What is "Link Bait and How Do I Create It?"

This is a cool term that I picked up in an intense Webmaster's forum. I

fancy myself a reasonably talented SEO marketer. I've never used Google

Adwords or any other PPC advertising and I'm well-schooled on

traditional as well as Web 2.0 search engine optimization strategies.

I can definitely say that Web 2.0 methods are a lot easier and a lot

more fun than the tedious traditional methods.


What is the #1 thing that you need to get higher rankings in the search

engines?


Backlinks to your site.


The more links to your site, the better your rankings, in a nutshell.

There are of course other factors such as the linking site's pagerank,

whether or not it's a reciprocal link, and the anchor text used--just

to name a few of the biggies.


So what exactly is this "link bait" and how do you make it?


Link bait is the kind of content that makes people want to link to it

naturally. No link trading, nothing in return. Just content so good

that people just want to be connected with it somehow.


So how do you create this kind of content that we call link bait? Well,

you can give them what they were looking for such as news and solid

information. If you become known as a reliable source of information,

people will link to you whether they use your articles, link to you

from their blogs, or bookmark you in the social bookmarking sites for

example.


Another way to create link bait is to stir your reader's emotion. Make

them laugh, make them angry, scare them. Post the kind of content that

makes people say: "Did you read so and so's article? I can't believe

she said THAT!"


Create a controversy, if you can back up what you're saying on the

matter. Go against the grain. It's ok to have your own opinions. As

long as they're well-founded, you should tell the world about them.

That is what the "new web" is all about.


Now go start a commotion or share your wealth of knowledge and create

some instant link bait.


Sheree Motiska is a single WAHM. She is experienced in the world of

affiliate marketing and network marketing and shares her knowledge at

How To Build A Business Online and

Affiliate Marketing Newbies.

Breaking the Myth about Page Rank (PR)

by: Christopher Smith

The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Sadly, most of this traffic is not qualified. Yes, your hit counter will move higher, however, if its not qualified, you may find you have unhappy visitors to your site. Unhappy visitors will not click on your ads or purchase your products.

Once you have optimized your site, consider submitting it to every search engine. If you want to get spidered quicker in Google, have a web page with a PR of 4 or higher point to your site. Your site will be spidered within a couple of days!

One myth I would like to bust is that PR is a measure of a web site. Its not. I receive countless emails offering a reciprocal link with their PR5 or PR6 site. Unless my link is appearing on the main page, or a page that has PR6, I am not getting a share of PR6. Most likely, my link will appear on a page that has a PR2!

Page rank is Google's ranking of that specific page's relevance. Just because the main page has a PR of 4, does not make every page on the site a PR4. Beware of sites who claim that they will exchange links with you and its to your benefit since they have a PR5 or PR6. Where is your link appearing? If its on a page that has a PR of 4 or 5 or 6, great!

Reciprocal linking, if done properly, will ensure that your keywords are at the top of the search engine. If you have a popular keyword, youll need to have more back links. Pick your link partners properly, and ensure that they are linking to your keyword.

For example: if your site is www.joesdinner.com, consider sending out requests to relevant higher ranking pages to start with, followed by lower ranking pages and ask web designers to link back in a manner so that your url is a hyperlink for your keyword, not your site url or site name.

Presuming their keyword is "best dining in new york", having links pointing to your site with an anchor tag incorporating your keywords will improve your search engine rankings dramatically.

Once you have established a collection of sites pointing to your site using your keywords, you will start receiving reciprocal link exchanges from other sites. This is where you can start to be particular.

If you want to maintain an effective PR and attract better sites for linking, follow these tips:

a) Is it indexed?
While their site may be indexed, the page where they are placing your link, is it at least indexed by google? If you type in allinurl:www.sitename.com/links/right_here.html and there are no results, consider declining their offer. If the page your link appears on has not been indexed, there is no benefit whatsoever to you. If your pages have PR, they may consider placing your link on another page. If the page your link appears on is indexed, but does not have PR, consider accepting their offer. While the page today may not have PR, it will in time.

b) How many neighbors?
The value of the page rank is shared with each of the links on that page. If you are splitting that PR with several other sites, your share of PR will be small, which doesnt help you. Reconsider accepting any link exchanges if your site is 1 of more than 30 - 40 sites that will appear on that page, unless its a very high PR. Further, if there are too many links on that page, Google may consider the page to be part of a link farm, which may end up penalizing your site.

c) Is it relevant?
Google is big on relevancy. Ensure your links pages are relevant. If you operate a site about golf, having links from cooking sites will not help you establish your page rank. It may cost you more than you get in return.

How to Find Good PR sites:

a) Do a search for them by typing in your keyword and start asking for reciprocal link exchanges. Take a look at their PR and go from there. Remember, its the number of sites that backlink to you that matters, not strictly the PR of the page. I would rather have 50 pages that have a PR1 pointing to my site, than to have 5 sites that have a PR5. Of course, if you can get 50 pages that have a PR5 pointing to your site, you are laughing!

b) Take a look at your existing link partners and check out their links pages. Its clear the people appearing on those links pages are interested in reciprocating.

c) Purchase software that will help find quality link partners.

It is important to attract higher PR sites when you are on a reciprocal link campaign. However, its not the most important thing when it comes to search engine rankings. Its the backlinks that point back at you that are key. The more of those, the better off you will be for your keyword.

Remember: every page starts off as a PR0. Just because its new doesnt mean it wont get a higher PR once google gets around to assessing a score. If the page your site appears on is indexed, and its a relevant site of quality, consider exchanging links. You'll grow a large list of link partners in a short period of time, and increase your search engine rankings in the process.

About the author:
Christopher Smith has been helping people make money through Google Adsense by providing them with the Top Paying Adsense Keywords for his visitors to Adsense Heaven. http://www.adsenseheaven.com