The debate about whether or not link baiting is an effective link building technique is one that continues to rage among the SEO community. On the one hand, you have those who argue that any kind of marketing technique which doesn’t provide honest value to a potential customer – and so is primarily focused on the benefit of the business – isn’t ethical and therefore won’t ever work in terms of ranking highly in major search engines such as Google.

On the other side, there are those who argue that if it works then why bother arguing against it? After all, those webmasters using this approach aren’t harming anyone else! In some respects, they’re quite right too. In fact, some companies have managed to gain links from some very high authority sites using this approach. Does that mean it’s ethical? No, but in this article, we will weigh to pros and cons of this often-misunderstood link-building technique.

Advantages of Link Baiting

There are many reasons why link baiting is an effective form of link building. Link bait can be used to rank for competitive keywords, it’s a great way to make content go viral, and it can provide you with plenty of backlinks quickly. Plus, there are tons of other benefits that come with using the technique! It all comes down to your goals – if you want more page views or more backlinks then this technique might be worth your time. However, if you’re looking for quality traffic then this strategy probably isn’t right for you since these links won’t help your rankings as much as they could.

Link baiting is a strategy that many people think is unethical. People worry about what consumers will think of your site as some posts are nothing more than click-bait (titles designed to make users take an action, regardless of the actual content). But link bait isn’t all bad – sometimes it can be used for good! You can use links in your link bait post to point back to other pages on your own website or help answer user questions. This gives readers real value and helps them solve their problems.

Downsides of Link Baiting

In today’s digital age, businesses and individuals have been seeking shortcuts to achieve success. Unfortunately, many of these shortcuts are just another form of “black hat” techniques that can lead to penalties from search engines or result in having your website deleted from the search index. Link baiting may be one such technique that you should avoid pursuing at all costs if you value your business’ reputation and long-term success, according to some. Here are some reasons to avoid link baiting:

Poor Online Reputation

One of the first reasons to consider not using link baiting is because it can damage your online reputation as a whole. Once people begin finding links on social media or through general searches that click through to websites that use irrelevant keywords for their headlines or content, they will begin associating the website with being irrelevant. This, in turn, has a direct impact on how people view your business or blog as a whole. For example, if you sell pet supplies exclusively and have recently had links that point towards your product pages from social media dropping nothing but celebrity gossip links, everyone who visits your site will likely be turned off by what they see. They may not return to your site again despite previous customers having purchased products from you successfully before.

Google Penalties

A more pressing concern regarding link baiting is the risk of incurring penalties from search engines due to over-optimization or keyword stuffing within web content. One of the main factors that Google takes into consideration when ranking websites on its search engine results page (SERP) is the quality of links pointing to a website. For example, if you receive links from websites with poor online reputations or low domain scores (provided by services such as Majestic SEO), there is a good chance that Google will determine your site is not trustworthy and delist it from its search index.

Furthermore, in regard to link baiting specifically, if people notice that your content isn’t really relevant to the link itself and just has catchy keywords with no relation to your business or blog, Google may label your entire website/content as unhelpful for searchers looking for relevant information. If this occurs, then all of your content can be demoted on SERPs and so will any incoming links leading to your website.

Negative Website Visitor Feedback

When you receive links leading back to your site, negative feedback can affect your online reputation if people notice that the links are not relevant to your business or blog. Many businesses and bloggers will attempt to attract traffic by including words in their articles that pique interest instead of describing what they offer, which then leads visitors who click on the link expecting content related to the topic at hand to leave your website unsatisfied. Such actions can lead viewers to post negative comments about you on external review websites or give some form of bad score on social media platforms such as Facebook. If left unchecked, these types of reviews may also be taken into consideration by search engines when ranking websites on SERPs.

Should You Try Link Baiting?

These days marketers need every competitive advantage they can get in order to stand out amidst the competition. This means taking risks and trying new techniques like link bait that might help skyrocket traffic and rankings. The only way you’ll know if this strategy is a good fit for you and your site is to give it a shot! However, keep in mind that this should only be attempted at your own risk as there can be penalties that come with it if it is not handled with caution.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while link baiting is always a strategy that you could consider to boost your website’s audience, it comes with many risks and is often an inefficient strategy, especially if you are not knowledgeable enough to know how to avoid penalties from search engines. Instead of working with risky SEO techniques such as link baiting, consider hiring a professional team of backlink experts such as GetBacklinks with years of experience in the industry! Our team is eager to get to work with you so contact us to learn more today!