Why Not Call “Linkbaiting” By Its Real Name?
by Tony Hung on January 18, 2007
So, there’s a great little piece by Nick Wilson up on Search Engine Land about Linkbaiting, sort of as an update to his 2006 article. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait.
For the impatient, Nick is basically saying that if links are the currency of search engine optimization, SEO consultants ought to work to create excellent “link bait” so people will naturally link to their sites, and therefore, naturally, and organically, improve their search rankings — rather than begging to be linked to.
You know what? It makes sense to me. In fact, its always made sense to me.
Linking to intersting, link-worthy content?
What an idea.
What’s confusing is why the jargon-y type of term like “Linkbait” is still being used. I mean, why don’t we just call a cow a cow, and call it “creating great content”?
Brian over at Copyblogger mentioned as much a few weeks ago, but creating compelling, great, original, newsworthy content will grab attention, and by definition be link worthy, and therefore, get links. And it can be all kinds of content.
News.
Research.
Reviews.
Tips.
Lists.
Interviews.
They *all* count.
Stuff that doesn’t get linked to? The mediocre stuff. The echo chamber qualifying pap that stands for content. Dry, unintelligible prose. Stuff that means nothing to no one in particular.
Or, all of those things I mentioned done in a boring way.
Boring interview questions. Reviews that add nothing to the conversation. Lists everyone knows about. Research on a question no one cares about. Tips about stuff a six year old could deduce. News that is stale.
If we all took a minute to create something fresh and interesting, and do so frequently, you’ll increase your own chance of being linked to. And it doesn’t necessarily mean pandering to your audience, (geeks love Apple, girls, linux, and the Daily Show — why don’t we combine all four for an unbeatable combination! — the fact you’re selling laptop cases? Who cares!) or necessarily acquiring the services of high priced SEO consultants.
They’ve got their role when you don’t have the time or inclination. But if you’ve got more time than money, grab your own blog at any number of free places, roll up your sleeves, rub those brain cells together, and start writing.
Sure, it might take a few tries, but you know what?
You just might surprise yourself.
13 comments
Excellent point Tony. Majority of the blog world is focusing so much on fancy terminology that most do not realize how content is the most important thing on any site. And if you have great content, people will appreciate such content and link to you; it may take time, but it will happen. Using the word “linkbait” does make a simple and golden rule more complicated than it really is, and makes most bloggers believe that linkbait means focusing most on getting incoming links. A blogger should never give the most attention to the task of getting incoming links. Having quality content should be of highest priority.
Also, in my opinion, stuff that doesn’t get linked to right away may get noticed later on. Some blogs and posts take time to have their content appreciated and analyzed in depth. Bloggers should focus on the content, and if they have spare time, focus on other things like improving design.
by Bes Zain on January 18, 2007 at 8:07 pm. #
I agree with BexZain. Sometimes it takes time for people to find and appreciate your content.
by Alex Becker on January 19, 2007 at 12:02 am. #
[...] Deep Jive Interests » Why Not Call “Linkbaiting” By Its Real Name? [...]
by Today’s Lesson: Linkbait at Baron VC on January 19, 2007 at 12:08 am. #
What should bloggers focus on?>
Writing good stuff? Or, creating software doodads?
http://mediavidea.blogspot.com/2007/01/widgets-good-or-bad.html
by pramit on January 19, 2007 at 12:32 am. #
Excellent commentary Tony, and I have to agree with you, content will always be king and the links should come from the fruits of your labor..
This is a great addition to your recent thursday post at problogger regarding generating content.. You don’t have to make the news most of the time, but how about making your (interesting and coherent) opinion the actual news instead… a good point of view can go a long way if done right.
by Nick on January 19, 2007 at 8:14 am. #
You know fancy words just do the trick for some people.
You call people Fraudsters instead of thieves, call dictators tyrants instead of murderers. You see the whole world loves to use fancy words.
So I guess “linkbaiting” is just another way to do this. But lets get something straight even if you write great content you definitely have to know a lot of other SEO stuff or else, it’ll be you and your family members that’ll read those posts. What do you think tony?
by Gideon Morkly on January 22, 2007 at 5:01 pm. #
What do I think?
I think i don’t know much, if anything about SEO, and a great deal of my traffic actually comes through google, thanks to “good content”, and nothing else.
I write “interesting” things, people link to me, google finds me, and traffic comes through google and other sites.
So, do I think SEO stuff “matters”? Sure — but it hasn’t mattered to me … and my traffic is more than nil.
Cheers
t
by Tony on January 22, 2007 at 5:04 pm. #
Wow that was pretty fast, tony, forgive me i’m getting into this habit of going round great blogs and right, deepjiveinterests and problogger still rank high for me..big ups.
How do I get to have people bookmark my site on delicious and what do you think about digg.com
by Gideon Morkly on January 22, 2007 at 6:17 pm. #
[...] Coming into the New Year, I resolved not to use the term “linkbait” any longer. Linkbait is simply compelling content that’s remarkable, and in social media the remark is mostly made via the link. Compelling content is simply compelling content, right? [...]
by Linkbaiting: Vote Yes or No This Week Only | Copyblogger on January 24, 2007 at 3:58 pm. #
[...] Does that make the article “linkbait“? I suppose it does. But I’m willing to accept that label if it’s used in the context of “simply compelling content.” After all, I didn’t write it with the goal of getting lots of links and readers. I wrote it because it was on my mind, is a topic my readers claim they’re interested in (33% of those who took the poll said they’re interested in blogging), and is related to a topic I co-authored a book about. The article was forming in my brain — why would I keep it there if others might find it useful? [...]
by Maria Langer, the Official Web Site* » Link Bait? on January 26, 2007 at 12:28 pm. #
I agree with most of the people above. People are so busy developing and selling rewriting software and PLR articles that people dont take the time to write new stuff.
If they write new stuff themselves the search engines will love it along with the people that actually read it. write it for your audience and your audience will love it and get more traffic to your site
by Kevin on September 2, 2007 at 9:09 pm. #
great article! do you think that ‘baiting’ is a gives the term ‘linkbaiting’ a bad precedence? it seems that some people think that ‘linkbaiting’ automatically means a trap of sorts. in the same breath, does google penalize for the term ‘linkbait’?
by s_jenkins on November 14, 2007 at 2:54 am. #
Im a prime example of such a link bait. In fact i would argue that wordpress created its buisness model around such an idea. Why else would they make it so inherently possible for people like my self who cleans swimming pools in the folsom, ca area to simple put this keyword term as my name and blammmooo! i have myself another link.
by Pool Service Folsom on January 6, 2010 at 4:31 pm. #