With almost 2 billion websites online, how do you stand out in the crowd? Even having a good looking and well functioning website doesn’t cut it anymore.
So, what does it take?
It requires knowing the best website techniques and best practices to get attention online. One of the things you need is SEO, and we are going to talk more about that in the article below.
We are also going to talk about what linkbait is, how you can use it to get backlinks, and much more. Continue reading to learn everything you need to know to win with your content marketing and SEO strategies.
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the act of doing everything within your power to make your website show up at the top of the results in search engines.
Whether you’re outsourcing your SEO or DIYing it, SEO is a very important part of online marketing. Getting organic traffic is a great way to increase leads for your company and convert people into paying customers.
What Is Linkbait?
You might have heard of clickbait before, but what is linkbait?
With clickbait, you are doing something to get people to click on the link. With linkbait, you’re doing something to get people to link back to your site.
People aren’t linking to your site because you paid them or because they are required to, but they are doing it because they want to.
There are a few different types of linkbait, and we are going to go through those in the content below. Let’s give you a little deeper understanding of why we create and use linkbait, and then we will get into how we are going to create the linkbait.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are when someone links back to your site from their site. These backlinks might be “naked,” meaning it is just your link, or it might be an anchor text link meaning they link words back to your site.
Why Do I Need Backlinks?
Now that you know what backlinks are, why do you need backlinks for your site?
The higher the number of quality links a site has pointing back to it, the more it looks like that is a good site to rank in the search engines. If everyone is already linking to it, it must be good, right?
Quality backlinks show that your site is trusted, and the more you have, the more likely Google and other search engines are to believe that your result is the best result to show up in the search engines even after their latest updates.
Where Do You Get Backlinks?
Now that you know more about backlinks and why they are important to your website, where do you get them?
There are good ways to get them and bad ways to get them. These are known as white hat and black hat methods.
White hat methods are those that are considered to be good practices, and black hat SEO is on the spammy side of things.
Creating linkbait content is as white hat SEO as you can get. Google loves it when websites create great content that people want to link to without being asked.
Now let’s get into how we can create linkbait that people love to link to.
Types of Linkbait
There are different types of linkbait, so you don’t have to get bored or be boring doing the same things over and over again.
Here are some of the types of linkbait that will prove helpful as you’re using website techniques to grow your link portfolio.
Great Content
When you’re writing a blog post, creating a video, updating top-level pages, or creating other types of content, before you put it out there on the web, think about whether this content is the best possible content a reader could find.
Would it make sense for someone to link to this content without being asked? Is it helpful and in-depth enough that someone couldn’t easily copy it and write it off as their own?
Would you share it with friends and family because it had helped you? Or would you keep browsing and look for another piece of content that was more helpful?
While you can never be sure what people are going to want to share, you can look for clues. Look to see what people in your target audience are already sharing.
You don’t have to put out the same content, obviously, but put out similar content or content on the same topic but make it even better and even more helpful — or put your own spin on things.
News
If you can get information on the topic early on as it’s developing, you can get some good backlinks from writing about it.
Make sure the news you’re writing about makes sense with your niche. There’s plenty of news you can write about, but you don’t always need to weigh in on it.
For instance, if something big happens in politics and you’re a cupcake company — you probably don’t want to blog about it.
On the other hand, if you’re a cupcake company and you learn that they’ve just made a specific day cupcake day, you might put out some content about it to let people know what to expect. While you have their attention, you can offer them a discount for the newly deemed cupcake day.
Evergreen Content
While news can grab a lot of attention quickly, it’s likely to taper off pretty quickly. Once all the excitement is over, and people aren’t curious anymore, it is unlikely they are going to search for that topic again.
On the other hand, evergreen content can keep getting you backlinks far into the future. If you keep your content updated over time, you can continue to get backlinks from a piece of content you put together years ago.
Evergreen content would be something like answering a search query of “How to market your business online.” People are always going to be searching for this because everyone wants to get attention online.
When you’re creating evergreen content, either don’t put dates in the content or make sure that you update those dates and give the content a refresh when the new year comes.
As you’re adding more content, make sure you structure it, so it makes sense where you are adding to your current content. If you randomly add new content in with the older content, you could mess up the flow.
Specific Examples of Great Linkbait
There are certain types of content that people are more likely to link back to. Content that is difficult to replicate is the most common type of content that gets backlinks, and here are some that you should pay attention to.
Online Tools, Calculators & Widgets
Online tools and calculators can get a lot of backlinks because people want to come back and use them again later. People may also link to them to help their blog readers with the problem that your tool or calculator helps to solve.
You can even allow other people to use the tool or calculator that you created on their site but require they link back to your site to use it.
There are sites that do this and are very successful with it. Sites like Statcounter and Bloglovin have many people linking back to their site because of their widgets.
Infographics & Images
People love learning from images, and infographics are the perfect way to bring this about.
Infographics can get a lot of social shares, and they can get a lot of reference links from high-quality sources as well. You do need to make sure that your infographic or image is well put together and easy to read, or you won’t get the results that you want because people will ignore it altogether.
While you do need to put a lot of information in your infographic for it to be helpful, don’t over complicate a topic purposefully just to make your infographic longer.
Before you start creating the infographic, create an outline of the information you’ll need to include to get your idea across. After that, draw your infographic idea out on paper to see how it is going to look, and then you can take it online.
Or you can do the easy thing and have a graphic designer take care of the infographic.
Games
No matter what industry you’re in, people like to play games. Even the most educated and busy people enjoy taking a break and play different types of games.
Putting a game on your website can get people to link back to your site and come back to visit for another round. It’s also likely they will share the game with a friend as well since people love to have a friend to compete against.
The game that you create doesn’t have to be complicated or take long. Simply create something that your target audience could play for a few minutes to take the stress off, and you’ll be surprised how many people can link to it.
Video Content
While it’s oftentimes easy to recreate written content, it’s not as easy to recreate video content. Finding people that are willing to get behind a camera is difficult, and finding an expert to talk on a subject can be costly.
If you are the one that puts out great content, you can expect people to link to the video vs. trying to create one on the topic themselves.
When you’re creating the video, talk about the sources of your information, share a personal experience, and anything else that is difficult to recreate. Make the video longer than a few minutes so you can explain your subject thoroughly and get people invested in your content.
What Type of Content Should You Create?
Now that you understand more about linkbait and how it works, as well as the different types of linkbait, which type of content should you create?
While not every type of content is right for every company, it’s usually a good idea to do some testing and see what your audience wants.
Remember that your goal is to get people to link back to your content. You don’t only want to create content that people will enjoy reading, but you want to create content they want to share.
Whether it’s a video, blog post, game, or quiz, make sure it is on-brand and in line with your company’s values. If the content you put up is solely for linkbait, you might confuse your current readers and lose loyal subscribers.
Know what is going to work for your current readers and customers, as well as bring in new people that are going to learn to love your brand and buy products or services from you.
These Website Techniques Can Save Your Business’s Online Life
Now you know about these website techniques and the above tips that can help you get attention online through backlinks and SEO rankings.
We understand that this information can be a lot, but the results you’ll get when you start implementing the best practices will be worth it all.
Don’t feel like you can take it on your own and keep up to date with the latest changes in Google and other search engines? We get it, and we’re here to help.
Contact us today, and we will be glad to speak with you on a no-obligation consultation call. We look forward to speaking with you and helping you along the way.
