Search Bait: Social Media’s Taking Out The Garbage
A candidate contacted LaunchSquad a few months ago and informed us that he could crank out up to 15 content pieces per day. We thought that was a pretty bold thing to say. When a LaunchSquad team member looked at this content, he realized what is really was: search bait (a.k.a. link bait).
I didn’t even know what search bait (or link bait) was until about a year ago. Since I’ve been working in social media for a few years, I’ve taken on numerous search engine optimization campaigns - everything from restaurants to real estate agencies. I’ve always thought that the only good SEO is holistic SEO, and there are a few solid books on this subject. Link bait has become a questionable, but necessary tool for SEOs looking to cut corners, or for short-term gains, since the number of links a site has going to it typically raises its ranking in Google and Yahoo. Effectively, this kind of linkage dilutes the usefulness and accuracy of search engines.
So, articles that are “link bait” can actually attract more links than organic, genuine links. They also contain no relevant content; some are just “ego-links,” praising something another person has said in a blog somewhere, and others are “attacks-for-the-sake-of-traffic” - controversial nothing-statements aimed at getting linked-to, so the links that they contain will climb up a search algorithm.
Unfortunately, things have gotten to the point where social news networks like Digg have had to increasingly deal with search bait over the past six months, and the frequent culprits are individuals who are paid to plant stories for corporate users (like Jetnumbers, a virtual phone number company). News networks like Digg are worried that this type of content could erode their credibility as user-driven sites, and they’re willing to remove users’ accounts in order to prevent it from happening.
If you really have the time or the notion to write search bait, take a look at these articles. If you want to know what really bad social media optimization looks like, this is it. And if you hear someone talking about “creative link building,” it’s just a euphemism for search bait. Phew!
Trackback
Trackback url for this entry.