Link Baiting

Link Baiting: Link baiting, also referred to as "click bait," is the act of mentioning authoritative sites and people in a piece of content to make it likelier that these sources of authority will share or comment on the content themselves.

Google's Matt Cutts defines link baiting as "something interesting enough to catch people’s attention" -- but what does that even mean? Link baiting examples can range from the traditional article format for content to "listicles" (articles with facts arranged in a list), videos, quizzes, infographics and much more.

You can usually tell when you've found an example of link baiting by its title. Titles clearly meant to capture someone's attention ("You'll never believe..."), appeal to their emotions or generate controversy are all tactics used when creating link baiting content. That's because people are more likely to click on these types of articles, and more likely to subsequently share them.

While many SEO professionals view link baiting as overly spammy, the exact opposite is true when focus is placed on the quality of the content. And when content is high in quality, the SEO benefits are virtually endless. Link baiting has been proven to considerably boost one's off-site SEO; in addition, it brings your website to people's attention and expands your audience farther than you may have thought possible.