Everyone is talking about getting inbound links. Some SEOs are even focusing on strategies specifically geared toward building linkable pages, called linkbait. For the best chance of gaining inbound links, content should be

• Original

• Unique

• Useful

• Noncommercial (or subtle in its sales pitch)

• Timely

• Accessible without a password or payment

And at the risk of stating the obvious, to be linkable, each page must be linkable meaning it must have its own URL!

Perhaps you do have some of these elements on your site, but they’re intertwined with your less linkable, commercial content. If so, your site may benefit from a simple reorganization of materials. You can cluster this content, or links to it, within a new section of your site, aptly named “Resources,” “Fun,” or something similar. And remember, your goal is conversions, not just inbound links, so be sure to provide a clear path from this new section to your landing pages.

Sometimes, even a simple title rewrite can dramatically change the linkability of a page. For example, one type of content that often draws inbound links is a product comparison. Perhaps your site has a page that compares features of your product with your competition’s. The only thing stopping it from being linkworthy is the title “Why Choose Us?” which strikes a commercial chord. Give this page a new, industry-specific but neutral title like “Compare Medical Imaging Products,” and suddenly the exact same chart becomes potential linkbait.

By the way, consider this:

Pages requiring payment or registration to view are just plain not linkable. And with rare exceptions search engines will not index them.

So you should keep as much of your content outside the registration boundaries as possible. Your sales and promotions Everybody loves a bargain, and next to “free stuff,” a sale or promotion is a strong contender for links. Trouble is, most websites move their promotions around, showing them temporarily at whatever URL seems to suit the moment. Take the smart approach: If your site runs promotions, make one specific URL for all promo materials! That way, linking sites will have an easy time sending you their bargain-hungry traffic and you’ll gain inbound links.

If your organization runs promotions but somehow doesn’t manage to get that content up on the website in a timely manner, put linkability on the list of reasons to turn over a new leaf. Tools, worksheets, and sample documents Are there any tools, worksheets, presentations, or documents that your organization is using in-house and might be willing to share? For example, countless SEO firms offer keyword assessment tools or other useful gadgets for free on their websites. Think they’re doing it out of altruism? Nope. More likely, they’re trying to attract links and repeat traffic.

Offline marketing materials You can add offline marketing materials, such as brochures and sales presentations, to your website in whatever format they were created in. However, from an SEO standpoint, HTML is still the best format for your web content. We’ll talk more about optimizing non-HTML content later this week.

E-mail newsletters If you’re already writing and sending out e-mail newsletters, why not add them to your site, too? What appeals to your customers or opt-in readers may also appeal to linking sites.

Press releases Press releases are excellent potential landing pages, naturally text based, keyword rich, and often linkworthy because they’re news! We discussed getting PR involved in optimizing press releases. If your organization hasn’t been posting its press releases online, start now. But make sure the press release is linkable news before asking for links. New products fit the bill. New hires probably don’t.

Develop New Content

If yesterday’s explorations didn’t unearth any unique, linkworthy, and search-enginefriendly content for your website, you’ll need to create some new content instead. Here are two approaches:

• Develop new content in-house.

• Use other people’s content.

Develop New Content In-House

Of course, you could hire a staff of professional writers and set them to work full-time building fascinating, linkworthy content for your website. If you’ve got the budget for that, set down this article and call HR today! For everybody else, here are some ideas for building out your website content with limited resources: Monthly columns Is there anyone in your organization who might be interested in running a regular monthly (or weekly, but we won’t hope for daily!) column on the website? Perhaps an “Ask the Expert” or “Helpful Hints” type of column, with no marketing agenda in mind. Once these columns build up steam, you might create an RSS feed for them to make it easier for your readers to find their way back. Or, you may want to share these columns with other websites through syndication or simply by contacting other site owners and requesting inclusion. Industry publications and e-mail newsletters are always looking for new content. But if you’re going to be generous with your content, make sure you get as much SEO benefit as possible: Articles posted elsewhere should always link back to your website.

But blogs may be your easiest option for keeping a fresh presence on the Internet once the blog authoring tool is in place, you don’t need to go through a webmaster or IT department to add new content. You can even spread out the workload by allowing contributions from several employees, or take it a step further and allow contributions from folks outside your company. At the very least, think of a blog as a convenient tool for posting press releases.

Compiled resources You know your business, so you know the kinds of things your customers always seem to need help finding or figuring out. Resources such as useful links, FAQs, reviews, and a reference table or glossary can be good draws for inbound links (not to mention bookmarks and repeat visits!).

Interviews Interviews with bigwigs in your industry, or anyone else who your target audience finds compelling, can be a great way to fill out your website. For example, if your company sells home furnishings, an interview with an interior designer could provide content of interest to your target audience while giving the designer a publicity boost. Look for experts or service providers in fields similar to your own, and try to pick someone with a strong reputation and an engaging personality. Free tools and widgets If your company has the technical chops for it, there’s nothing like a free online tool for drawing inbound links. Translate dollars into yen; calculate shoe size in the European standard; figure out how many tablespoons of ground coffee it takes to brew a pot. As long as it’s potentially useful to your target audience, it’s a great idea. Widgets are fast becoming the fashionable way to spread your content webwide, so consider these as an option if your organization has a solid blend of creative ideas and programming skills.

Welcoming the Social Web to Your Site

You’ve started building some great new content on your website. Now you’re hungry for a big hit on social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, or StumbleUpon! We’re not going to tell you the big secret of social media success for that you’ll have to buy our other book. Just kidding! Actually, there is no big secret. Just trial and error, and a lot of continued effort. Here are some basic guidelines that will help you get at least a fighting chance on the Social Web:

• Research the demographics of a social media site before you jump in. If your target audience is young, male, and techie, then by all means get your Digg shovel out! Slightly older? Stumble- Upon could have some potential. A nontechie, older, B2B audience? Yeah… we’re still waiting for that social media site.

• Be sure all of your content is taggable.That means each and every page should have a separate URL.

• On each page of fresh content, include bookmarking buttons icons linking to social bookmarking sites. As You know in Month One,“Letting Others Spread the Love,” this makes it easy for folks to tag or bookmark your content.

• Recognize that you don’t necessarily need a front-page blockbuster to be successful in social bookmarking. If you are regularly creating new content, the drip-drip-drip approach of a few tags here and there can accumulate into a significant number of links. Although these links are generally not followed by search engines and will not directly affect your ranks, they can lead to new traffic and indirect positive effects.

• Create a profile and work to become a valued member of any social media site that you would like to use as part of your promotion efforts. Otherwise, you risk overstepping etiquette and having your site bashed, buried, or ignored.

• After you internalize the previous bullet, start submitting or tagging your own website. Most people consider it acceptable to create a single self-submittal for content that is genuinely likely to interest the community.When you do this, be sure you optimize your tags. Use keywords, as well as terms that you see in common use on similar content.There’s no reason to skimp on tags; you can typically use as many as you like!

Building up social media kung-fu powers is largely a matter of participation and familiarity with the community you’re trying to reach. If your target audience is using these sites, so should you!

Use Other People’s Content

Whoa, there! We’re not saying you should go out on the Web, find some great content, and cut and paste it onto your website. There’s this little thing called “copyright infringement” you’ll want to watch out for. But there are some ways to use other people’s content on your website without the feds beating down your door.

Here are a few ideas: Articles featuring your company Does your PR department keep a record of articles that mention your organization or include interviews or quotes from company representatives? See if you can get permission to add all or part of these articles to your website. (It goes without saying that you should stick to the complimentary ones.) Syndicated content It’s quite easy to incorporate feeds onto your website for example, industry news or blog posts. It’s not unique content, but providing a group of topical links may add freshness and a sense that your site is up-to-date, thus increasing your linkability.

User-generated content One of our favorite ways to increase content is to let your users build it for you, with blog comments, posts in message boards, classified ads, or product reviews. This is content that constantly updates itself and can often be eminently linkable. But it also sets you up for abuse, such as people submitting meaningless content (a practice called comment spam), so be sure you have a moderator or other system in place to protect your site if you’re thinking of offering these features.

Guest contributors Many talented writers and artists would love to have space on the Internet to display their work. This type of content can take the form of a post by a guest blogger, or an article stating expert advice or opinion. You could even assign a colleague to send a first-person account of a popular industry conference.

And your contributors don’t have to be professional writers. Many websites are nicely filled out with the free expressions of regular people, from birth stories to product success stories. Copyright-free content Copyright-free articles on subjects ranging from wedding etiquette to tax advice can be added to your website, usually in exchange for a link or a courtesy notice. However, since this content is not unique, it’s of little value for your search engine presence (and may even annoy your site visitors because they may have seen the same articles on other sites). So use it with caution, and only if you are certain it improves your site offerings.

An alternative to copyright-free content is Creative Commons (CC) content. The Creative Commons, at creativecommons.org, is an alternative type of copyright you might call it a “some rights reserved” copyright. Explore CC content by searching for it using Yahoo!’s or Google’s advanced search.

We’ve given you a nice long list of possible ways to add content to your website; not every one will suit your needs or abilities. Today, choose which technique you’ll try first. Set a goal for yourself, perhaps adding one new page of unique content each week, and get started today.