Monthly Archives: September 2010
If you know anything about search engine optimization, you know that links back to your website are important. These links are the juice that help boost your website to the top of the search engine results. And while you can spend hours searching out link opportunities online, the easiest and most beneficial way to build links is naturally. No link request emails or bot crawlers – just a genuine reader interested in sharing your post. So, how does a small business owner go about attracting these natural links? With link bait of course!
What is Link Bait?
To put it simply, link bait is unique, quality content on your website that people are willing and eager to link back to. Link baiting requires a content publisher to create a story or feature within a website that somehow convinces viewers to link back to the webpage from other websites. Either way, the core idea behind link baiting is to create and provide valuable, and more importantly, shareable resources that are unique and informative.
Five Types of Link Bait
Not sure what types of content are considered link-worthy? Here are five general formats that tend to grab eyeballs, regardless of your industry of discipline:
1) The Informational Angle
Provide your readers with tips and tricks that are relevant to your industry. Personal experiences are always popular as this will make your article more believable and easy to relate to.
2) Breaking News
Being the first in the know has it’s benefits. If you’re able to publish late breaking news to your business blog quickly you’ll greatly increase your chances of attracting quality link-backs from reputable sources. Just make sure you back up your news with sources – there’s nothing worse than having your business blog labelled as an unreliable source.
3) Make ‘Em Laugh
Humor is a great way to attract loyal followers to your website, as well as attract links. Everyone likes to laugh, so why not publish a funny story related to your line of work. People in your industry will definitely be able to relate to your situation, and will likely feel inclined to share the story with other co-workers via a link.
4) Build a Tool
One of the best ways to create link bait on your business website is to build a useful tool and publish it to your site. Take this site for example. This free tool allows you to check the rank of your website on Google for free. While the tool isn’t as sophisticated as some pay applications, it gets the job done and is a useful resource for bloggers, and small business owners. It’s also great link bait (they got me to link to them!).
5) Have an Unpopular Opinion
Controversial posts always garner extra attention. Just be forewarned – that attention isn’t always friendly! Publishing unfavorable remarks about a product, service, or another website will bring eyeballs to your business site, just remember to provide strong reasons for your opinions. You should also be prepared for counter posts and angry comments.
How do create link bait on your small business blog? Leave a comment and let us know!
In the world of search, Google reigns supreme – this should come as a surprise to no one. But did you know that there are thousands of other, far more useful engines out there? These search platforms are known as vertical search engines and their popularity is on the rise, especially in business circles. If you’ve never heard of vertical search, now is the time to start building your knowledge-base; listing your business in vertical engines can help boost your traffic, and lead to increased sales almost overnight.
What is a Vertical Search Engine?
A vertical search engine focuses on a specific segment of online content. So, instead of trolling the entire Internet for results, a vertical search engine will only rifle through a very specific pool of information. This vertical content can be based topically, be media type, or genre. In short, a vertical search engine is a search tool for a particular niche.
What a Vertical Search Engine is Not
I wouldn’t be over-exaggerating if I were to say that most major search engines are focused on global domination. Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Such is the goal of a general search engine. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are focused on finding, indexing, and displaying every single source of online content. Vertical search engines, on the other hand, streamline their focus and index only pages that are relevant to the niche in which the engine is listed.
A vertical search engine attempts to solve a different, far more specific problem than a general search engine, and it goes without saying that these highly segmented platforms do a far better job at returning relevant information for niche queries. As general search engines become muddled with useless information and duplicate content, it’s safe to say that more and more people turn to these types of engines to satisfy their search needs.
Benefits of Listing Your Business on a Vertical Search Engine
If your Chatham-Kent small business is based in a niche industry, you could benefit greatly from listing your website in engines suited to your industry. Advantages include:
1) Increased visibility
Many vertical search engines are designed and managed by large publishing companies, business associations – even media conglomerations. This means, that when you list in one vertical, your Chatham-Kent company could be gaining exposure in various other online buying guides and affiliates.
2) SEO support
Vertical search engines are not only indexed within general search engines, but they also tend to rank quite high for specific search terms. So, while you’d be years optimizing your website to rank for a specific search term in Google on your own, you could start showing near the top as part of the vertical search system virtually overnight!
3) Immediate access to your customer
The biggest advantage to listing your business site in a vertical search engine is the exposure. People who use vertical search engines are looking for very specific information or a very specific product. If your website supplies the requested information your chances of converting the visitor to a customer greatly increases.
Listing your business website in vertical search engines can help boost your online activity. What vertical search sites do you frequent? Leave a comment and let us know!
