8. [Do something] like [world-class example]
  9. Have a [or] Build a [blank] You Can Be Proud Of
  10. What Everybody Ought to Know About [blank]

There are more great tips in Andy’s article as well as our articles on link baiting and link building at Search Engine Land.

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About the author

Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.