People usually love talking about themselves, and most people are naturally interested in the intricacies of others, whether it's business or personal. When you do an interview or put together a crowdsourced piece (and yes, I know many of you hate that term!) you're linking to the people involved. At first, this may seem counter-intuitive to earning links for yourself -- however, linking out to influential people while pumping out great content can be one of the best link building tactics out there, and here's why: Some people find it easier to promote themselves indirectly. By promo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: Links | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

Is creating link bait good SEO? Emphatically, yes! If it does not get links it is not link bait. If it does, then people are finding value, which is exactly what the search engines want to reward. Whether you call it white hat or ethical SEO, link bait fits the bill. But what is link bait, what makes it work and why does it fail? What Is Link Bait? Link bait is content designed from conception to go viral. The goal is to produce something so awesome your friends will share it with their friends, your friends’ friends will share it with their friends and so on. In theory, if you to cr [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Features: General | How To: Links | Link Building: Linkbait

When you're trying to build as natural a backlink profile as possible, you need to carefully think about all the things that could make it look strange. If your typical link growth each month over the past 12 months has been 5 links, getting 100 will seem odd. Suddenly focusing on an incredibly bizarre long-tailed keyword in your anchor text may signal that you're using the links to up your rankings. We keep hearing about all the latest and greatest new way to build links, things we "must" do, but we don't always step back and consider what a natural link profile actually looks like as we t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Building: Paid Links | Link Week

I'm currently reading a novel that many people rave about, but it's not really my thing. My least favorite book ever is One Hundred Years of Solitude. I despise U2 and thought Shakespeare in Love was the most laughable piece of crap I've ever seen. I think Hall and Oates' "Private Eyes" is one of the most underrated songs ever and am really getting back into yacht rock even though I love all the indie bands I'm supposed to love as an over-the-hill former hipster. Yes, I'm cranky but I'm not alone in my grumpiness. I'm also a mess in my likes and dislikes. I previously wrote a post about [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan proposed the idea "that media itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study." He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself. He gave examples of various popular media forms of the time, describing ways in which people would react to the content presented. Back then, as hard as it is for some of you youngsters to believe, a movie was something that you watched from beginning to end. We didn't have video clips on YouTube, DVD [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

Most people in the industry look at contests and incentives as branding and marketing tools. However if you are willing to get creative, you can turn a contest into a powerful link building tool that will, over time, help your organic rankings. When most marketing and advertising teams look at a contest they are looking for mass exposure, so they choose a prize that is going to have wide appeal, like an an iPod or iPhone. However as an SEO you need to look at this as an opportunity to build the anchor text you want, especially the really hard to get commercial anchor text. Want to rank for [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait

I always like to see what types of link building things people talk about and/or present. Based on some basic tips provided by Roger Montti in the "Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques" session at SMX Advanced, this post will expand upon those to describe a specific link building plan that nearly any site can use. Here is my expanded version of Roger's tips on how to extract which .EDU sites link to a competitor of yours (or to an important company in your space). These commands work on either Yahoo or Microsoft Live Search, but not Google at this point: linkdomain:domain-to-check.com s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait

Doing A Fake Story For Linkbait? Disclose -- Or Face The Wrath Of Google from last week is still a hot topic of discussion in the industry. In fact, Google's Matt Cutts posted a more detailed explanation of why a fake story without disclosure is something, in some cases, Google cares about. Matt says, "if a site says that they completely made up a story to get links, Google doesn't have to trust the links to that site as much." But is that about intent of the author? Does the intent have to be about influencing your search results for Google to trust you less or is it something larger? I [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Link Building: Linkbait | SEO: Spamming

Link baiting entered a new area last week when Lyndon Antcliff had success with a fake story being picked up by some mainstream media sites as well as social news sites. Controversy erupted over the tactic, and now it likely will go into a second cycle after Google's Matt Cutts has suggested that Google might penalize pages that don't disclose stories are fake. The story was named 13 Year Old Steals Dad's Credit Card to Buy Hookers, but it wasn't true. Nevertheless, several news agencies picked up the story, plus it made it to the front page of Digg and many other social media sites and garn [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Link Building: Linkbait | SEO: Spamming

The title of this article doesn't mean I'm changing my position on social media as link driver. Yes, it's possible, but for the overwhelming majority of web sites, a widespread and costly social linking strategy is a waste of time and money. Go ahead, call me a heretic, but inside you know I'm right. If the site is this one for adult diapers then really, what's the social media end game? Sure, you could write a blog post or article like "Ten Uses For Adult Diapers you Never Thought Of" or "Five Sexiest Senior Citizens Naked," and sure, it might just make it to the Digg homepage, where not [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Link Building | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week | SEO: Spamming | Social Media Marketing | StumbleUpon

Many people jump into social media marketing because they feel they "should be doing it." Many times companies don't take the time to identify their goals and why they want to engage in a campaign. Identifying and measuring social media metrics can be easy and inexpensive. Here are some simple things to keep in mind and free ways to track them. This list is based on a viral marketing / linkbait campaign where you are tracking one URL. Traffic. Is your goal to get more traffic? Are you looking for more brand recognition? Do you have CPM based advertising on your website? Measuring tr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait | Search & Social | SEM Tools: Web Analytics | Social Media Marketing

Getting your linkbait post, widget, or other content featured on the front page of Digg is one thing—a good thing, as this can drive a spike in traffic. Getting a whole bunch of links to that content, however, is entirely another matter. After all, the purpose of linkbait should be to attract links, not just short-term traffic. However, it seems that a lot of people measure success solely based on whether or not content becomes popular and the total number of Diggs it ends up with. Contrary to popular belief, not every article that goes popular on social news sites gets good link vol [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait | Search & Social

Building links in a competitive niche is one of the most difficult marketing tasks I'm asked to do. Not only do I have to work in link-saturated industries, but more times than not I have to find a way to out-rank a "complaint site" and/or Wikipedia. If you've ever tried to do this you know how difficult it can be and how it's necessary to think outside the box in order to net the links you need. Successful link building in competitive markets takes both traditional as well as Web 2.0 linking tactics to make an impact. How do you avoid being buried in the search results or move above the co [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

The second session at SMX Social Media is all about links. Kim is once again live blogging for Search Engine Roundtable, and Eric's back for Search Engine Journal, and Marty is here from aimClear, so I've got to step up my game. This panel includes Rebecca Kelley of SEOmoz, Brent Csutoras of BrentCsutoras.com, and Cameron Olthuis of Factive Media. Rebecca is up first. She's jumping right into linkbaiting. The big benefit is to get lots of links to help you rank well in search results. No mention of traffic. Hmm... Apparently it's all about the PageRank. She says it's a domino effect. You ge [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait | Social Media Marketing

Lyndon Antcliff posted The Enormous Linkbait List that contains well over 65 links to articles on the topic of linkbaiting. The articles are grouped by blogs such as: Problogger, SEO Book, SEOmoz, Matt Cutts, Search Engine Journal, Link Building Blog, Tropical SEO, Performancing, Stuntdubl, Copyblogger, Modern Life is Rubbish, Jim Westergren, Pronet Advertising, Graywolf, Cartoon Barry, Search Engine Roundtable and of course, Search Engine Land. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait

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." Who Else Wants [blank]? The Secret of [blank] Here is a Method That is Helping [blank] to [blank] Little Known Ways to [blank] Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait

This linkbait buzz is starting to wear a little. Please don't get the wrong idea. I'm very much pro-linkbait. I'm a fan. Guys like Nick Wilson, Rand Fishkin, Todd Malicoat, Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall are geniuses in how they hook links. But while linkbaiting may be glamorous, what about the links that can't be baited? I know it's fun and exciting to see your shiny new content get on the front page of Digg. Seeing a video go viral is a thrill. Yes, doing the linkbait thing on behalf of a client and having success is a rush. I get it. I've even done it inadverten [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait

Last summer, I was asked for my personal definition of the term "linkbait." In a column titled Link Bait Kool-Aid, I wrote that linkbait was "more or less anything you create anywhere on the web that inspires other people to link to it." The link to your bait can come from another web page, from a blog, from a social media sharing site (bookmarks, news, videos or whatever), from a tagging site or even from an email newsletter.  In a nutshell, anywhere you are with a mouse and a clickable link can be viewed as a potential target venue for link seeking via linkba [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

Way back in 2005 we started talking about linkbait, a term that was coined on Threadwatch which I owned and ran at the time. Linkbait was used to describe viral, linkable content designed to attract thousands of links. Shortly after that, I wrote The Art of Linkbaiting. It has been much cited over the last year or so. Today, though a few laggards are still blinking and looking confused whenever they hear the term, linkbaiting is recognized as the most effective way to build links for a site. As linkbaiting enters its third year, it makes sense to revisit the topic and discuss how to succ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait

Eric Ward mentioned link baiting in his Link Week column this week, which first got me thinking, is it better to say linkbait or link bait? To answer, I did some searches, which in turn brought up some good articles on the topic. And now another good one has come out from Todd Malicoat. So here's a rundown on a few linkbait articles and the "to linkbait" or "to link bait" decision I had to make. The Art of Linkbaiting from Nick Wilson dates from back November 2005 and continues to stand up as a great read. In particular, Nick talks of needing a hook for your bait. Remem [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait