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Link baiting is when you come up with a unique way to get links through developing cool content, tools, videos and so on. Link baiting gets its name from fishing. You bait your hook, you draw it into a pool of water where you know it is concentrated with fish, and you expect lots of bites. But you better (1) bait it with enticing food and (2) make sure your food is of the tastes of the fish. Same with link baiting. If I create a cool tool about how to cook pork, but I market it to Jews or Muslims, it won't get much attention.
Now, is this frowned upon by search engines? Is it a form of link manipulative link building? I don't think so? If your audience doesn't bite your bait then that is the determining factor. But if you create useful, and tasty bait, and your audience bites, then you deserve the reap the ranking rewards.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.
Comments:
Chris Beasley
07/24/2006 04:48 pm
Link baiting is just a new term for a very old practice, creating a good quality site that people want to link to. There is certainly nothing wrong with that.
Barry Schwartz
07/24/2006 05:20 pm
Agreed.
Michael Martinez
07/24/2006 10:15 pm
As soon as you start asking people to link to the site, it's no longer "baiting". Instead, you're asking people to link to the site. The expression "link bait" draws upon the image of laying bait out for something to sniff it out and bite onto it, presumably so you can capture/catch it. You want to draw links to you, not go out and ask for them.
SEARCH Engine web
07/25/2006 02:07 am
How could the SEARCH ENGINES Algorithmically Program so-called "Link Baiting" into their SERPs? In other words, there is no objective way for a Developer/Engineer to program the SERPs to filter out what is link baiting so as to devalue that link or BackLink. if you do a Google Search for ... "Search Engine Optimization" ...you will discover many of the long time Listings on the first two pages have for years offered free web services - and for years have included cut and paste link codes requesting users to add their site's link to Website's in exchange for using the free service. and using the "link:" command - this strategy has apparently been working quite well across GYM for Years NOW!
Drew Stauffer
07/25/2006 05:30 pm
Isn't this what we've been doing all along? Creating juicy content that people want to link to? That's the name of the game.