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15

Apr

Wasting your time creating linkbait?

Posted by stuart as linking, linkbait, link love, links, seo, search engine optimization

Spend any time reading the big boys (and girls) of the SEO blogging world, and you’ll hear an awful lot about creating linkbait.

Linkbait is defined by wikipedia as thus:

Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites.

Which is all well and good, assuming that your readers have the capacity, inclination, and skill to actually link to you.

I have a blog where I write about the issues facing people who suffer from kidney disease (an issue close to my heart). I could create all the linkbait I like in this field, but the simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority (over 95%?) of the readers of that blog don’t actually have their own blog or website.

The fact that they have no means to place a link on a website or blog of theirs makes my linkbait virtually worthless.

So remember, it’s all well and good to create linkbait for your make money online blog, as the chances are that the majority of your readers has the capacity to link to you, but think long and hard before you spend a lot of time creating linkbait for people who can’t link to you.

5 comments so far

MSN hacker says April 16th, 2008 at 2:14 am

I think link bait doesn’t help if your website is not searched or visited enough by other webmasters.

Dave Starr says April 16th, 2008 at 8:07 am

Indeed the value of linkbait rests totally in who your intended audience may be … and some of us, most certainly including myself … are inconsistent in deciding who we are trying to attract.

If you are writing about/attempting to attract SEO professionals or the Make Money Online crowd, then carefully constructed linkbait can be a real traffic builder.

But if you are writing to attract folks, say, who run trucking companies or sell cars or build houses, linkbait is not only a waste of your time but a waste of the prospective audience’s time. Relatively speaking, it’s all relative.

stuart says April 16th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Hi Dave,

I think the problem with the SEO or make money online crowd is that they’re becoming a bit jaded when it comes to linkbait.

Nice use of my top commenters plugin, by the way ;-)

window tinting courses says April 17th, 2008 at 1:55 am

Interesting points. I think it is very true (as you point out with your kidney niche issue) that within the IM and Make money niche link bait can be worthwhile, but outside of this niche you need to establish if there is a community of bloggers or website owners that will “take the bait” and have the facility to link back to you in the first place.

ronny says April 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm

I think it’s very true what you have said. It’s almost like going fishing in a pond with little to no fish.. you probably will not catch anything… well, maybe a cold

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