How to turn a good blog into link bait

[BobGW]

Hello,

I don't really believe in spending a lot of time link building (and maybe that's a limitation of mine). I believe, at least for the small businesses I've been running, that producing targeted, thorough, very very helpful, useful, unique, authority based, knowledgable, transparent content is what most of the time should go into. I'm sure there are many exceptions in industry and company size.

We use a blog and feature it really big and solid on the home page.

So we're making a blog that has the qualities above (useful, unique ... transparent). How, while we're doing the writing, can we make the content also be good link bait? We need an awesome link profile. Also, what free easy afterward social or email outreach am I not including to maximize exposure (The only content marketing I do is posting blog posts right now on Facebook and Google+)? What would you do with the first $100 in this context? The first $300? (We're low budget always)

Thanks,

Bob

[Andy.Drinkwater]

There will be lots of opinions on this one Bob (wait for EGOL!) but you could do a lot worse than have a read over here. You will find a wealth of information. This is another good one.

There is no secret recipe to writing exceptional articles - you just have to make sure you do you homework, research and fact-check everything and don't write about something that has been covered a thousand times before. Find new opinions and views - be controversial and don't feel you must agree with the status quo. If you have a different viewpoint on something, say this and explain why.

Grammar & spell check everything, don't just write a page full off waffle, don't skim over anything that needs a good explanation and write for the reader.

I find a nice way to check my writing is by using Hemmingway (Thanks EGOL) as it will pull you up on many errors.

We need an awesome link profile.

This will come from awesome work.

-Andy

[EGOL]

This will come from awesome work.

There is your answer.   It is not "what you do", instead, it is "how well you do it".

[DonnaDuncan]

Headlines are you first opportunity to catch someone's eye. There are some great headline testing tools out there, but they're not a whole lot of help unless you manage to attract enough audience to get a meaningful sample size. Might not work for you.

I'd use tools like Buzzsumo to find the most popular headlines for my subject area and then try to adopt similar techniques. I'd look for syndication and guest posting opportunities on publications that you know your audience visits. Great headlines and syndicated / guest posts will get you exposure. Quality content will earn you the links.

Oh, and Grammarly is another good tool to help improve your writing. I like that it's a browser extension that integrates seamlessly with common writing tools like Wordpress and MS Office.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I took this from another Q+A thread that I answered. While it's about starting a blog, I do believe that it rings true for what you're attempting to do...

• Create the blog on your site

• Do some research

• What information is missing in your industry?

• What are users actively searching for?

• Where are they currently participating in conversation?

• What language do they use in search and those discussions?

• How do they digest their content?

• Here's a quick resource on content gap analysis from Edge Multimedia

• Take advantage of great tools like Open Site Explorer and SEMRush to get a handle on your competition and what's working / not working for them

• Build out content on the site based on your research

• Mind your obvious onsite SEO fundamentals (titles / meta descriptions / schema / content length and language / etc.) (resource)

• Lay your site architecture out in an easy to use / understand fashion (Information Architecture for SEO)

• Repurpose content through video / images / guides / e-books / how-tos / etc

• Take advantage of internal site search functionality

• What are users searching for on your site?

• Distribute that content through social platforms / industry blogs / email marketing

• Participate in the discussions that are happening in your industry

• Social

• You could take advantage of features like Twitter's Advanced Search and start fielding questions

• News sites

• Industry forums

• Q&As

• You can also read these resources about headlines and CTR

• 5 Tips to Improve Your Headline Click-through Rate

• A Scientific Guide to Writing Great Headlines on Twitter, Facebook, and Your Blog

Now, while I believe this is less science than it is just knowing more about your audience, there are some good points.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[BobGW]

Incredibly useful information here.