In Search Industry, one aspect that gets lot of attention is Linkbaiting. This happens mainly because Link Baiting is usually associated with negative or unethical practice, as many SEOs often resort to dirty techniques in the pursuit of gaining backlinks . So what exactly is Linkbaiting, and when it becomes unethical – let’s discuss it here.
What is Link baiting?
Link baiting is a way to natural linkbuilding which involve creating useful, provocative and unique content which appeals to readers and they respond by linking to it. Good Backlinks are beneficial from SEO point of view so, Link baiting derives its name based on the fact that good and useful content on a website always attracts visitors and they end up linking to it. There are different ways of Link baiting and now-a-days it is also done with the help of images, videos, free software and tools etc. Though there are many options available for linkbaiting, one thing is important that your website content should be amazing.
Linkbaiting is an art. In order to bait a link, you’d need a hook. There are many types of hooks, and some of the more popular ones include:
- Resource Hook
- Humour Hook
- News hook
- Contrary Hook
- Attack Hook
You can see that essentially there are two main types of hook, the good or nice hook, and the nasty or evil hook. It is best to stick to the nice hook for linkbaiting. Many bloggers, however, use the nasty hooks to gain as many backlinks as possible through their provocative content, and so linkbaiting often cojures up the image of unethical linkbuilding practice.
Link baiting becomes unethical when a webmaster
- Tries to get attention by criticizing their competitors and spoil their reputation
- Aggregates fake stories in order to get inbound links
- Runs contests but fail to fulfill promises about awards
- Creates content just for the sake of Linkbaiting, which can be very controversial, irrelevant and distasteful
- Tries to adopt other means to manipulate people in linking to his website against their will
Such unethical ways of Linkbaiting can help you to get a number of inbound links, but it can backfire on you and spoil your own image.
Link baiting is more about finding your niche, gaining reputation by writing creative and useful content. It also includes presenting and publishing your ideas on the Web and finding people who actually make use of it. You will not get readers if you just deliberately try to build links, but if you concentrate on readers, then you can definitely get links organically. Moreover, basic principles for becoming a successful blogger and gaining good reputation in this search industry is to focus on your readers.
So, instead of writing content just to gain links, first try to understand your audience. Always give first priority to readers and be connected with them. Appreciate their feedback and be appealing. You should always value your customer and so while creating content make it universally acceptable and convincing.
Without being unethical, you can still do Linkbaiting, but your focus should always be on your readers. Producing better content will eventually get valuable links and build your reputation.
Technorati Tags: backlinks, Linkbaiting, SEO, linkbuilding
Tags: link baiting, Link Building, linkbaiting tips, unethical seo
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