Linkbait is the single most effective and affordable way to obtain quality inbound links for SEO purposes. Put simply, I consider any content that entertains, informs, and attracts inbound links as valuable linkbait.

With 2011 predicted to be the year of the social media bubble, effective linkbaiting is going to become more pivotal than ever as people turn to mediums like Twitter as their first source for information. By writing content that provides value, is easy to read, and making it easy to share, you’ll attract more inbound links than an amazing steve jobs action figure.

Here are 8 useful linkbait tips that will help you drive more links to your site in 2011.

1. Be one of the first to write about a new or upcoming topic

By staying ahead of the curve, your content will be indexed by Google faster, allowing your site to quickly become an authority on the topic. As an example, I wrote a post the other week on how to fix an issue with apachectl caused by a Mac OS 10.6.5 update the same morning the update was released. The post quickly rose to the top of Google for related searches, resulting in a significant amount of traffic and inbound links literally overnight.

Similarly, I could have titled this post “8 useful linkbait tips for successful SEO in 2010″, but since there is only a month and a half left in the year, why not make it 2011? The early bird gets the worm.

Watch for news or issues related to your niche and write about them as soon as possible. A good resource for finding up and coming topics related to your industry is Google Trends. Other topics might include upcoming holidays, seasons, events, or product releases.

2. Write instructional guides or how-to’s in your area of expertise

As 37signals advocates, sell your byproducts (or give them away for free). You are an expert in your field, and while a lot of what you know may not seem that valuable, it probably is. Share your knowledge and you will show potential customers that you know what you’re doing, as well as become an authority amongst others in your field.

3. Write “x tips on some topic of interest” articles

E.g. this post. Other examples might include:

• 10 useful resources on …
• 25 things to do for …
• 9 easy techniques for …
• 12 ways to …
• 10 mistakes to avoid when …

Ideally, you can combine these types of articles with a new or upcoming topic, as described above. Let the reader know that your article is organized in a way that is easily readable and succinct; it will add value.

4. Write locally targeted content

Target content towards your local audience. It’s easier to rank higher in Google and you’ll appeal to local bloggers who love to share.

5. Write content that entertains people – don’t be a bore!

Don’t be afraid to show some personality. People are more likely to share content that is both informative and entertaining.

6. Put together a compilation of high quality, informative resources on a certain topic

Spend a couple of hours researching your topic of interest and amalgamate the most useful resources into one easy to read “guide”. People will appreciate you doing the legwork for them and are more likely to share your content. Of course it’s ideal if you can find a topic that attracts your target audience.

7. Spread the word via social media, but don’t spam.

Good content just needs a little nudge to get the word out. Tweet about it, share it on Facebook, and assuming your content is well written, informative, and entertaining, your audience should take care of the rest. People will detect when you’re trying to shove the content down their throats, so avoid posting your article to every social network known to man. Have faith in your content.

8. Get to the point.

Don’t fluff up your content with boring, irrelevant filler. People are busy and you’re likely to get only a minute or two of their time. Get to the point sooner and your content will deliver its value more efficiently. As an example, when writing this article, I was able to rattle off 8 tips for building quality linkbait; I probably could have come up with more to get to a nice round number, but the quality of the content would have quickly degraded.

Here are a few good resources worth checking out on writing quality linkbait:

SEO: Link Baiting Tips To ‘Juice’ Your Site
- “You might wonder if elements of your ecommerce site could become worthy link bait. I hate to break this to you — but probably not. Link bait is the sort of thing that tends to spread virally through email and the blogosphere.”

All Linkbait Is Not Created Equal: What Linkscape Reveals About Popular Content
- “What is the premier type of linkbait you see on the web? Of course, it’s the gimmicky stuff. It often performs the best in social media, and thus we’re fooled into thinking that it’s the best form of link building.”

Link Bait: Tips To Get More Inbound Links
“While content is always king, it’s important to create content that will draw traffic most relevant to your niche”

10 Link Bait Tips for Small Business Marketing
- Some creative ideas for link baiting techniques for small businesses

SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting
- Linkbaiting examples by Google employee and popular blogger Matt Cutts (a bit dated, but still relevant)

Linkbait Tips And Tricks
- Ideas for effective linkbait “hooks”

If you have other ideas for building quality linkbait, feel free to share them here.

It’s been a month (okay – a bit more than a month, we’ve been busy!) since our first post, Is the Yahoo! Directory worth the money? and as promised, time for the first follow-up article on the results.

As expected, the results thus far have been rather insignificant. We have not seen a dramatic increase in traffic or PageRank. That said, however, it does seem like we’ve seen a slight improvement in our position ranking for some of our targeted keywords such as “custom software development” or “web application development company”. As a caveat, though, these observations have not been accurately measured and are based on a general feeling of incoming keyword traffic based on what we see in Google Analytics.

Read our first post to view the traffic statistics prior to being accepted into the Yahoo! Directory.

Site Statistics One Month after Being Added to the Yahoo! Directory

Current Statistics for www.deversus.com (as measured by Google Analytics)

Yahoo Organic Search Results for the period of October 4, 2009 – November 3, 2009: 27 unique visits
Referral Traffic from the Yahoo! Directory Listing for the period of October 4, 2009 – November 3, 2009: 4 unique visits
Google Page Rank: PR4

Current Statistics for www.futurequest.biz (as measured by Google Analytics)

Yahoo Organic Search Results for the period of October 4, 2009 – November 3, 2009: 39 unique visits
Referral Traffic from the Yahoo! Directory Listing for the period of October 4, 2009 – November 3, 2009: 2 unique visits
Google Page Rank: PR2

For some time now, we’ve debated submitting our company website (http://www.deversus.com) to the web’s oldest and most popular directory, the Yahoo! Directory. Several of our clients have asked us if being included in the $299/year directory is worth the money, so we figured it’s been questioned by others as well and warrants a somewhat definitive investigation.

We submitted our website, as well as our client, Future Quest Wireless’ website (http://www.futurequest.biz) to the Yahoo! Directory on September 24, 2009. We received an e-mail from Yahoo stating that they’ve accepted both websites into the directory on October 1, 2009, although as of yet, neither website is showing up in the Yahoo! Directory search results.

We will report the amount of organic search traffic seen from Yahoo, any changes in Google PageRank, and referral traffic from the directory listings themselves for both websites over the next three months. To try and limit the number of variables and control for specific results seen from the listing in the Yahoo! Directory, we will refrain from performing any additional SEO or quests for inbound links for the duration of this study.

Why Consider Adding Your Website to the Yahoo! Directory?

What many don’t realize, is that a website’s displayed position in Google can vary significantly depending on certain conditions at the time of the search. These include whether you have Google WebHistory enabled, which geographic version of Google’s website you’re searching, or where you’re searching from. For example, on google.ca, a search for “custom software development” shows our website as the second result (at the time of this writing). However, on google.com, we’re not even in the top 100 results. Google’s search is location-aware too, so if you’re from Vancouver and search for “custom software development” on google.ca, the results shown are likely to be tailored based on your location (thus our number two spot here). A good way to check this for your own site is to visit google.com through a proxy (for example, www.proxify.com), which will hide your IP, and furthermore, your location.

To ensure your website is ranked highly for your targeted search terms across all geographic regions (and highly ranked in general), it is critical to have a high Google PageRank. There are, of course, other factors that affect your position in Google, but PR is known to be one of, if not the most important of them.

In order for us to rank well for the highly competitive search terms we target (i.e. custom software development, web application development), we felt a boost in our Google PageRank definitely wouldn’t hurt. Cheap, or free link directories (or “link farms”) are unlikely to help your Google PR and may even hinder it; obtaining high PR links to your website from pages that are relevant to the material on your site are difficult to come by and usually, expensive. Because Google’s algorithm is so heavily weighted on quality, relevant inbound links, we decided the PR 8 link alone is worth the $299/year (We’re listed at http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Computers/Software/Consulting/Custom_Programming/).

What We’re Expecting

We expect that the effects of a single inbound link are unlikely to be significant, but we will monitor incoming traffic from Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Directory, as well as our Google PR, in aim of measuring the effects our listing in the Yahoo! Directory has. We will post the results to our blog each month for the next three months.

It should also be noted that different website owners are likely to experience varying results depending on the industry, popularity of the website’s material itself (i.e. the number of searches for the targeted keywords), number of competitors, and Google PR of those competitors. A good tool for gaining some insight on keyword popularity and competition is the Google Keyword Tool.

Site Statistics Before Being Added to the Yahoo! Directory

Current Statistics for www.deversus.com (as measured by Google Analytics)

Yahoo Organic Search Results for the period of September 3, 2009 – October 3, 2009: 22 unique visits
Average Monthly Yahoo Organic Search Results since September 3, 2008: 4.75 unique visits
Google Page Rank: PR4

Current Statistics for www.futurequest.biz (as measured by Google Analytics)

Yahoo Organic Search Results for the period of September 3, 2009 – October 3, 2009: 43 unique visits
Average Monthly Yahoo Organic Search Results since September 3, 2008: 143 unique visits
Google Page Rank: PR2

So is the Yahoo! Directory worth the money? Hopefully our findings over the next three months will help answer this question to make the decision whether to add your own website to the directory easier. We will report the above results, as well as the number of referral visits from the Yahoo! Directory next month. If there are other metrics you would like to see measured and compared over the next three months, post them in the comments below.

Have you had experience with the Yahoo! Directory? What sort of results did your website see? Furthermore, are there any other directories out there, aside from the Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ that you consider pivotal for achieving a high Google PR?

Update: Read our follow-up post: Is the Yahoo! Directory Worth the Money? Part 2 (One Month Later)