There is no doubt that SEO has made a great deal of progress over the last several years. As search engines fine tune their algorithms and marketers streamline their approach, SEO has evolved into an effective tool to enhance the performance of websites and blogs. One of the most effective elements of SEO is linking and sharing. If you have heard one success story about generating exorbitant link connections, you have heard a thousand.

There has also been a great deal of noise being made about creating effective link bait. The truth is that some are doing a great job at generating link bait, while others are struggling mightily, one way or another. Is creating link bait as easy as some of the experts claim, or is there some hidden secret that the gurus are keeping to themselves while you continuously run into a brick wall? The answer is no. Creating effective link bait simply requires a little creativity, focus and perseverance.

Many misunderstand link bait to only apply to other traditional websites, but the objective should also be to get link shares on Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Digg, Pinterest, Google Plus and other major social platforms.

This article will lay out some basic but effective techniques for creating link bait. There are numerous ways to create an environment in which others will want to link to your site, the key is understanding the one that will work best for you.

The way that the following ideas are proposed are as a general approach, which means that the way you choose to present any particular approach is entirely your prerogative.

• Infographics (providing informative graphics that provide relative content is an exceptional and inexpensive way to create link bait that other swill want to link to and share.
• eBooks (eBooks have become one of the most powerful mediums for generating links, and they are not as difficult to write and publish as you may think)
• Video Content (Video content has a proven record of its potential to go viral. The challenge is producing or finding the right video to accomplish the results that you are looking for).
• Audio Content (There are plenty of sites and software programs that will allow you to easily produce relevant and interesting audio content to entice others to link to your site or blog)
• Downloadable PDF’s (Using downloadable PDF’s as an informative resource is proven to generate link shares and connections. Again the emphasis is on relevant and interesting conent)
• Interactive Content (Any content that generates interactivity on your site will get linked to as others shared their experience, it also can go viral.)

Producing your own research by conducting simple surveys with your existing customers is a way to generate link bait that will compel others to link to your site.

If you are not able to convince your customer to participate in your survey or research make the effort to gain their consent to use their Google Analytics as a part your research. This information is valuable and important to them, not to mention that it is unique to them. Use the information you gain from this to create a topical discussion that is both, interesting and relevant.

You can also update existing research. Find some existing research that is interesting to you but a little outdated. Take the time to update the existing research. Now, once you have updated the research, your basis for your outreach will be the one that shared original research that you updated. Since they are already sharing this information, they will definitely want to connect to the updated research to make sure that what they are sharing is the latest information.

There are numerous ideas that can be used to create interesting and relevant content using one of the mediums that was mentioned earlier on in this article.

You can write and opinionated open letter. Whether others agree with it or not, if it is written in an intelligent and expressive way it will garner attention. Even some that disagree with your particular perspective will link to your letter as well as share it. There are numerous examples of open letters on the internet. There is definitely enough to get you started.