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Link Baiting and Website Hooks
By: Gene DeFazzio

Link bait

Getting other websites to link to your website can be a difficult task. But, as we all know, linking is one of the top methods employed by search engines to rank a website.

The number and quality of the links pointing to your website determine how much importance search engines place on the relevance of your listing in their search results. Link bait is one way that you can get some of those all important links.

Link baiting is a method, used by webmasters, to attract incoming links to their websites. The following definition, from Wikipedia, explains this concept.

Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Attempts to create link bait are frequently employed in the overall task of search engine optimization.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Link bait hooks

Link bait is a relatively new term but, the principles and practices of link baiting are not new. Webmasters have been using this viral marketing technique since the dawn of the Internet. Whenever a webmaster uses any form of enticement to get their visitors to link to their site they are in effect using a link baiting hook.

A link bait hook is any method or appliance used to gain the interest of visiting webmasters and entice them to link back to your website. A hook can take many forms. The important thing is that an effective hook must produce a call to action on the part of the visitor. They should be motivated by it to link back to your website.

Types of link bait hooks

Methods of link baiting can be as creative or fundamental as you can imagine. Anything that compels your visitors to link back to your website, without being deceptive, is a good hook.

Although there are no set categories or types of link bait hooks commonly agreed upon by the Internet at large, it is not difficult to define a few. The following list is only a sampling of ideas. You can easily create your own.

Informational or "How To" Hooks

Most Web users are seeking information. Providing a rich reference source or instructional website is a sure fire way to succeed in producing links back to your website. People will want to return often to a website that provides them with relevant information.

Content Hooks

Provide fresh information and constantly changing content relative to a particular topic. This can be anything from aircraft types to zebra breeding as long as there is an audience for it. Becoming an expert on a particular subject will ensure back links.

Article Hooks

Article writing is fast becoming one of the best ways to get links back to your website. If you can write well you can have your articles appear on one of the internet article publishers such as EzineArticles.com. Not only does this give you some exposure it also creates links back to your site.

Gizmo Hooks

Create some sort of gizmo that is useful or entertaining to your visitors. Maybe a daily horoscope or quote of the day would work towards getting you some back links. New ideas spring up everyday.

The ultimate link bait hook

It is my belief that the ultimate link baiting hook is quality content. Even the top websites owe their popularity to the quality of their content.

If you are serious about designing a top ranking website then I say spend as much time as you can developing your content. That is the ultimate link bait hook.

Click baiting

Another, often nefarious, method of using hooks is click baiting. This is when a webmaster uses some type of gimmick to fool you or bait you into clicking on a particular link. Usually a link that you the visitor would not have normally clicked. Needless to say this type of baiting is counter productive to the interests of your visitors.

The advent of contextual ad networks, such as Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publishers Network, have created a rash of such websites. Although they are constantly being policed by the big search engines, like spam, some of them still get through. Don't fall prey to this practice. It will hurt you in the end.

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