Link bait, as an SEO who is also a pretty avid fisherman I think the term’s reference is dead on accurate. You’ve got to have the right “bait” (content) out there to catch the “Fish” (links). You wouldn’t use a nightcrawler (an article about cereal) to catch Tuna (inbound links about DUI law). Well, maybe you would, but hopefully you’re reading posts like this to fix that Also hopefully I didn’t lose you non fisher folk on that analogy, but to help you along, no you wouldn’t use a nightcrawler to catch a tuna. I don’t care what a Yahoo! Television commercial tells you

Now after you figure out your target “fish” (webmasters with those juicy links) you of course have to know a few more of the basics.

Where to fish
Do you do it onsite with a new page, blog post, or article? Or do you use offsite resources such as an article on another site, guest blog post, or something like a twitter run?

When to fish
Is your link bait newsworthy and topical to something happening right now? Or are you just providing more of a how-to or informational post?

And last but certainly not least…

HOW to fish
What content works to get the most QUALITY links? Do you add a blog post on your site and then use offsite methods such as twitter to engage a captive audience?

These, I think, are the absolute basics of link bait. Sure we could go into all kinds of nuances, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is about WHY you’re building links in the first place and how you can use duality in your link bait techniques to kill two birds with one stone.

(Sorry for jumping from a fishing analogy to a hunting one, I’m going back to fishing now.)

First you have to ask the very simple question, “Why am I using link bait?” and of course the appropriate answer is, “Uh duh, inbound links to my site.” I would ask, “Why do you want inbound links to your site?” and once again the appropriate answer would be along the lines of, “Uh duh, so my site can rank higher on Google (Yahoo, MSN, fill in your favorite!),“ and I once again respond (seeing a pattern here?), “Well, why do you want to rank higher on (fill in favorite engine here)?” and one last time the appropriate answer is, “Because I want more sales / clients / leads / people to point at in analytics”. This is where the “Ah Hah” moment should occur. Your ultimate goal with any good link bait technique is most likely to increase your overall search engine ranking through the acquisition of more and more links. However if this is the only reason you are using link bait for your site or company, you are missing out. Link bait can, and should, as often as possible, have a duality about it.

Whenever you are writing content for your site with the primary goal of attracting new links, why not try to write it in such a way that it can also attract potential clients? By bridging the gap between content written to attract links and content written to attract new clients, leads, etc. you are creating a true marketing synergy.

Let me give you an example: Track marketing efforts using cheap 800 numbers

I wrote that post back in early December about using 800 numbers through sites like RingCentral to track your individual marketing efforts. The page has not only brought us inbound links, but two clients to date who found the post while looking up information on 800 numbers for their company. Not bad for the 100 or so unique users that have come from Google to that post in the past two months.

This post not only gives information to other marketers who are looking for ways to track their marketing efforts more efficiently, but to business owners who are just looking for information on getting an 800 number for their business.

It’s working with, and writing, this kind of content that can help you reach the duality of your goal; additional inbound links and more internal clients / leads / sales. Sure you may get a few less links and a little less often, but if you’re ultimate goal is driving new clients or sales each and every month, and your “link bait” is getting that done, do you a few less links really bother you?