Link building can be tough. For larger organizations who haven’t fully weaved SEO into it’s corporate fabric, it’s challenging to get an audience to listen to your ideas and even tougher to get budget and resources to execute.
But once we do get the opportunity to create a website feature that could be considered link bait, we have to make sure that the opportunity is primed and ready for maximum effect.
The biggest mistakes we make with link bait is that we either:
- Don’t give users a compelling reason to link to us
- Don’t extend our efforts outside our walls and actually promote it
- Don’t make it easy for our users to share with their network friends and followers
Secret #1 – Be Awesome
There’s no other words that succinctly describes your objective with being link worthy, other than to say “be awesome”. You’ve got to really rock someone’s world enough that they’re willing to risk their reputation (or for the younger crowd…their street cred) to share something with their personal network of friends. Whether that be on Twitter, Facebook, email or carrier pigeon.
Many times there are scenarios where the only link bait content you have available is left-over collateral from other marketing efforts that are being repurposed for the web. And to be honest, sometimes that is just not good enough.
Being awesome can take a number of forms depending on your niche. But generally they involve adjectives like:
- Informative
- Hilarious
- Controversial
- Helpful
- Attractive
- Useful
You get the picture. There’s no formula to it, except to say that you’ve got to bring your creative juices to the brainstorming process.
You want examples, you say? Here’s a few to mull over:
How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell - 9,000 inbound links
Boston Globe: Caught in the Oil Photo Essay – 47,000 inbound links
XE: Currency Calculator – 1.5 million inbound links
Secret #2: Target People Who Care
Call it what you want. Target market, personas or Linkerati. When creating your link bait it will likely have a better chance for success if you have a target audience in mind.
We have to keep these personas in mind during two key phases. During the brainstorming & development process. As well as during the promotion campaign.
Without a target your website feature won’t speak to anyone and could very well just fizzle.
Secret #3: Promote Through the Proper Channels
This might be just common sense, but it should be said. Promote your link bait via the proper channels. Social media is one channel, but not the only channel. Just like purchasing traditional media, you have to choose the right medium with the right message. Here are a few suggestions:
- Email Newsletters – It’s probably the most overlooked audience, and it isn’t as sexy as targeting several thousand people on Twitter but if you’ve got something that appeals to your existing audience, tap into it. Your newsletter subscribers are probably your most rabid fans.
- Media Partners – Most companies are in industries that have their niche industry news outlets. For example, SEO has Search Engine Journal or Search Engine Watch. Partner with media outlets who have built in audiences and give them an exclusive ahead of their competitors.
- Social Media – Promoting through Twitter or posting on Stumbleupon or Digg is not a guaranteed home run. It doesn’t hurt, but it can be hit or miss. If you’ve got a strong social media program in your organization, you’re more than half-way there. But if you don’t, look into partnering with a reputable social media consultant (or internet celebrity) who already has a strong following in your niche to help promote your material. As long as the message aligns with the persona of your chosen spokesperson, it can be a win-win situation.
Secret #4: Make it Easy for People to Tell Their Friends
Extend your efforts by making it simple for your website visitors to share your link bait.
Slapping a sharing widget with a weak call to action and over 30 different social media and sharing options on your link bait is NOT the best way to give people options to share something from your website. In fact, it’s probably best to pare it down to 3-4 options at most.
There’s no better example, than to show you how the link building expert The Oatmeal does it. He gives you a compelling reason to share along with a strong call to action with 4 different sharing options with popular websites.
So there it is. Four things to keep in mind when embarking on a link bait initiative.
What’s worked for you in your efforts at link bait?
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