From an SEO perspective, many believe that the best way to generate links is by offering to guest post on different blogs. Webmasters and bloggers typically allow you to include a link or two in the author bio or the article, which passes along link juice to your website. While guest posting provides a great opportunity to use targeted anchor text, it is becoming more difficult to find opportunities to guest post. Many bloggers confuse SEO with spammers and tend to ignore requests for guest posts from people they do not know.
Content vs. Guest Posting
I am not saying that you should abandon guest posting as a way to generate links. However, there is another option to generate links that few take advantage of: creating great link bait. If you create a great piece of content, bloggers and webmasters will want it on their website. Examples of great link bait include videos, images, and info graphics. While creating great content can be rather time consuming, it is easier to link build for and will save you time in the long run (over writing guest posts over and over).
Find a Niche
If you are going to create content as part of your link building strategy, you need to make sure you are creating something others will want to link to. It’s going to be impossible to please everyone and create content that every blogger is going to find amazing. You need to start by picking a niche that you want to target. By doing a bit of market research on your customers, you should be able to find a niche of blogs and websites that are relevant to your website.
Be Original
Once you have selected your niche, you should start to create a list of prospects that you want to reach out to. While creating your prospecting list, take a good look at their websites. See if you can find something they are missing. As an example, let’s say you own a website that sells pizzas. You decide that you want to target bloggers that post recipes. You notice that several bloggers have recipes that call for pasta sauce; however they don’t specify the type of pasta sauce. You can create an info graphic that graphically displays the several different types of pasta sauce, such as marinara, tomato and basil, roasted pepper, etc… and give their characteristics (sweet vs. spicy, cream vs. tomato base).
Creative Matters
After finding the idea for content you want to create, it’s now time to produce your creative, amazing content. No matter what the content is, you need to make sure it is an original idea. If similar content already exists, chances are the content was already pitched to the blogger. Bloggers and webmasters are looking for original content that will add value to their website. Something that is already out on the internet does not add value. It’s important to invest a lot of time and go over the top with the content you create; this is what bloggers and webmasters are looking for.
If you have a great piece of content that is relevant to the blogs in your niche, the bloggers and webmasters will want that content. This will make link building much easier, since you will be providing them something that they want over pitching an idea (as you would for a guest post). Not only will it be easy to pitch the content to bloggers, but others who visit the website or blog will want to post the content on their website as well. This will generate even more links as others see the content on multiple domains. Invest a lot of time in the short run to make sure you produce phenomenal content that bloggers in your niche will want. After pitching it to a few bloggers, others will see it and want it for themselves and you can sit back and reap the benefits of all the link juice flowing to your website!
Written by Adam Bruk
Adam Bruk follows the latest fashion trends in men’s sunglasses and loves using aviators sunglasses in the looks he recommends. When he isn’t busy helping people find the right cheap sunglasses to match any look on a budget, he enjoys reading and following the latest trends in SEO and social media marketing.
I’m a huge believer in quality content equates into a quality backlink. I’ve posted numerous blogs and articles about the subject, and it’s articles like this that further establishes that principle. Great read!
this is excellent post. How do u feel about contests as a form of link baiting?