Is Link Bait Ruining The Web?
Why can’t people just create and maintain content? — “When I want information, I want information that is complete. Information that has been worked on - not once, but over and over again. I want information that has value which was not built in a day, not in a week, but built over a long time, by lots of experts.”
My opinion? Link bait is absolutely not a long term problem. The reason is quite simple. Search engines are going to get better and better. Furthermore, good answers and tough questions are going to line up better and better over time.
You see, search engines want to provide relevant results so users stay happy. If they aren’t happy, they will switch. They’ll turn on a dime and drop tools and services that don’t deliver.
Over time, cr4p content will get thrown away or buried. The good shall rise to the top and remain relevant for a long time. Quality certainly counts and the investment in good content is worth it as a publisher. You can’t go wrong.
For now there are some problems on the web with link baiters. It’s nothing to worry about in the long run. The market will make the corrections, that’s a billion dollar promise from Google.
You can do your part too, if you’re a webmaster. Link to quality. Link to this post. Link to your trusted friends. Write good content. Don’t complain and don’t moan. Simply don’t link to low quality. Let the cr4p dry up and blow away. In time, it will.