Link baiting is perhaps the most challenging means of increasing incoming links to a website and webmasters are constantly working on increasing incoming links to their website via link baiting. Link baiting is the process of increasing incoming links to a website by creating interesting content, useful tools or by any another means possible. Link baiting is perfectly ‘legal ‘and should not be confused with paying other webmasters to link to a website as link baiting is purely voluntary.

To better understand link baiting; let’s assume that a SEO website has introduced a new tool that calculates incoming links to a website. A webmaster can choose to make the tool free to use and allow other webmasters to copy-paste code for the tool. Whenever a webmaster displays the tool on his website, the tool will have an outgoing link to the website from which it was taken. In essence, the creator of the tool would have baited a link from another website. Link baiting can be carried out using content, images, videos and other multimedia content. Link baiting is divided into the following categories based on the method used:

Information based link baiting

Websites that offer rare content, tips and tricks, and information usually attract a lot of incoming links from websites. Well researched and insightful content is usually referenced by other websites and information based link baiting is one of the simplest methods of link baiting.

News based link baiting

Breaking news is one of the simplest ways to generate incoming links, by putting up breaking news and information on new developments a webmaster can bait websites into linking to his/her website. Websites usually link to press releases and breaking news articles as citations.

Humour and cartoons for link baiting

Humorous write ups and funny cartoons are fast becoming a popular means of link baiting. Blog entries and other social networking sites love quoting a humours quote or cartoon, and most webmasters are inclined to acknowledge the source of the quote or cartoon.

Using tools for link baiting

As mentioned in the beginning of the article, a webmaster can create a small widget (tool) that will be used by other webmasters and will add an incoming link to the website. Search engine optimization websites allow webmasters to display the PageRank of their website by copy-pasting a small code snippet. The tool does display the PageRank in graphic format but also baits an incoming link. Tool ‘hooks’ are fast becoming a popular way to carry out link baiting as the tools are usually updated and provide continuous utility to the webmaster.

Controversial content and link baiting

There is a saying ‘there is no publicity like bad publicity’. Sometimes, websites hosting controversial content get a lot of attention and are often quoted or cited by other websites. Apart from providing food for thought, controversial content is becoming a popular method for link baiting. It is important to remember that webmasters are coming up with newer techniques to carry out link building everyday.

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