June 12th, 2010 by Nick

The production of effective link bait is commonly acknowledged to be far from straightforward. In fact, link building strategies as a whole can be seen as difficult territory. Using high quality link building services makes sense, but it is instructive for everyone to consider various ways of attracting the right quality of inbound links to a site. Acquiring links can be one of the most difficult aspects of search engine optimization, so it may surprise some to discover that one expert has suggested that taking an idea from journalism may be a productive way forward.

It has been argued that a news item must always contain the what, who, where, when and why. Of the so-called ‘five Ws’, the why is where comment often sneaks into the facts. How can the old ‘five Ws’ assist in the ‘brave new world’ of search? The ‘five Ws’ may sometimes help in industry news, but it has been ventured that they can also be useful in the manufacture of tempting link bait. Link bait manufacture is becoming more arduous and problematic over time, as ‘hooking’ users becomes trickier due to the increasingly high level of competition on the net. It could be the case that the tried and tested ‘five Ws’ could acquire a fresh importance, when informing link bait content.

Imagine you are making some link bait. It is harder to do this if you are thinking of users as an undifferentiated ‘every-person.’ If you know something specific about the purchasing power, demographics and location of your target audience, you have a chance of crafting some link bait which means something to them. If you know ‘who’ you are after, you are more likely to be able to play on the tastes and interests related to them. For link bait to be forwarded on, it has to be somewhat special. Considering ‘what’ could mark your link bait out as different from the rest.

‘Where’ can apply to the ‘real world’ geographical-cultural location of your target users, but more importantly, it can apply to the online haunts where your users spend some of their time. For example, it may be that a social media site like Twitter is where you should be operating to draw attention to your link bait. The ‘when’ is also of significance, because you may be trying to contact your target audience at certain periods of the day, perhaps outside working hours. ‘Why’ is the most crucial out of the ‘five Ws’. This is because you have to construct a powerful reason why potential consumers should link to your site. This must be contained inside the actual link bait.

On reflection, it is apparent that the ‘five Ws’ may be of some assistance in helping people consider their link bait production with care. However, at searchengineoptimization.co.uk, our experience means that we know there is a lot more to it. That is why every aspect of link bait manufacture deserves thorough investigation. After the research is done, the creative process can begin.

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