Behind LinkBait: Word Play and Creative Semantic Constructions in Hot Titles
I for one am too tired of “linkbaiting” titles (ala “XX lists”, rants or how-tos). In an effort to find examples of some creative titles I’ve been browsing hot Digg posts and the most viral celebrity blog I am aware of – Perez Hilton – to spot some linguistic and semantic tactics behind linkbait:
1. Abbreviations – using popular abbreviation reflecting either slang or professional jargon vocabulary:
2. Playing with antonyms (words with opposite semantic meanings), e.g. substituting a word in a well known (or set) phrases with its antonym:
3. Playing with colloquialisms (a word or phrase that is used in casual / informal conversation):
4. Using oxymoron – combining what normally cannot be combined (e.g. poor and rich):
5. Playing with homophones (words with a different origin and meaning but having the same pronunciation) or using “pun” – deliberately mixing two similar-sounding words:
6. Incomplete sentence (i.e. “you guess what should follow“):
7. Lexical “distortion” – often used in slang – creating new words by intentionally incorrect word spelling:
8. Semantic “distortion” (somewhat related to #2) – substituting one word in a set phrase with any other word for comic / unexpected meaning:
9. Playing with neologisms (i.e. creating new words):
10. Creating words that have two meanings and can be interpreted in two (often opposing) ways:
11. Question-answer play: asking and instantly answering a question:
12. Repetition: intentional usage of one and the same word twice:
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25 Responses to “Behind LinkBait: Word Play and Creative Semantic Constructions in Hot Titles”
This is a great list to use for brainstorming titles even if you content wasn’t intended as linkbait. Thanks Ann!
By SEMaven on Sep 8, 2008
Good analysis. Titles are hard. “Ain’t it the Truth?” is actually a quote – The Cowardly Lion from “The Wizard of Oz”
By David LaFerney on Sep 8, 2008
Thanks for some great ideas. I Stumble you
By SEO Training on Sep 8, 2008
Very nice article, I love it!
By Navin Poeran on Sep 8, 2008
LinkBait Acronym …
RTFM …
By Florida SEO on Sep 8, 2008
@David, thank you! I didn’t know that! Citing is another good linkbaiting tactic by the way…
By Ann Smarty on Sep 9, 2008
Good take on other link title strategies. Thanks for putting together and sharing
By Arnold - Mr.Gadget on Sep 10, 2008
This is a rather exhaustive list. Very well done and well researched.
Of course, now that you’ve done it you’re going to see a lot more people starting to use these kinds of title tactics for future link baiting articles.
By Vinny on Sep 10, 2008
Wow, some of the vocab brought me back to college. Nice list to keep handy when clients ask for suggestions on building titles.
By Adam on Sep 10, 2008
Nice post Ann.. Very fun.. Neologisms are my favorite!
By beau vignes on Sep 10, 2008
Like everyone’s been saying – what a great set of title ideas. If you hate this stuff you should take a look at one of your local newspapers: the Boston Herald. The headlines will make you crazy.
By Isaac D. Van Wesep on Sep 10, 2008
Smart girl excellent observation
Great post see you around
Thanks
By POTPOLITICSâ„¢@DO FOLLOW on Sep 17, 2008
Great post Ann. I’ll add one to your list – BREVITY.
A tactic used by the NY Post, whose best headlines are often one or two words that capture an event.
By Sean Maguire on Oct 15, 2008
Really nice article…The points made by and the photos are really excellent…
Thanks for sharing with us..
By jennifer on Nov 29, 2008
cool, I’ve never seen a linguistic analysis of linkbaits, but it’s really interesting. I especially like neologisms, but never seem to come up with good ones myself
By Flug Australien on Feb 18, 2009
What do you call linkbait about linkbait? Is it meta-linkbait? Thanks for the post. I’m thinking about writing a post titled: The Best 10 lists of linkbait on the internet.
By Web design Brisbane on Feb 18, 2009
I like the incomplete sentence hook. And now for something completely different we have …
By Cheap flights on Feb 18, 2009
really cool tips … very creative
playing with titles is very important to get the attention
sometimes I leave blanks in my titles or wrong sequence
1..2..5..4
very effective way to grab the attention
Ghada
http://www.doubleurincome.com
By GhadaLancer on Mar 8, 2009
We tried a question answer play – aimed at our predominantly female audience we’re targetting – “need a new pair of shoes? Get a new HR system to save you time to shop”. It worked much better than the ususal deal sentence we had used prior. Even our male viewers found it caught their attention as their response rate hit higher,
By HR Software on Jul 21, 2009
My favourite is the incomplete sentence. I was saying the other day to my girlfriend, why do you wear that? It makes you look
By lusty trailers on Dec 9, 2009
Thanks for all the great ideas, i kind like the Question-answer play and will use it on my social media post,
cheers,
Jo
By Brisbane SEO on Mar 10, 2010