Tips For Successful link baiting

When it is time to hook some good sites for links, caution is advised. Webmasters are aware of the value that a link has. You are not going to get it that easy and it is more difficult once the potential link-givers know that you want a link. Therefore, if something has to be taken; some bait has to be used.

If the web is the pool or lake where you go link baiting, then networking is your angling rod. It is because of networking that we are connected to a large number of people. One amusing story or a comment that is put across such a network will spread like anything. But does it happen always? The simple answer is: No. It is because the bait itself has to be tempting enough to woo the audience and the website owners. There is no hard and fast rule to what can be used as bait or how it is to be spread. But there are some common practices and patterns observed by professionals everywhere. Here are some steps to help you in your link baiting campaign:

• Make bait that can spread like a virus: Your bait can have such characteristics as being humorous, controversial, informative, novel, patronizing or anything that will grab the attention. The bait has to be made keeping into consideration the audience behavior.
• Find the appropriate channel or community where it can be inserted: Think of various social media and community sites wherein you can put the bait. There are many portals that some people have been utilizing.
• Your bait must be timely: Once you have prepared bait, its deployment must be timely. For instance an event is coming up and more people are supposed to be online or searching for something. Your bait in that case has to have some relevance with the event.
  

Influential Link Building Factors

This one's straight from the horse's mouth! I recently came across an online report that listed down the most influential factors of a link building campaign, as stated by SEO professionals themselves. Thought of sharing it with my readers. Read through this list and weigh these factors on your own importance scale.

Positive Factors
Anchor text
Age of the link
Type of link (image or text)
Quantity of links
Reciprocal links
Location of link on the web page
Location of link in the source code

Negative Factors
Links in a Robots.txt excluded web pages
Links in penalised pages
Redirected links
JavaScript links
Paid links
Links on NoIndex page

Every webmaster or optimiser has a different take on all these factors. But, by and large, the negative points mentioned here impacts almost every site.

Search engines cannot penalise you if the 'wrong' kind of sites point a link to your web pages. However, you risk being blacklisted if it is the other way round. When you strategise the link building campaign for your business, be very careful of who you link to.

What is a Good Article Directory?

When we talk of article submission as a link building tool, it is very important to discuss web directories that allow submission of write-ups by optimisers. The online marketplace is strewn with directories – both paid and free – that offer this service. But, you need to choose the right ones in accordance with your requirements.

What is considered a good article directory?

• One that moderates the submitted content. Even if you have edited an article at your end, it is the directory's job to check your write-ups for possible errors.
• One that displays most recent articles on its homepage, categorised on the basis of topics.
• One that displays articles with submission dates. This will help readers gauge the value of the articles chosen by them.
• One that provides this service free of cost. There is no point in investing money in article submissions just for the sake of getting links back to your site.
• One that gives URLs that are search-engine friendly. It helps in faster indexing of your articles.
  

When you decide to get into article submissions, judge directories on the basis of the aforementioned points. In my next post, I'll enlist some of the most popular article directories that can help you in strengthening your link building campaign.