cnvi - 9:54 pm on Dec 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

Link baiting is merely a method for amassing links regardless of the quality of the content.

Interesting observations Martinibuster. There are so many definitions of "link bait". At the end of the day its all about relevance, relevance, relevance. If I link to a site that has good link bait but I don't realize its link bait, I might simply just be seeing it as useful content for my end user, a link is still a link.

This is similar to deep linking where I ask the user to link to a specific internal page on my website (instead of my home page) when they request a link from a specific category on my links page. I have new sites that rank very well from the deep links. The end user making the link may very well see my internal page that is related to his own genre "link bait" but I see it more as a traditional deep link.

So one's own definition of link bait is going to directly affect how one thinks it should "count as votes for the content and the quality of the site".

Not meaning any disrepect, I try not to over think these things. Good content attracts good links. Good deep linking opportunities attracts great link partners. Relevance is the name of the game.

Just got off the phone with a customer who has a whale watching business and I was explaining to him how important it is to create some good content on his site to get decent links. I told him this is sometimes called "link bait".. he laughed because he thought I was making a pun on fishing. We talked about a free web cam on his site (for whale watching) because it would attract relevant quality links from local area businesses targeting his same market segment. You and me might call that link bait but really its just good ol fashioned free quality content.

At the end of the day, I don't care what the search engines think. I publish as much decent content as I can to attract the links and I reciprocate my links (when relevant) anytime the other party asks for the link back.