I hate bad linkbait, and it floods my inbox. Bad linkbait wastes our time, money, and our audience's attention.
On the other hand, I love creating linkable assets. I also love searching the web for linkable assets and sharing them with others. Before we go any further, let's define what we mean by linkbait, bad linkbait and linkable assets.
Linkbait: Website feature, usually content, meant to attract links for the purposes of SEO.
Bad Linkbait: Content that attracts links without adding additional value. One of the hallmark characteristics of bad linkbait is that it often rehashes the work of others, without creating anything new.
Linkable Assets: Content or features characterized by a high degree of practical utility or emotional engagement. Linkable assets often attract links over time due the high value they offer.
The SEO problem with bad linkbait
Bad linkbait is not only less effective, but it often has very real SEO consequences down the line in terms of types of links earned and the relevance of the content. In extreme examples, we've seen instances of poorly executed linkbait leading to Penguin-style Google penalties.
While there is no single type of bad linkbait, the following characteristics are often defining hallmarks:
- Temporary spike in linking followed by a quick drop-off
- Meant to be scalable and easy
- Off-topic or marginally relevant content
- Visitors not likely to return
- Rehashed "Top 10" Lists
- Infographics without the "info"
- Controversy for the sake of controversy
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Commercial anchor text controlled by creator
The reason bad linkbait sucks so much energy is that you get almost no return on investment for the effort you put into it.
An example seen all the time is an infographic that is only marginally related to the subject matter of the website, such as those that Rand discussed in last week's Whiteboard Friday. Imagine a plumbing company that makes an infographic called "10 Most Horrific Water Deaths Ever."
- The SEO company convinced them that the keyword "water" is related to plumbing, and this will help them to rank if they can get the infographic distributed widely enough. Maybe it will, but not nearly as much as if they created something truly new that was actually related to their core business.
- The links they earn spike when they are actively pouring money and effort into sharing, but stop almost immediately after that.
- The plumbing website has no other content about "horrific water deaths," so the topic is only marginally related.
- The links all have the same anchor text due to the widget used to embed the infographic. Google's Penguin algorithm picks this up and penalizes them for "water" related keywords.
- After 2 weeks, traffic trickles to almost nothing. The SEO company moves onto the next infographic.
Is there an easy solution? Take the same amount of time and money spent to create 2-3 pieces of mediocre linkbait, and spend that energy creating a truly remarkable linkable asset.
How linkable assets deliver 10x the value
The great thing about linkable assets is that, when successful, they take on a life of their own and the SEO benefit can grow to 10 or even 100 times what was originally anticipated.
Good linkable assets earn repeat visits and traffic over time. Links aren't pushed but earned in unexpected places with natural and topically relevant anchor text. Plus, when you publish valuable content actually related to your core subject matter, you help establish yourself as an authority on that topic, and more likely to appear in search results for topically relevant queries.
Because good linkable assets often earn a greater variety of links spread over time through value instead of aggressive link promotion, they are less likely to ever earn a Google penalty.
Examples of linkable assets include this worldwide guide to etiquette, this online salary calculator or even Moz's Google Algorithm Change History.
Questions used to help identify linkable assets:
- Does it create something new?
- Does it make something easier?
- Is it likely to be used again and again?
- Does it reveal new insight or knowledge?
- Does it create something beautiful?
- Does it evoke a strong emotional response?
- Does it provide practical value?
Can linkable assets also be linkbait?
The most successful linkable assets possess the better qualities of fine linkbait. In fact, for SEO benefit, it's essential that your linkable asset invoke a strong emotional response or be perceived as having high practical value.
This is the "sweet spot" in the middle that combines the best marketing value of linkbait with the added value of linkable assets.
Linkable assets: exemplary examples
Visual assets
Rand mentioned a good number in his recent Whiteboard Friday Why Visual Assets > Infographics, so I wanted to list a few more that offer high practical value and succeed in earning natural, highly-topical links.
Can an infographic act as a linkable asset? Yes, when it meets the requirements defined above.
This excellent Radiation Dose Chart infographic created by xkcd not only inspires awe but has been linked to thousands of times due to people wanting to share its practical utility.
Which Local Review Sites Should You Try to Get Review On? by LocalVisibilitySystem.org displays a ton of knowledge in a succinct and successful format.
Moz's Web Developers SEO Cheat Sheet provides a visual asset we're quite proud of.
For pure visual appeal, this Cheetah infographic by Jacob Neal is one of my all-time favorites. It stretches the boundaries of visual design and I found myself reading every word as a result.
Tools
ShareTally – Similar in function to SharedCount, ShareTally gives you a free and quick overview of important social metrics for any URL. This is one you bookmark.
Creative assets
Robby Leonardi's Interactive Game Resume feels like playing a game and has led Robby to win multiple design awards.
Data sharing
Everyone has data if you look hard enough. Done at scale, the results can be truly outstanding.
The (not provided) Global Report aggregates data from over 5000 websites to display near real-time reporting of Google's (not provided) keywords worldwide.
Studies
One of our favorite email providers, MailChimp, recently studied email subject line open rates. This graphic explores the effect of including a subject's first and last name across various industries.
Moz's own Search Engine Ranking Factors is consistently one of the most popular studies we publish.
Videos
Look no further than Wistia's learning center for best practices on producing videos for your business. Check out this one they made on advanced video SEO with they guys from Distilled.
Endless possibilities for linkable assets
You can turn any unique knowledge into a linkable asset without shooting a video or adding fancy graphics. Think of folks like Seth Godin or Patrick McKenzie who regularly share their valuable thoughts with the world.
The key is to deliver the content in both a valuable and emotionally engaging way. If you are a talented writer, this is probably your best avenue. If not, then thinking outside the blog post box may be required.
What are your favorite examples of examplary linkable assets? Let us know in the comments below.
Really enjoyable read, Cyrus. I couldn't agree more about the points you've made - infographics in particular have been done to death. I see so many utterly useless infographics that people have clearly spent a lot of time and money on, when in reality the data would have been presented better in just text form.
To add to your list of awesome content, check out this one - https://www.truckerclassifieds.com/truckpocalypse/
Now that's a pretty cool looking linkable asset!
Another great example of getting it right.
Heck of an article man. Great points. If we can get business owners involved in the process, it makes our jobs 100 times easier. Problem is most don't want to get involved.
Great post Cyrus - transferring offline assets online is fundamental to clients building their authority within their particular niche.
Hey Tyson - I 100% agree with your sentiment. Here's my process for getting clients more involved:
1) Explain to clients that while their expertise and insight remains only in their head, their target audience are severely missing out on this information being shared and that by sharing, their reputation grows and their brand reach widens.
2) Search engines (especially Google) are looking for signs of key industry influencers and subject matter experts through relevant social shares and authoritative interaction. When I explain this, often they begin to see the impact they can have within their circle or community through sharing their passion.
3) The most challenging aspect, for clients, is sparing the time to get involved. But the key for us (inbound marketers, content curators, SEOs - whatever the title) is to take the seemingly complex and transfer it online into a cohesive framework for others to understand, engage in and share (aka endorse). So really, we're just getting them to help us understand what their offline (or hidden from online) assets are.
4) Questions! If we ask the right questions and explore a client's vast knowledge base (client personas, case studies, experience, background etc) we can help guide the investigation into the "how does that really help your target audience" zone. When we know this, we have the "what" (clients expertise / experience) and the "why" (audience problems solved / insight gained). The "how" is where our expertise comes in..
5) Communication. Often it's the clients perception or understanding of what we're trying to help them achieve that goes wrong. And it's us that often helps create silly mid-understandings. So open, two-way communication with those involved in the process is key, as is ensuring all stake-holders know what's expected of them, with timed deadlines confirmed.
Working with clients (from staff, management and the c-suite) to create valuable, shareable content that drives engagement is hard work, but the rewards are 100% worth it. We just need to get good at taking our <insert role> hats off and putting our consulting hats on.
I've looked over this at least 3 times and I still can't find the reasons or rational behind the 10x title. It seems that number was simply pulled out of thin air-which is fine I guess-but to be that specific in a title....I just expect some reason for a specific number.
Maybe I'm being harsh and the examples are great to be sure....but what's new here? Isn't this just telling me to make better infographics?
Totally agree.
I agree all down the line, but I think there is more here:
First I think this is a great example of what might be called a "bad link bait" post. The title is misleading (the 10X number is thin air at it's finest, can't figure out the metric used to measure "better"), and most of the content is either very obvious or strong opinion without much backing.
Second, the context of the article is almost entirely directed ONLY at retail websites, and fails to consider the value of infographics and other content to generate awareness of a website that isn't specifically retailing anything. News, informational, and recreational sites all gain benefit from brand / site exposure that comes from that window of time that the graphic is shown around. Oh, and a good graphic / image / promotional piece has a longer shelf like than 2 weeks.
Third, the example here is extreme. It goes without saying that a generic "water" thing will do little to sell plumbing, especially in a local market. It's the wrong type of marketing and I doubt that many SEO companies with any skill or intelligence would even suggest something like this. It reads more like an SEO strawman than anything real world.
There just isn't anything new here, which according to the author's standards, would make this bad linkbait. Yet it must work, because we are all here, which in turn defeats the arguments against it. Ironic, isn't it?
Great post, Cyrus. You bring up a good point about ROI. As a consultant I've found that small clients typically require the same amount of work as larger clients. So it makes more sense to get clients that have a higher budget, to make it worth your time. I think the same can be said for link bait/bad link bait/linkable assets. It just makes more sense to go for quality, since even low quality "assets" can be just as resource-intensive as higher quality assets.
Also, AWESOME infographics! Thanks for sharing.
I hear you about small clients. The temptation is to produce something quick and easy because of the constraints of both time and money. The good thing about small clients is they are often willing to get involved in the process and assist in the creating process, often doing much of the work themselves when possible.
If they are not willing to lend a hand, they may not be the best client.
Agreed - everything takes around the same amount of resources whether it's good or it's bad. Also, if you are actually getting return for your resources. I would pretty much measure it in return in my opinion.
Really nice article and today i find some interesting tools as well. so thanks for this information. Thanks
Great examples Cyrus. Instructional how to style videos that fill in demand, information needs in the market are my favorite and can drive lots of quality links, shares, views, etc. The great thing about placing video assets on YouTube is that they can show up in the Google blended search results when optimized properly. Also, since YouTube is the second largest search engine is many markets, it provides a great discovery channel on its own. People will watch a video on a topic that they might not read an extended blog post on. Now that Google+ is the commenting mechanism for YouTube, even better yet IMHO.
Great examples, Cyrus.
I think content creators can learn a lot from xkcd. The radiation dose chart is brill but there are plenty of other gems on the site:
I'm surprised you didn't mention Moz's very own Google Algorithm Change History - a handy resource currently at 1,825 LRDs (according to OSE) :-)
I love the Cheetah infographic as well. The moving elements really make it stand out to me, but it doesn't overwhelm the information. I think it's a great way to catch people's eye and present old information in a new and innovative way. Very rarely will you ever have something 100% brand new to say, but can you say it in a way that no one ever has?
Thanks Cyrus, nice read.
My work covers wide scope - from e-commerce photography, graphics and designing - to building and promoting websites. So requiring a large range of resources and short time frames to work in the linkable assets that I use/share/bookmark most of all tend to be exhaustive, high quality checklists that I constantly refer back to, skim read and pick out what I need.
I got a question. Maybe is the answer well-known for most of you, but not to me. Last 2 years I was not particularly active in SEO area. Actually, I want to know your opinions on best practice on links in embed code. If I have a widget on my site and offer embed code for other webmasters to paste it on their website, and within that embed code is one link to my website, what to do with that link, do-follow or no-follow?
@Cyrus, thanks for the great article.
For the most part, I've greatly reduced the amount of embed codes placed with assets like images and infographics. We use them with some of the images at Moz, but more often than not they don't even contain a link.
In cases when they do contain a link, I'd make the anchor text branded with your site name, i.e www.example.com.
I find that about 50-60% of the time, folks give you attribution when copying your images. I'm not above doing a reverse image search to find people who have used images without attribution, and asking for it. In this case I never specify that the attribution needs to be a link (or say anything about anchor text) but almost 100% of the time folks reply with a followed link, which is great.
What would you do in my situation?
I have prepared one widget, JavaScript embed, i.e. webmaster who want it needs to paste just one script tag and it will work. Now, I want to get links on some of the sites who embeded my widget. What to do:
1) generate embed code with link and "domain.com" anchor / link followed
2) the same as number 1 just with nofollowed link
3) without link, just script tag, but to state that attribution would be appreciated
4) without link, just script tag and without mentioning any attribution. In this case, after some time of start using the widget I would try to start a communication with people on embeding website and in some moment ask whether they are OK with that to make a link somewhere from their domain, somewhere where they think it's appropriate.
It's not only question for Cyrus. Other opinions are also welcome.
Thanks!
Wow, great stuff, Cyrus. Lots to think about after reading this. :)
Creating linkable assets doesn't need to cost a ton of money. Something like the radiation dose chart is a good example of content that is so interesting/data intensive that it doesn't need to be flashy. The strength of the idea is still just as important as the presentation.
Does anyone have any other good examples of linkable assets that performed well but were created on a small budget?
Just Brilliant - Not only it is explaining about the link baits but a lot of other techniques/methods/items. I feel this is the most informative SEO post till now as it covers everythis, Local SEO, technical stuff, infographics and link baiting ( obviously :-)
Nice article Cyrus, perfect inline with Rand's article last week about visual assets and how great they are for generating links.
https://moz.com/blog/why-visual-assets-are-better-than-infographics-whiteboard-friday
When ever you think for long term you will definitely think like this but when your focus is to target keywords and have a limited amount of time to show some results to the client you will not go in this way, then your focus divert and you will be hungry for short term traffic and ranking.
That's the main reason our market searching for shortcuts, and making bad Linkbaits.
Plan your strategy and see beyond the ranking.
Think out of box is the key for sure ...
Good post sir, thank you for the great ideas.
A great explanation as to why creating something of true value is more important than simple link-baiting. And I love that cheetah infographic!!
Thanks for your contribution, I liked that you added so many infographics, now you got me ideas popping up in my head. :)
I think far too many webmasters have the wrong mindset when it comes to creating link bait & linkable assets. It's not about re-hashing work/data that everyone else has done, but about creating something that provides a high amount of value to your audience.
I truly believe if you focus on creating something unique, valuable, and interesting; then promote the heck out of it that it has a much better opportunity to attract more & better backlinks & keep traffic steadily coming in.
Good artists copy, great artists steal (by adding extra value and something uniquely new)
That's what they never tell you.
This post flows really well with yesterday's blog post about topics > keywords. It's like Moz plans when they post blog posts or something… :) Great work, Cyrus. Clearly, we should all be striving to create linkable assets even though it often takes a larger initial investment in time and money.
It's almost like we have an editorial calendar. Freaky. :D
Thanks, Cyrus, for and informative and useful post. Bad link bait has indeed become a problem and it wastes a lot of my time. I love the term "Linkable Assets". I hadn't quite come up with a term that defined when the quality of content earned links naturally.
- Cole
Great post with the help of this blog we get to know the Bad link bait effects the traffic as well as rank and linkable Assets deliver 10 X more value. We get to know difference between Link bait/ Link bait assets. Inforgraphic plays an very important role in Seo provide effective information
I think the whole thing is a bit complecated and overloaded with details. Try to change the style.
Very thorough article. I agree 100% abut the Top 10 list. C'mon man. Those may get picked up by those on the list, but they are usually based on nothing objective, just link bait.
When you are working with so many articles, Linkbaits could be the game-changer. They could help you win traffic if you will do good with your title and you are able to build it up with good introduction. If not, just forget about it.
Great post as always, and some fantastic sites mentioned!
@Cyrus, really nice Post. I really enjoy your post Thank you for sharing.
It's articles like these that give me a case of "analysis paralysis" when it comes to certain topics. Great article, but as a budding blogger and entrepreneur, I have now come to the conclusion that link baiting isn't something for beginners so I won't touch it, no matter how much traffic it will bring me.
You make no allowances for bad link bait being due to a beginners learning curve or someone getting their feet wet. You would expect a certain percentage of them to be bad just starting out, but since you've declared them the "scourge of the internet", now I'll just add that to the list of things I will pay a professional to produce for me when my blog starts generating income. I guess all that advice people give about just start writing or making videos, you will get better over time doesn't apply in this case.
Great Thank you
Personally, I would pick up oldschool encyclopedia book for generating ideas for interesting content. Abundance of facts + sufficient validity.
Have you guys seen the Weddingbids infographic? It uses cool JavaScript scrolling effect to cover how much weddings cost
https://www.weddingbids.com.au/info
Informative post! I had a good time reading your post man. You had just enumerated and explained how bad linkbaits does in a page. Another thing, if only bussiness owners will be interested enough to join the so called process it will be more in favor on us and definitely will make our lives much easier.
Incredible article! Another thing about the term "link bait" that is damaging is that it suggests that some content being created is worthy of linking while other content is not.
If you believe as I do, that linking is just a by product of usefulness, than isn't creating content that is not "link bait" essentially the same as saying you are creating worthless content?
hi Cyrus this is a great article. Even i am also curious to know is any cases which is poorly executed link bait which Lead to a Penalty?
All these are great examples but what would you say to a customer that tells you he doesn't have enough budget? :)
Great article, though im still not 100% on how to get your linkable asset out there.
We have a site and blog that doesn't rank all to well and any posts we create doesn't receive many visitors. So if we were to write and create a killer post with something of real value, are we best posting it on a higher authority site or do we post in on our lowly blog and try and get it out there via sites such as stumbleupon and digg?
@Cyrus - Great post.
Linkbait is a term that is generally understood, and I love that you are educating on a new perspective entirely.
Linkable Assets - When I think of Assets, I think of interactive agencies talking about "Digital Assets". To an agency, and asset is a little piece of something that has been created once with the intent to build upon it in the future. In their world, this language has some connotations of "investment", to create a useful tool or piece of information that could also be re-used in a bigger tool, utility, etc. Over time, an agency builds a library of these "Assets" that can give them an advantage in efficiency, speed to contract fulfillment, etc.
Its great to start dispelling this idea that organizations should be building long term "snowball" investments in their marketing. Business perspective 101, what information do we have that is unique to our business, information that -when used effectively - can help us create a moat around our business and barriers to entry for our competition.
Linkbait just doesn't speak to that idea and has some negative energy built up around it. Its cool to see Moz helping to evolve that perspective in the market.
I have a bunch of free tools on my website that generate tons of links. but i consider them to be less linkbait / linkable assets, and more just valuable marketing asserts that happen to generate a ton of links.
Larry I've seen/used those tools. They are definitely high quality, linkable assets!
Since you didn't link to them, I will :)
https://www.wordstream.com/keywords
Un-natural linking is what Google algorithm focused in it's Penguin update. Bad link-bait is an all time game destroyer for SEO. There is only one way left out in present scenario i.e. "VALUE ADDED MARKETING". If you are here for not just adding your link and get links from but also add some value to the site as well as visitors to the post as well. Now SEO is more of values rather than link sculpting. Again a master piece from Cyrus. Thanks a lot for these tools that you have shared.
Thanks Amit. I'm not sure my point came across in the post as well as I would have liked, but you hit the nail on the head. A "quality" linkable asset helps boost your rankings so much more long term than cheap, short-term tricks, it's really not worth it to do it any other way.
To me this is more about doing it well, meeting goals, and getting positive and relevant results versus doing the bare minimum, like the water death infographic for the plumber. For the Red Cross swimming program that would (could) be a major win.
These are all fantastic examples of how to do interesting and useful
I left a comment on Rand's recent WBF, and I feel much the same way about redefining Infographics. These definitions seem arbitrary.
If you "follow" Google's advice, these should all be nofollow links anyway. The true point is for advertisement. And there are easier ways of getting nofollow links.
Hey Cyrus !
Great article. Linkbaiting is my favourite topic in SEO so I really enjoyed it !
One question though: could you please give us examples of those poorly executed linkbait which led to a penalty? I have never come across any and I am very interested.
Thank you
Hi Cyrus (and anyone else who can input)
Thanks for some great examples - I've seen the Cheetah one before and it's just great.
I just wondered whether you had any experience of ideas for sites/campaigns where you haven't got days to do research, design and implementation or a bunch of staff to do that for you? i.e. lower time-intensive things. The reason I'm asking is that we have smaller businesses we'd love do to great stuff for, but they can't afford for us to spend a whole day or two making something awesome, but they still want to provide value (and we want to keep quality).
Any insights (from anyone actually too!)?
:)
Great Post, a lot of great asset information that I am surely going to ponder over.
P.S. Loved the Cheetah info graphic, it made me read the whole thing as well.
We have to realize that linkable asset is far more important than anything else. We can easily build the trust of our readers if we give them the right information they needed.Creating bad linkbait may give your site a good traffic result but it will surely going to be useless in the future.
Hello Cyrus. It is pretty good that you have created a sweet spot by making a Venn diagram here. And also thought beyond the link baiting i.e. linkable assets. In my view, if we add value to our any activities including infographics will return the smart result to us.
I agree. It just seems so intimidating to have to provide excellent content when you are running a business and don't have much time.
An excellent description as to why developing something of real value is more essential than easy link-baiting. And I really like that cheetah infographic!!
@Cyrus, Just tell me one thing. How much time you take to create post like this. Sorry I am commenting before reading, but It is superb!!!! Ultimate post and presentation!!!!!!!!!!!
Now going through the post!!!