What Is Linkbait?

Date First Published: 10th October 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: SEO

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn more about what linkbait is in this article.

Linkbait, also spelt link bait, describes web content that is designed to grab visitor's attention and encourage people to link to it with the intention of improving the ranking of the website on the search results page. The aim of linkbait content is to generate as many backlinks as possible and it is a form of link building. Linkbait content does not generate one or two backlinks. It generates hundreds or even thousands of links. Common types of linkbait content include how-to articles, guides, data with figures, cheat sheets, surveys, quizzes, polls, proprietary tools that people will find useful, emotional hooks that build an emotional connection with the audience, controversial content, and more.

Linkbait helps people to boost their search engine ranking as the number of inbound links a page has is one of the main factors that search engines use to rank indexed pages in the results page. For example, if Website A and Website B both created content that was similar and covered the same topic, but Website A had more inbound links than Website B, Website A would rank higher.

Requirements For Linkbait Content

Linkbait content must be valuable enough for people to link to it. Creating good content eventually succeeds. Valuable content describes content that:

• Has no false or inaccurate information.
• Is of sufficient length. The ideal number of words for each piece of content is 200-5000 words.
• Has enough detail to answer the reader's question and cover the topic.
• Uses multimedia, such as images, audio, and videos, to represent information as these can be engaging for readers.
• Is clear and goes straight to the point.
• Is easily skimmable. Some users skim pages by their subheadings to find the information they are looking for.
• Is designed in a way that is visually appealing with a sufficient amount of whitespace and alignment.
• Is accessible to visitors (e.g. the colour of elements and the text have enough contrast, the forms have labels, the font is easy to read, and all of the images have alt text that will display when the image fails to load).
• Appropriately uses titles and headings.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Linkbait Content

• It is an effective way of getting more organic traffic. The more backlinks a website has, the higher it will display on the search results page. This can result in increased brand awareness.
• It is free for the publisher as unlike paid ads, they do not have to pay money to get website traffic.
• Linkbait content can help it spread across the internet to reach a wider audience.

• Even though more links to content do increase the chances of conversions since it will cause their content to appear higher on the search results page, it does not guarantee any.