Master these five link bait strategies to get more backlinks for your website, and sit back and watch as the links roll-in.
Breaking News
Breaking a news story related to your industry or market makes for a great link bait strategy. This can be harder than it sounds, often requiring late nights and diligent research.
If you do get the scoop before everyone else, choose your angle and start spreading the word via social media. Contact news outlets, as well as influential bloggers.
Awards
Announce upcoming awards and provide a way for people to easily cast their vote. Don’t over-think the voting process, it can be as simple as a form on your website.
Once you have everything ready, let potential award winners know. Make sure to explain that votes will be influencing who wins. This link baiting strategy provides a great incentive for people to link to your awards and voting page. It is also pretty likely their audience will help spread your link bait.
Guides
Create a great guide on a popular topic or new technology. This can be an incredibly effective link bait tactic. The downside of developing a guide is that it can take a lot of time and energy.
When creating a guide, try to find trending topics that have yet to peak in popularity. This will help ensure that when they do peak, your guide is one of the most visible and linked to guides on the topic.
‘Best of’ Lists
Creating a list of the best people or companies in a given niche is another effective link baiting technique. Make sure to choose something relevant to your intended audience.
To enhance the appeal of linking to the list, create badges that can be embedded on a website’s sidebar. This can be very effective in generating a large number of links from leaders in your industry.
Original Research
Conduct original research by collecting data or creating a survey. Once you have a decent amount of data, present your findings. Create a few compelling visualizations from the data and you have a great piece of link bait.
Make sure your research is on an interesting topic. There is nothing worse than putting in all that time collecting data only to find out that no one really cares.