Linking for Search Rank

Among the reasons I'm so vehemently white hat in my publicity and link building strategies is that my clients are well known content brands that cannot risk their reputations by engaging in tactics that could cause a backlash. Discovery.com, PBS.org, Children's Boston, National Geographic. I cannot recommend a tactic that could get National Geographic's site banned by Google.

I recognize the importance of a good search rank, which is why I carefully make sure I rank well for my key search terms. I use my own site as a laboratory. For whatever reason Google likes it. It's 13 years old with a 100% natural link signature that I have reverse engineered to death. I know what Google wants, because I have it. And it isn't by using anything other than a 100% white hat approach.

So what works? Having content worthy of links in the first place. Some call it link bait but I don't like the term because it implies those who will link to you are nothing more than fish to be hooked. I hear people say, "I don't have time to add content, I want something quick that will make everyone want to link to my site." And I say, "Like what, the Diet Coke/Mentos fountain video? But what does that have to do with your site?

Link bait or link magnets are anything you create anywhere on the Web that inspires other sites to link to it. They may link to it via a Web page, a blog post, social bookmark site, tagging site, e-zine, newsletter, IM, email or any other method that gets a link in front of their mouse.

The content itself can be anything from a controversial blog post that gets people talking, to a Web site that adds some timely news, to a useful application that actually helps people. In the days that Yahoo was just a hobby for the boys at Stanford their directory was early link bait. Everyone linked to Yahoo because it was an awesome place to go find new Web sites. That was their content, and it inspired links.

There's nothing wrong with link baiting in theory. It's the term and the tactics I don't find appealing. Creating link bait purely to attract search engine rankings improvement via those links is being done by thousands of sites as you read this. Your ultimate success as a site won't be determined by whether or not you fool people. So instead of short term link bait, why not also add really useful content or tools that will help your site's users accomplish something?

I'd rather have one person bookmark my site and use it every day than have 10 people come by for three seconds and leave.

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