Link Building & Baiting

As we work with client’s search engine optimization plans generally helping them build traffic to their website in order to produce leads, we see one very common challenge. While there are many factors which result in getting high search engine rankings, high quality and relevant links rank up there toward the top. 

In fact, in the very early days of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had originally named their company “backrub” because its algorithm was based on detecting relevant backward links to web pages. 

So, a conversation we have with our clients every day is to keep working on “backlinks.” 

This is commonly known as link building.  I won’t go into a lot of detail about how to build links, but here is one tried-n-true technique to building backlinks - good content! 

That’s right, adding fresh, new, text based content is still the most effective way to build links!

There is a also a technique known as “link baiting.”  On the surface this sounds a little dicey.  But, it’s actually a very legitimate and proven technique.

Link baiting is simply about adding content to a web page which is so useful or interesting that others will want to link to it.  Let’s say you have a proven way to do something in your industry like fix a common software bug.  If you add a page (or blog post) with a solution to a common problem, others will find it and link to it, and they will also tell others about it.

Two way link building is passe and not recommended. 

In the end, search engines are really interested in knowing how many others like your content, which is demonstrated through a link.  Distributing press releases, syndicating content, posting on blogs and adding really useful content to your website are proven approaches to building links.  Links which come “back” to your website anchored from relevant keywords will produce high rankings in search engines and drive traffic to your website. 

And, that’s what what we all want, isn’t it - relevant traffic!