Link Building Step One: Hire a Writer

-No, check that. Hire a GREAT writer!

Put aside the importance of great copy for sales, intriguing articles for attracting RSS subscribers, or any number of reasons having a great writer can be helpful to your web site…I’m talking links, here!

How can you expect webmasters to take any link request seriously if the quality of (or lack of) content is…well…lacking? You can’t. Having compelling writing will give webmasters a REASON to link to you (other than the fact that you were polite and said ‘please’). And if you’re not constantly adding quality, useful content to your site, you simply aren’t taking advantage of every opportunity for links.

One of the biggest and most unfortunate misconceptions about SEO is that once you’ve developed a web site, it’s done. The reality is: SEO (and internet marketing as a whole) is a constant process of optimizing and developing fresh new ways to attract users…and of course: links.

What is Link Bait?

Adding content to attract links isn’t a new concept. The term ‘link bait’ has been around for some time and it has become a buzzword that means just that. So what kind of content works best to attract links?

In my last post, I mentioned that building links is like marketing to webmasters. You need to appeal to what we SEO’s call the ‘linkerati’ or the linking web. It’s not that webmasters are much different from your customers, however. They simply have higher standards for what is considered valuable online content. But in order to create successful link bait you first need to understand WHY webmasters link out to begin with.

Understanding Link Bait Hooks.

‘Link Bait Hooks’ are basically the angle your content takes in order to entice webmasters to link back.  Todd Malicoat once did a fantastic post on his blog stuntdubl.com expanding on the various link bait hooks and how they can be used:

Stuntdubl’s list of link bait hooks:

• News hook
• Contrary Hook
• Attack Hook
• Resource Hook
• Humor Hook
• Ego hook
• Incentive hook

The basic point is you need to create content on your web site so useful, informing, or entertaining that other webmasters link to your site as a reference.  Or you can create content targeting webmasters’ emotional senses & needs in order to ‘bait’ them into linking back. It sounds sinister, but it doesn’t have to be.

Todd’s post comes with a harsh disclaimer, however:

…[with linkbaiting] you MUST be remarkable ala Seth Godin’s Purple Cow – if you can’t bait with stuff that people will talk about, then go back to link begging.

BTW: Todd, I still have your copy of that book…

His point being well made: it’s one thing KNOW how to appeal to webmasters, but creating content that gets the job done is quite another task. The word REMARKABLE, being the consistent theme within Purple Cow, is why having a great writer is so important and can make or break your link baiting efforts.

A good writer should be able to write a compelling article on just about any topic you give them, but a great writer knows what topics are most appropriate and how best to leverage the associated ‘hook’ for attention that can attract the best kind of links.  Free links.

Having a great writer isn’t just about adding content to your own site, however.  In my next post, I’ll explore the link building method of ‘article submissions’, why it’s misunderstood, and how to do it better than everyone else.  Don’t miss it!