Comments on: Linkbait: The New “Fake!”

By: Article Buster

Article Buster — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:27:12 +0000

I am new to the idea of link bait but I consider it something really important for your link building campaign as it builds links almost effortlessly.

I would like to thank John Chen for his articles. They were quite useful.
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By: Eden

Eden — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:35:53 +0000

I’d argue that it’s already blase and prevalent in almost every online niche – and getting worse daily.

The majority of SEO firms recommend link building to generate organic traffic and content as the best way to get inbound links. How many “Top 10 Ways to XXX” and “How to [insert mundane topic that pertains to author’s online store]” does the world need and what value are those articles actually providing when the writer’s primary purpose is to generate links back to a given site?

In my industry, the topic “How to Clean Patio Furniture” generates 1,350,000 English pages on Google. Its not like there’s real research behind these articles, for the most part they’re just regurgitated versions of the same content…

Eden
Outdoor Patio Shop

By: John Chen

John Chen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:30:59 +0000

Junk linkbait can have a very negative impact on a websites brand.

If I clicked on an interesting headline from twitter and land on a junk linkbait. I will make sure to blacklist the domain in my head, and may even unfollow the person that tweeted the URL.

By: Data Entry Lady

Data Entry Lady — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:24:34 +0000

There is some obvious junk being put out for link bait but I can see (I’m not savy enough to do it myself) that it doesn’t have to be junk or fake. Perhaps a useful little zipcode look up tool or some great photos that are shared, or again, a great article that one might want to refer visitors to.

By: John Chen

John Chen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:37:12 +0000

Hi Ruud, I don’t think linkbait is necessary evil, but rather just another tool which SEOs can help market their clients product and gain valuable links.

Viral marketing can be seen as highly manipulative as well, because the end goal is to make consumers buy a product or recognize a brand. Linkbait is the same concept, but the end goal is to obtain links.

Badly written or un-interesting articles will never make good linkbait, as the linkbait is voted on by people and can not be manipulated. Yes, I agree with the popularity of the linkbait technique we will start to see more and more low quality article spam. Just like back in the days, lazy SEOs used hidden text.

The term linkbait I agree sounds manipulative, however there is nothing manipulative about creating a great piece of content which leverages the power of social media to build links rather to sell products.

I’m actually writing a series of articles for SEOs on link bait http://bit.ly/3Xdaow, your readers might find this a good read.

Cheers John