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Do you remember the term link bait or link baiting? While 2006 and 2007 link baiting was all the rage in recent years it seems people don’t talk or write much about this practice anymore. Has link baiting vanished? Not at all.

Link baiting is daily business right now, it’s the norm.

Indeed I would go as far as to state that link baiting is currently the most important link building tactic or strategy (depends on the bait really). Continue Reading »

For a few months now my work consists mainly of business blogging. I do less and less conventional client SEO work like keyword research or link building. This is quite a change as I’ve been a full time search engine optimizer and SEO consultant for several years in a row. Thus I still get SEO related inquiries and offers.

By now many people know what SEO is about, at least superficially. This is often more of an issue than a help though. Some people have some distorted preconceptions as what SEO is about and how it works.

This week an inquiry was about link building for a travel website. I won’t disclose which site or destination it was about but it’s one of the most popular and very competitive ones. The email asked for link building and ended with the sentence “let’s start with 50 links”. Continue Reading »

More and more conventional link building methods, like directory submission are of less and less value, Google does not even recommend high quality paid directories any more. In fact soon we’ll see a situation where all artificial ways of link building will be frowned upon.

On the other hand former SEOptimise writer and renowned UK search marketing blogger Patrick Altoft reported a few days ago about companies which spend thousands on link buying budgets per month. This way of link acquisition is not allowed by Google for a long time by now and many high profile sites have been penalized already.

While the urge of spending money on links comes as no surprise it is met by an often low quality shady part of the SEO industry. Getting links naturally requires also an investment, an allocation of time and resources combined with know how in some Internet industries like web design or development but not solely.

The money gets spend not on the links directly but on a web venture that gets links naturally and sustainably over time. The allure of “free” is in most cases the key to get links but also altruism leads to a direct ROI in terms of links. So think twice before spending money directly on low quality links.

Stop link building artificially and use one or several of the following 30 ways to get links naturally:

1. Create a timeless or regularly updated resource list, example Web developer’s Handbook
2. Program a free tool or software everybody needs in a particular niche but not everybody offers yet (compare the query font tester vs color picker)
3. Develop a high quality theme or template for a well known platform like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla that gets updated along the software
4. Program a WordPress or other popular blog platform plugin, in the best case a platform independent one like Akismet
5. Develop a Firefox plugin for a recurring task or dealing with a widely spread annoyance like BugMeNot
6. Organize a genuine yearly recurring competition like the Web 2.0 awards
7. Organize a Recurring charitable event like the Blog Action Day
8. Forge a lasting partnership with a similar service provider, like a graphic design agency joining forces with a PSD2XHTML provider
9. Build a community like 9Rules where people “proudly” are part of and display on it on their sites
10. Support artists with free or cheaper web hosting (or anything else they need) like MediaTemple does
11. Mirror a high traffic site, for instance an open source software or an activist site
12. Offer a rebate for a particular group, especially students but also workers class families, veterans or whatever disadvantaged group
13. Offer free music or other audio downloads. or at least a way to listen to the audio online, that’s the secret of success of MySpace
14. Offer free ebook or better free ebooks (more than one) like O’Reilly for instance
15. Maintain a business blog updated regularly with high value resources, best example is Inside CRM
16. Get your content translated and republished in multiple languages and countries
17. Join a community and become one of the most valuable members like Maki of DoshDosh did on Sphinn and Digg
18. Offer high quality free icons for download and free use
19. Offer background patterns for free for web designers
20. Offer free wallpapers for download and invite artist to modify them
21. Create a Facebook application and maintain it over time
22. Create a CSS solutions for common tasks or CSS problems or even better are whole set of solutions
23. Offer free scripts and “chunks code” (like CSS as it’s not a script) for webmasters to use freely
24. Create a highly useful and visually appealing Flash application like SimpleViewer
25. Give away images using a creative commons license on your website
26. Publish recipes for healthy, Italian, French, Chinese or any other kind of desirable food not everybody can buy
27. Offer fundamental self improvement advice like hackyourself does
28. Start a green initiative, whatever it might be, there are thousands of ways to do that, carbon free websites is great example
29. Educate children, especially from poor families be it in the West or down in the “global south”, e.g. the 100 Dollar laptop gained huge recognition
30. Help animals and boast about it displaying images of them you don’t have to as obnoxious as PETA

As you see many of these ways of getting links naturally are projects based on market forces or in other words on what many or most people need. The best thing on the Web is additionally that even free things normally not provided by the market can be offered in a profitable way as by gaining links the investment is made profitable at last.

Of course all these ways of getting links also get you reputation and fans and thus traction in social media too. People hate companies and busineses overselling but they love free stuff and those who offer it. When everybody loves you also those who are willing to spend money will find you.

In case you wonder now “how can I achieve that, I’m no programmer, designer, content creator, artist, activist” you don’t need to be, there are plenty out there are they’re short on money especially those from India. Sometimes even 100$ are enough.

Most website owners rely on quick website tweaks and the right tools for measurable website success. That’s not wrong but that’s also not enough. Being serious about business, a webmaster must get links to get additional exposure via search engines, of course predominantly Google.

Google still judges a website mostly based on the number and quality of links pointing to it (backlinks). So even today you got to get links, be it via outstanding content, viral campaigns or just conventional link building. Still most people do not take all the measures easily available on the Web today. Some have been around for ages, others just popped up recently. Check the 30 easiest ways to get links and exposure.

Instant Link Building
1. Submit to paid web directories free ones are often low quality lately
2. Submit to a few quality article directories
3. Send out a press releases via a few online services
4. Answer questions on Yahoo Answers etc. and in forums
5. Add resources to user generated content sites like Zimbio, Associated Content or others
6. Ask your friends, family, employees to link to you
7. Add your link to your profiles on Web 2.0 services like MySpace, Twitter (in the Bio) or Propeller

Common Linking Incentives

8. Get a Delicious badge, and display the number of bookmarks as well as the tags
9. Offer a badge of honor, something like “a carbon neutral site”
10. Offer a button for voting to install on other websites & blogs
11. Offer a widget for bloggers, something useful that will spread by itself
12. Stage a contest, it should be fun and the prizes should be worth it
13. Organize a blog carnival choosing a topic that matters for many people
14. Link out plenty, especially to bloggers, some will link back others will bookmark, some links will appear directly as ping and trackbacks
15. Contact people who might link to you (I do not mean a reciprocal link request)
16. Mirror a popular high traffic site, all the webhosters do it that way
17. Give away content with a creative commons license, especially if you can offer images or music (or other audio)
18. Let people translate your content and republish it for free

Link Bait Ideas and Practices

19. Praise experts in your area who have blogs
20. “Pull a Calacanis” – Say something stupid to stir controversy (like “SEO is bullshit” or “Web directories are Web 3.0″)
21. Be the first to break a story, indeed check original sources first before just recycling news
22. Write a useful list, “100 ways of something” always get linked
23. Give away a real freebie, a fee version of your product, should be valuable for users
24. Use images of barely clad ladies, sorry I mean beautiful women to illustrate your point
25. Support a cause, like Blogcatalog does
26. Write something unbelievable, intriguing or that “strikes a chord”
27. Do something useful for the Linkerati, a list of Digg users who blog for instance
28. Create something for the lowest common denominator, best topic is cute cats
29. Declare something alive and kicking dead but in a way it makes sense
30. Say something funny like “SEO is Dad” ;-)

Please not that I intentionally did not include some not entirely ethical grey hat methodes like “submit to social bookmarking sites” or “comment on dofollow blogs” as these tend to become spammy in the wrong hands.