Building incoming links to your business blog is one of the most important initiatives you can pursue in order to grow your blog. Not only do incoming links add to the compounding effect of blogging, but they also help boost your search engine rankings. However, before you go out and try to get mountains of incoming links to your business blog, you need to understand the differences between link building and link baiting.
Link Baiting
Link baiting is a short term blog marketing tactic. Link baiting refers to the process of writing blog posts for the primary purpose of attracting incoming links and boosting traffic. Link bait posts are typically written about hot topics, they might break news, or they could be controversial. Sometimes a link bait post might not even be directly related to the blog topic on which it is published.
Link Building
Link building is a long term blog marketing strategy. Link building refers to the process of writing shareworthy content and building relationships with people both on and off your business blog in an effort to boost organic links and traffic to your blog. Evergreen blog posts (that stand the test of time) and pillar blog posts (your very best, most informative posts) are examples of some of the best link building content you can publish on your business blog.
So how can you marry your short term link baiting tactics with your long term link building strategy in order to develop a successful business blog?
Link baiting helps to drive new visitors to your business blog who may not have found it otherwise, particularly if you are one of the first online sources to write about breaking news. Hopefully, some of those visitors will like the content they find on your blog and return, eventually becoming loyal readers. The key is to keep them on your blog and coming back again and again by offering value-added link building content as well as traffic-driving link baiting content.
Therefore, writing link bait blog posts that are directly related to your business blog topic are far more likely to drive new traffic to your blog that might turn into loyal readers than irrelevant link bait blog posts are. Furthermore, you need to add something of value to the link bait topic if you want new visitors to be motivated to read more of your content than the link bait post.
Finally, it’s important to understand that link bait posts should enhance the conversation happening on your business blog rather than detract from it. Building a blog is like building a brand. Consumers develop expectations for a brand over time just as readers develop expectations for a blog over time. Don’t confuse your loyal audience by publishing link bait contests that are meaningless to them. In other words, don’t sacrifice confusing, frustrating, or annoying your existing audience in an effort to pick up new readers through irrelevant link bait blog posts.
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