Jane Copland's Linkbait Presentation - SMX London 07

Jane Copland, SEOmoz

Linkbait and the

Real World

Conservative Industries and

Viral Content

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Linkbait and the Real World | Conservative Industries and Viral Content

Linkbait Is:

Linkbait Isn’t (necessarily):

Web-based content created for the purpose of attracting attention and links. It can be presented

in a variety of forms, from text to video, images, tools and badges. However, its goal is always

somewhat the same.

Inappropriate, Scandalous or Unethical

Viral Content and Linkbait suffer from

misconceptions


Social Networks spread Viral Content

MySpace has its bulletin feature, Bebo has widgets and Facebook has posted

and shared links.


Blogging communities read and link to each

other’s content

Livejournal is designed to develop relationships between bloggers.


Forums, both niche and general, are a great

place to promote linkbait


Niche and General Social News sites are also

exceedingly useful

Industry-specific social news sites aren’t as common as specific forums.

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“Traditional” Linkbait is quite easy to produce...

but it’s not so useful for conservative clients.


Everything on Cracked.com Goes Viral…

And this is the reaction Cracked’s content will get

from your customers, head of PR, Sales Manager

and CEO.

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It is possible to create linkbaitfor conservative companies…

… but creating relevant content can be tough


Tactics for Creating Relevant Bait

1. Envision potential industry oddities.


2. Consider the issues faced by your potential customers


Student Loans: people who are looking for student loans

are concerned about money and about going to university.


3. Subtly encourage the use of keywords...

... and people will link to you with the

“right” anchor text.


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4. Present your regular content, but in a creative, unique way.

http://producten.hema.nl/

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Want to “hide” your linkbait from regular users but

still reap its benefits?

You don’t need to link to the bait from the site’s homepage, but make sure to

link to the homepage from the bait! One “danger”: your bait becoming an

indented result in the SERPs.

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And now for a real-life example

WeddingPaperDivas.com got smart with this

linkbait, featuring 9 “geeky” weddings. The site

sells a range of wedding invitations, and everyone

linking to this page will want to use the words

“wedding” or “weddings.”

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Another example… that could have been ever

better than it wasAlphaDictionary.com’s “Are you a Rebel or a

Yankee?” speech test should have included a

results badge that people could display. Instead,

they opted for the very 1.0 “Send to Friend” option.


Classic example of the “Bait and Switch”

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And before I go, you should know…

1. Linkbait’s goal is to attract attention and not all attention is

positive.

2. Of my dozen “real life” examples, seven of them were found by

surfing Reddit and StumbleUpon.

3. Great linkbait will usually get the attention it deserves, but if it

doesn’t, it still serves as fresh, unique content!

Jane Copland's Linkbait Presentation - SMX London 07

News & Politics

Transcript of Jane Copland's Linkbait Presentation - SMX London 07