SEO Hosting Blog

Linkbait—the word that gets tossed around on internet marketing blogs thousands of times each week. But how well do you really understand linkbait? Do you understand the different types of it, and do you know which one will work best for your needs?
To shed a little light on the subject, I decided to come up with a list dissecting the different types of linkbait. Hopefully, this will help you in your pursuit of inbound links for your website.

1. Humorous Linkbait- We’re all familiar with humorous linkbait. It’s the type of link that gets forwarded to us from our friends or that catches fire on forums and blogs because it’s so hilarious. Common examples of humorous linkbait are funny photoshopped images, crazy videos, and humorous rants in a blog. People love to laugh online so humor really does well.

2. Controversial Linkbait- Let’s face it—we all love a little drama. That’s why controversial linkbait is so powerful. Whether it’s about a celebrity getting caught snorting cocaine or a contrary opinion about a popular industry topic, controversy is king. It doesn’t matter if people love it or hate it, they’ll link to it because they’re passionate about their point of view.

3. News Linkbait- If you can be among the first to break a hot story in your industry, you’ll be rewarded with a surge of backlinks. Relevance is one of the keys to linkbaiting. Of course, having success breaking news stories on a consistent basis can be challenging, but it certainly pays off to be in the loop.

4. Resourceful Linkbait- To me, this is the best kind of linkbait because it adds the most value to the online experience. Plus, it can be done in virtually any niche. Resourceful linkbait is the content that tends to stand the test of time because it provides so much insight into a particular topic. Common examples of this include how to guides, lists with links to online tools, and handy tips for making things easier. The great thing about resource linkbait is that it continues to attract links for months and even years.

5. Incentive Based Linkbait- Incentive based linkbait is good for a quick surge in links. As its name implies, this is content that gives readers a motivation for getting involved. Usually, incentive based linkbait is a contest or a giveaway of something people want. If you’re looking for a quick boost in online visibility, this can do the trick.

Which types of linkbait do you use? Is one more effective than the others?

#1: Your Small Business Needs a Website - This may sound obvious to many readers of this blog, but that doesn’t mean that all small business owners are listening to this advice.  As Danny Sullivan noted on Search Engine Land back in the middle of October, he is still quite amazed at the amount of small businesses that don’t have even a basic website.

The bottom line is that more and more people are looking for small businesses online (even my Mom has said that she almost never consults the phone book anymore), so if your business doesn’t have a website, you are literally giving potential clients or customers to your competitors who have taken the time to create a website.

#2: Your Website Needs a Blog - Like #1, this should be obvious, but given the fact that a large percentage of small businesses don’t have websites, an even larger percent don’t have blogs.

As a result of all the Web 2.0 hype that has gone on over the years, the whole perception of blogs has gotten confused and distorted.  All of the buzzwords aside, the simple fact is that a blog is a way to connect with your target audience.  So, figure out what your target demographic wants to read and discuss, and then use your blog to start pushing that content out to them.  If a tailor from Savile Row can use a blog to send his sales of $4000 suits through the roof, your small business can also benefit from starting a blog.  If you need another example to make you motivated, just look at how the traffic for SEO Hosting took off once the blog was relaunched in June.

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SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. In order to achieve and keep high search engine rankings over the long haul, you need to stay committed by following a long-term SEO plan. It’s simply not enough to optimize your site once and then forget about it.

 
That’s why I’ve come up with this list of 5 long-term SEO strategies. Follow these to help you maintain top search engine placement.

1. Constant Keyword Research- A lot of people commit the mistake of assuming SEO keyword research is a one-time task. This is a crucial error in judgment. There are always new key phrases you can try to target. It’s essential that you practice continuing research over the long haul. This will help you go after seasonal phrases, overlooked terms, and new keywords that pop up over time.
2. Update Content Regularly- Of course, you need somewhere to put the new keywords that you’re going to be targeting. That’s why it’s important to update your content regularly. In addition to incorporating new keywords, updating your content regularly builds trust with search engines and humans. Furthermore, since the search engines crave fresh content, it increases your chances of grabbing high search engine placement.
3. Get Links for that Content- Link building is one of the most important long term SEO strategies. You should always be coming up with ways to get more high quality inbound links to your website. Don’t just go after the sudden surge in backlinks; try to create content and tools that steadily generate links over time.
4. Review Website Periodically- Sometimes, certain pages on your website just don’t work for SEO. Whether it’s the keywords you’ve chosen to target, a lack of links, or poor content, some pages just won’t rank well. It’s your job to review your website periodically to determine which tweaks can be done to change that. If you have a page that’s consistently done poorly over time, it’s probably time to change it up a little bit.
5. Focus on Usability- At the end of the day, the best thing you can do for your website is to focus on usability. Because it won’t matter how great your search engine rankings are if humans can’t use your site easily. To me, SEO done properly improves website usability. It’s only when people go overboard with their SEO that it hampers the site’s usability. If you make your site with the user in mind, they’ll make sure that your site stays popular.

What tips would you add to this list? Share them in the replies.

Blogging is the easiest SEO tool in the business.  Why – because search engine optimization is naturally built in without the user having to be an advanced marketer.  Here’s why:

1. Most blogs will automatically create title tags so that the title of the post becomes the URL of the post.
2. Tagging and categories also have unique URLs, so you’re category could be a primary keyphrase.  So if you have a credit card site, it will appear as www.yoursite.com/category/credit card, which will be indexed separately from your posts with the same keyphrase.
3. Interlinking is easy with blogs.  There’s no reason to struggle with an advanced site map on a blog.  On a traditional website, you’re going to want to link between pages to help spiders travel through your site.  Blogs have interlinking built in: archives, recent posts, categories, and tags all link internally to your blog’s pages.  This is the prime argument for including categories and tags on your blog.
4. It creates a whole new avenue for backlinks, as blogs link to other blogs, whereas they might never link to static website.

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I’m continuing with my recent theme of Twitter-related posts by trying to answer the burning question “What can I do to get more followers on Twitter?” It’s a question I’ve heard a number of times, and it’s worth looking at deeper. After all, the more followers you can get, the more exposure your brand will have.

 
So, how can you generate a larger base of followers? Here are 8 tips to help you get started.

 
1. Focus on Tweeple Retention- Before you begin trying to acquire new followers, you need to focus on keeping the ones you already have. Because if you’re like me, you go through the list of people you’re following regularly to see if there is anyone you can weed out. Make sure you’re not one of those people getting dropped by being a valuable member of the community. Engage with your followers, and discuss topics that are interesting to them.

2. Promote Your Twitter Page on Your Website- One way to get more attention for your Twitter profile is to treat it the way you would any other website. You have to promote it. The first step is to link to it from your website and blog. A nice sidebar with a button saying something like “Follow me on Twitter” is an effective way to get visitors from your website to your Twitter profile.

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