EricWard.com

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • LinkMoses Newsletter Archive
  • About
  • Strategies
  • 300+ Greatest Hits
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Linking Building Strategy Articles / Link Bait Kool-Aid?

Link Bait Kool-Aid?

December 7, 2011 by Eric Ward

by Eric Ward

Updated July 2009

“Link Bait”.  Man-o-man do I hate that term. As if your site’s users are nothing but a school of carp swimming about waiting to be hooked. Dangle a tasty little piece of content, any content, and BAM, got another click…

If you haven’t heard the term yet, you may be shocked to see over 20,000 references to Link Bait at Google (note: as of 3/09 there are now 160,000). I’m not shocked. Link Bait has been around longer than I have. It’s what we used to call…content.

Nowadays I guess the term content has become quaint. I hear people saying, “I don’t have time to add real content, I need is something quick that will make everyone want to link to my site.” And I say, “Like what, the awesome Diet Coke/Mentos fountain video? But I thought your site sold ball bearings?” Funny, but true. People are getting so caught up in their quest for viral, user-generated links that they will do anything. Who cares if it has nothing to do with your long-term business success, your site was on the Digg homepage yesterday! Cool!!

I say you’re drinking the link bait Kool-Aid.

Use this Category Navigation List to quickly move through my site

Newsletter                             
Private Strategy Session
Services                                    
Linking Articles              

Link Bait is more or less anything you create anywhere on the Web that inspires other people to link to it. They can link to it via a Web page, a blog post, a Twitter post, a social bookmark site, or even the trusty old e-zine, newsletter, email or any other method that tells others about the bait.  The bait itself can be anything from a controversial blog post that gets people talking and linking, to a Web site that adds something really funny, to a useful application that actually helps people.

Go back all the way to the days that Yahoo was just a hobby for the boys at Stanford, and you could say their directory was early Link Bait. Everyone linked to Yahoo. Why? It was an awesome place to go find new Web sites. Remember that silly screen saver of the noodles doing the Macarena? That was Link Bait circa 1997. Even earlier was 1994’s Really Big Button That Doesn’t Do Anything. I laughed over that for weeks. It was funny back then. I think I emailed the link to a bunch of friends.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with link baiting. It’s the term and the tactics I don’t like. If you are creating Link Bait for no other reason than to attract links in hopes of also attracting search engine rankings improvement via those links…well, good luck. That’s what EVERYONE is doing. And those types of links won’t help you long if at all. But go ahead and try it. While you do, why not also add some really useful content and tools to your site that will help your users accomplish something?

Call me old school, but I’ve been helping clients with linking and link bait strategies since before the term existed, so I tend to have a more strategic perspective.  I was involved in conceiving and promoting several of the most successful examples of content (aka link bait) ever, like the Weather Channel’s Weather on your Site, and the first Times Square Web Cam. Like Schering-Plough’s Hepatitis C Infocenter.  I even helped with the very first launch of what is now called Windows Media Player. That’s high-quality content and if you want to call it link bait, fine.  More recently I helped publicize and link the new Children’s Hospital Boston Virtual Stem Cell Laboratory, a nichey bit of educational link bait that now has over 100,000 links.

No matter how clever the Link Bait, if it does nothing more than cause a little buzz or drive-by traffic, then you’ve wasted time and opportunity. Any site can fool people once, even twice. I’d rather have one person bookmark my site, re-visit it, share it, and socialize it than have 10 people come by for three seconds and leave.

But that’s just me, and what do I know?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Linking Building Strategy Articles Tagged With: Link Outreach

Dear Readers,

As many of you know, Eric Ward passed away suddenly on October 16, 2017. Eric is now in the presence of the Lord, and his work here is finished.

It has been a great blessing to see the public response to his amazing work in this industry over the years.

Eric was a pioneer in the link building industry and it is our plan to keep this site live to honor him and in memory of his many contributions to the industry which gave him so much.

In this spirit, here is a link to the 2016 - 2017 LinkMoses Newsletter archives.

With grateful hearts,

– The Ward Family

Can’t Find the Content You’re Looking for?

Latest Blog Posts

SEO: The Movie – Eric Ward’s Full SEO Movie Rant Unedited

June 29, 2017 By Eric Ward

A movie about SEO? Yes, there is in fact an SEO Movie. By now you’re likely aware that John Lincoln, CEO of Ignite Visibility, has written, produced, directed and narrated SEO: The Movie, which is available for viewing now at https://ignitevisibility.com/seo-movie/ The movie, told by industry pioneers Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishkin, Jill Whalen, Brett Tabke, […]

The Ten Commandments of Link Building

June 2, 2017 By Eric Ward

At what point does a link-building tactic make the leap from acceptable to not? When does white hat become black hat? Or gray hat? Or pink?

edu Inbound Link Myths Still Confuse Marketers

May 23, 2017 By Eric Ward

(updated May 23, 2017) One of the never-ending link building myths is the impact that inbound links originating from .edu domains can have on your search rankings. Lost in the discussion is that the quality of IBL’s from within the .edu domain varies significantly. [Note: If you like this post make sure to also check out […]

  • Home
  • LinkMoses Newsletter Archive
  • About
  • Strategies
  • 300+ Greatest Hits
  • Contact

© 2018 ERICWARD.COM · RAINMAKER PLATFORM ·

Eric Ward - Knoxville, Tennessee USA -