Traditional SEO is dead. Gone are the days when we can get to the top by studying keyword densities and trading links. Gone are the days when optimization involves pious devotion to the H1 tag. I'm not saying these things are, or will ever be irrelevant, and I'm certainly not saying site architecture is not important; but I posit that SEO will eventually evolve into a branch of conventional marketing.
So let's forget most of what we learned about traditional SEO for a moment. Let's talk about link bait.
Soliciting links via link-exchanging is less effective than it once was to the end of improving rankings, and link bait creation is one of the newer popularized techniques in link building; but link bait is just a new buzzword. It's really viral marketing repackaged in a shiny new term. Design something useful and motivate people to promote it on your behalf somehow. The marketing result is something that math geeks would affectionately call exponential in growth.
The new social bookmarking sites further leverage and illustrate the power of link bait. H1 tags certainly won't help your cause if you're trying to get Dugg.
Nor will a text link ad for "SEO" on the lower right corner next to an ad for "cheap refinancing" and "discount insurance." Nobody clicks these links. And it's only a matter of time before Google starts to look at behavioral data in addition to the heuristics they already have to detect stuff like this. It's only a matter of time, then, before text links ads are rendered obsolete. Google's Adam Lasnik hints at this here.
Some SEOs realized this awhile ago. One of them is Andy Hagans. He has a product listed here called a "Link Baiting Service" for $3,995. That's a lot of money, but I think it's a bargain compared to paying monthly tariffs for text link ads. Let's examine why.
First -- an appeal to authority argument. Even text link ad dealers seem believe in the efficacy of link bait. The goliath of text link ads, text-link-ads.com has one of the finest examples of link bait around -- "The Text Link Ads Calculator." See? I just linked it!
Let's use this tool to evaluate the value of the links acquired with some simple link-bait I cooked up last week -- "Mattcuttsarama: 21 Great SEO Tips From Google’s Matt Cutts."
Let's estimate the approximate value of the traffic from the Digg and the text link ads in the following 2 days of the post. I received approximately 20,000 visitors from this post. I assume much of the traffic is relevant -- at least as relevant as PPC. If we value each click at a conservative 20 cents each, the result is $4000.00. So far we netted five dollars after Andy's price. This is looking good.
Then let's sum the values of all the links I acquired as a result of this link bait. There are many. Let's start with blog.searchenginewatch.com:
$12,144 per month. Yep, you read that correctly -- over $12,000.
Let's continue. I'll just list the amounts somewhat haphazardly (all values are per month):
$384, $53, $84, $204, $108, $53, $79, $60, $41, $24, $252,
$31, $36, $43, $60, $36, $24, $12, $144, $53, $12, $36
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$$$$$.
Knowing you paid only $3995 for this -- priceless. Andy Hagans -- I think you're selling yourself short.
After a few months, and even after some of these links disappear from the homepage and are relegated to the archives, we easily meet our target value of $50,000.
And I didn't even figure in the future value of the links -- that's just for a few months.
September 19th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Depending on the nature of the "linkbait" it could be worth much, much more. My biggest viral campaign still brings in clicks and rankings three years later.
Thinking of campaign.. 24 hours
A bit of paid bait.. $200
Fooling the world.. priceless
Selling tons of x for years, $4 million and counting.
September 19th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
I am intrigued by this concept! You are right in terms of its potential; this forces you to inspire something totally new.
September 20th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Linkbaiting Roundup...
Linkbaiting seems to become a hot topic once again. Having enjoyed reading quite a number of really interesting posts on the topic in the last few days, I thought you would benefit from looking through them.
......
September 20th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Maybe I'm missing something here - 20,000 visitors to a site = $$? How does that work, exactly? Yeah, I saw the bit about the relationship you seek to draw between opportunity cost (i.e. you'd pay someone $4k to send 20,000 people your way) and the money that you'd actually make from that kind of traffic. How are you (theoretically or practically, either would be OK) suggesting that the monetization occur? Through re-directs - i.e. the equivalent of the "bigger fool" theory, in that you throw the traffic at some other idiot on the web and then charge THEM for the traffic? Or are you counting on some kind of web-based biz, in which case the numbers are going to look far, far different - unless you're running pr0n or gambling or whatnot.
Or am I missing some crucial point here? Your numbers look a little cooked ... which is not bad, because I loves me some tasty web numbers en croute...
September 20th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Think of the cost of acquiring relevant traffic for keyword X in Overture. You won't be paying less than 20c for any keyword. Period.
I assume the traffic is somewhat relevant. I've heard that Diggers tend not to convert, but I could say the same thing about much of my Overture PPC traffic
And yes, I admit to contriving some of those numbers to look convenient, but the argument is persuasive even without cooking the books.
Link bait has a lifetime value. Even if my numbers are cooked, it's still the best bargain.
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:58 am
SEO isn't dead. But it has definately evolved in a big way.
September 22nd, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Hi,
Great article! Have a follow up comment. I think that the effect will be proportional to the number of people that see the bait, therefore, to your overall traffic. In other words, if someone does not have that much traffic to start with, the bait will hardly help them to get out of the pit and be worth $4k price tag. Just my 2c.
Thanks,
Paul
December 27th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
[...] Forget Traditional SEO! Why Good Link Bait is Worth $50K DiggBait 101: 8 Ways to Help You Get to Digg’s Front Page 3 SEO Enhancements That Won’t Require Ripping Up Your Site [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 1:13 am
Here's a great piece of diggbait: create a post that shows the value (or lack thereof) of a digger.
Your title could be something like:
Newsflash! Digg Users Are Only Worth .10 apiece - Who Loves Them Besides Their Mothers?