If you’re a blogger or website owner then you’ve run into the issue of finding traffic to your site. It isn’t that people don’t trust you, well some don’t, but the fact is most people just have never heard of you or your website. It isn’t that big of a problem. It happens to every site once and awhile. Even recognized blogs sometimes need a boost in traffic. Linkbaiting is the answer all search engine optimization services will give you.
Good linkbait comes from great content. Your linkbait content needs to make a promise to the reader about what they will be reading, learning, or achieving from your site. All of the subsequent content should be devoted to meeting this promise.
A good hook will help you meet this goal by keeping the content focused. The hook should have the potential to immediately pull the reader in and generate some sort of emotional response. Here are some of the most common types of hooks used by website owners for linkbait and search engine optimization purposes:
- News Hook – A good news hook happens when you are the first to report a story. By doing so everyone who then carries your story should then link to you as being the original source. You don’t need to have insider information to get a scoop you can just be the first to publicly foresee something or to come to a controversial conclusion. Be careful with this type of hook if your scoop turns out to be false. It will make other bloggers and writers unwilling to reference your site again as a credible source.
- Resource Hook – A resource hook is when you write a particularly helpful piece of content that everyone will want to bookmark for future reference. This may be the easiest hook to write and the most fun. As opposed to a news hook, a resource hook encourages people to link to and bookmark it for long periods of time. It becomes content that naturally obtains trusted, relevant backlinks just by sitting there with no updates. How can you go wrong?
- Humor Hook – Everyone loves to laugh, especially at others in the industry or niche they share. Most markets have so little humor that anything you say can bring out a chuckle and hopefully, a link. By even directly mentioning leading industry people, you may get a link by flattering them.
- Giveaway Hook – Anyone who ever attended some sort of industry conference knows that they’ll never need to go shopping for pens, highlighters, key rings, and loads of over freebie junk. Companies give things away at events because, when directed towards the correct audience, giveaways are a great way to drive sales and get a return better and quicker than ordinary advertising. Websites are no different.
- Contrary Hook – There are times when to get a link you disprove a common industry myth. This is called a contrary hook. There are few areas of the blogosphere which have certain beliefs that are known to be self-evident such all sports writers believing Barry Bonds cheated. Calling these people out and proving they are wrong will usually incite them into talking about you, and more importantly linking to you.
- Research/Statistic Hook – Maybe one day you are bored and start to compile some industry number. A post like this will undoubtedly get a lot of link love. This works quite well in new and untouched markets. While a scientifically-conducted study with valid methodology can get better links, truth is that nearly everything and anything can pass as research on the web.
A good linkbait hook is the most time-efficient and easy way of building relevant, trusted, editorially-given backlinks for all of your search engine optimization purposes. It’s factor that can make or break a website in getting ranked in Google for competitive keywords.
Source by Jonathan Peters