Who is Your Linkbait Reeling In?
While you’re trying to increase traffic to your site and widen your audience, you’ve probably been focusing a lot on linkbait. Linkbait is the irresistible content that will get people to visit your site because it sounds too interesting to pass up. However, as you’ve been focusing so heavily on keywords and innovative topics, you might have forgotten to ask yourself a very important question—who is your linkbait reeling in? It’s easy to forget that not all web hits are created equally, and there are some people that will be worth a lot more than others.
It’s true that every hit your site gets counts. Each visit is one step closer to your web traffic goals and your higher search engine page ranking (SERP). However, there are groups of people on the Internet who have a lot of weight when it comes to links. Rand at SEO Moz calls these groups the “linkerati”. To many, their word is gold, so their seal of approval is invaluable. When they like your site, there’s a good chance they’ll share it with their followers.
As you’re building your web traffic strategy, keep these four groups in mind:
Bloggers
On the Internet, the bloggers are the influencers. There’s a reason companies pay popular blog writers to try their products and write about them, and it’s because people are listening. Even small blogs with less widely read content are influencers because people visit their sites specifically for advice and information. If a single mom is writing a blog post meant for other single moms to read, it’s most likely about her recent life experiences. Her followers will likely take any advice she hands out because they trust and respect her opinion.
If the majority of your web traffic comes from bloggers, there’s a good chance each visit will go far. They might post a link to your page on their site so that all of their visitors have the opportunity to click through to your page. If you are trying to focus your web traffic efforts in one area, you should start by reaching out to bloggers. Every visit is a potential share, and their audience is more easily influenced than the people reading a Facebook status update or a Tweet with a link.
Content Creators
Though their name sounds similar, this group differs from bloggers because they are not necessarily creating original content for their readers’ best interest. Instead, they’re trying to beef up webpages with keyword-heavy content that are essentially summaries of different articles. Content creators are not necessarily appealing to a wide or a large audience, but they provide one of the most valuable perks of all: backlinks. Every time a content creator references your site, they’ll need to link back to it on their page. Every backlink serves as a “vote of confidence” on Google’s SERP algorithm. So, while the content creators might not be sharing your page with the masses and giving you more traffic directly, they will boost you on a list of search results and therefore get you more traffic indirectly.
Social Taggers
There are sites on the Internet specifically designed for link sharing. People don’t visit these sites unless they’re interested in wasting some time by browsing hundreds of links and clicking whichever pique their interest. Sites like Reddit are extremely valuable for building web traffic and getting more visitors. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to identify “social taggers” as a specific group. Unlike bloggers who constantly upload content or content creators that set out with a single purpose, anyone can be a social tagger. According to a survey of Reddit users, the majority are between the ages of 18-24. But even people age 65 and up are using the site, so link submission knows no bounds.
Since the audience is so varied, there is no way you can specifically target social taggers and encourage them to share your link. As with most other strategies, excellent content is the only way you can gain popularity in this way. However, you could have members on your team that submit your site to popular sites such as Reddit, Digg and Delicious in the hopes that you’ll gain more traffic. Often, sites that make it to the front page of Reddit go down because the unprecedented amount of traffic. As long as your bandwidth can handle it, it could bring you unmatched success.
Web News Writers and Journalists
Getting traffic from this group of link-clickers is not necessarily easy, but it is most definitely valuable. People that write news for popular sites such as CNET and Wired are always looking for new content, so you should try putting your website in a positive light to appeal to them. You won’t necessarily attract their attention simply by having a good search engine ranking or a large following, so you should be more traditional in your approach to entice them. Consider creating a press release about your products or services and sending it to them via email, or try using industry connections to get in touch with them. Unlike many of the other traffic categories, this one might take a little bit more finesse. Thousands of sites and companies try to get coverage every day by these major web news outlets, so you’re competing with a wide variety of other people and businesses. Set yourself apart by taking the traditional news approach to get their traffic.
You know all too well that your site needs to feature some linkbait here and there to attract more traffic, but you should take a step back to think about whom your linkbait is really bringing in. These four groups are some of the most influential on the web, so getting their clicks is vital in a sound campaign designed to attract visitors and increase your search engine page ranking on Google. With the approval of these groups, each visit will go far and every backlink will be like a free campaign. For every single person that visits your site, he or she might share it with hundreds of others.