wendy piersall

April 23, 2010

SEO Tips- Linkbaiting- Great Articles Attract Links-Pt. One

Content is King and Linkbait in the form of compelling content is one of the SEO tools that savvy web entrepreneurs use every day, not as their primary reason but as the offshoot of creating great content. I like to read Mashable everyday because it is generally chock-a-block with timely information on the Social Web. Take for instance Ben Parr’s excellent article on Google Wave, This is a post last updated in January 2010. Already, as I write this post, it has been retweeted on Twitter 6055 times, Shared on Facebook 2636 times and Buzzed 543 times.
On top of that 859 root domains link to this url and there are 3754 followed,non followed and 301 links to the article.

When you have a subject that is covered so completely by Ben people will find it useful and link to it also.

Another example is Aaron Wall’s SEO Book site. This would be considered an authority site by most SEO practioners and as such it brings credibility and linking power. The article How to Build Links Fast- 101 Tips and Strategies has 851 domains linking to it and 5008 followed,non-followed and 301 links. Going down the linking rabbithole leads me to Problogger where you will find a guest post by , in her own words, the adorkableWendy Piersall, The Ultimate Guide to Getting Lots of Link Love. Problogger is a very well read blog by Darren Rowse which has an Alexa ranking of 2076. This blog has an Alexa ranking of 909,739, respectable but not as widely read as Darren’s by a long shot. In that article there are a number of sites that are recommended on the subject of Linking.

It is like a spider web of totally relevant content. One link is to a site with another web of tools and links to useful information by Stuntdubl Search Marketing Consulting with their best posts on the subject. Another is Lyndon Antcliff’s blog CornwallSEO. This article or listing of articles is entitled Linkbait Articles- The Enormous Linkbait List. To discover the links that these sites have I have used the tool Open Site Explorer which has been of great help in the writing of this post. It is a free resource provided by the folks at SEOMoz.I hope this gives you a introduction to writing great content, that will be linked to and improve your SEO as a by product.

I will continue this post in two parts. This Part and Part Two which will give you some actionable, white hat tricks to improve your linking. Let me know in the comments what other liking items you want to have answers to.
I found some useful links for you along with related Posts:

seo advice: linkbait and linkbaiting – linkbaiting sounds like a bad thing, but especially if it’s interesting information or fun, it doesn’t have to have negative connotations. i hereby claim that content can be both white-hat and yet still be wonderful “bait” for links (eg …
BruceClay – Can Link Bait Mature? Yes, It Has To – Bruce Clay Blog – The question over at the Cre8asite Forums is can linkbait mature? Yes, it can. It has to. Today, social media is our little baby. It’s full of promise and.
Clearing Linkbaiting’s Name – Rather, being contrary in linkbaiting is taken to mean providing another critical view, a new insight to a pre-conceived notion, or the discovery of an entirely new area of interest for that matter. Originality—whether in layout …
16 Must Read Articles For Bloggers – I firmly believe the best way to be successful is to watch, listen, and learn from those who have already …