Link bait is content on your site to which other sites link because they want to, not because you ask them to. Traditionally, links are hard to get, requiring you to sacrifice your first born child (and at least link back, which nullifies their value in some search engines.) But with link bait, you "bait" your content and sit back and wait. Of course, you can be a little proactive and get a viral story going, too... Here are some examples of link bait:
For some time now, link bait has been a gadget on your site that other sites reference. For example, FutureNow has a great tool on their site, called their WeWe Calculator, that people use to determine how much their copy is about themselves and how much it's about the customer. And notice the link in the previous sentece - after all, it's a fabulous tool, and we want all the LunaMetric customers and visitors to use it. MarketLeap has done an amazing job of creating links with their link popularity calculator. Both are great examples of link bait.
Alternatively, link bait could be the same kind of gadget, but one that's downloadable. However, it links you back to the Mother Ship when you use it- and there's the link bait again. A great example of that one is the Technorati search for blogs - you put it on your blog, someone searches, and the actual search happens on the Technorati website.
A variation on the downloadable gadget with links back to your site is the downloadable gadget that you use offline, but that has links to your site. For example, your visitors might download your specialized Excel web analytics calculator with links in it. It doesn't help your company in the search engines because the engines don't see those links between MS Office and the site, but you'll be surprised how often visitors are back at the home site, maybe just for "help". Links aren't just about search engines, after all - they're about driving potential customers to your site. (For the record, it is not that hard to get the links out of the Excel document, but most people probably don't bother.)
Great content always serves as link bait. Breaking news often falls in that category, but so does an amazing white paper. A "How-to Guide" is another example.
However, the new twist in link baiting is in social bookmarking. Whether you use Digg or del.icio.us or you've got pictures (so you're using Flickr), you should tag any great content you have. Tags are no more than one-word bookmarks, just like the kind you have in Internet Explorer or Mozilla, but you put those bookmarks online, where others can share them. If your content is compelling and you've tagged it, more people are likely to see it, tag it and/or link to it (there's the link bait.) If you can, assign at least one tag to your content that is a "most popular" tag. All the services mentioned above show you what their most popular tags are.
So, how does link bait help your SEO?
- It creates more links to your site, which really do help you in the search engines. If you don't believe that, try a search on "click here." Furthermore, the links come to you -- you don't have to get on your knees and beg for the links.
- It creates more links to your site, which send potential customers your way. After all, the whole purpose of SEO - coming up high in the search engines - is about reaching more people.
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