One highly effective type of link bait is the statistics article — a roundup of relevant data in your niche. A great example is the SEO statistics piece published by Ahrefs, which compiled industry-wide data and ended up earning 1,480 referring domains. That’s powerful.
Why do these articles attract so many links?
- Writers love referencing facts and figures.
- It’s common courtesy (and often required) to cite sources when using data.
- These pages become go-to references for blogs, journalists, and marketers.
But there’s a catch: for this strategy to work organically, your stats article needs to rank high on Google for terms like “SEO statistics”. And if your site is new or lacks authority, you might not get there right away.
The workaround? Paid traffic.
You can run Google Ads targeting those exact keywords. The competition is often low — because very few people are bidding on terms like “fitness statistics” or “2024 marketing data”. That means cheap clicks and solid exposure.
In one case (in the health niche), this approach drove links at around $30 per backlink — without doing any manual outreach or “technical” link building.
You’re not building links.
You’re earning them — by putting useful, reference-worthy content in front of the right people.
One highly effective type of link bait is the statistics article — a roundup of relevant data in your niche. A great example is the SEO statistics piece published by Ahrefs, which compiled industry-wide data and ended up earning 1,480 referring domains. That’s powerful.
Why do these articles attract so many links?
- Writers love referencing facts and figures.
- It’s common courtesy (and often required) to cite sources when using data.
- These pages become go-to references for blogs, journalists, and marketers.
But there’s a catch: for this strategy to work organically, your stats article needs to rank high on Google for terms like “SEO statistics”. And if your site is new or lacks authority, you might not get there right away.
The workaround? Paid traffic.
You can run Google Ads targeting those exact keywords. The competition is often low — because very few people are bidding on terms like “fitness statistics” or “2024 marketing data”. That means cheap clicks and solid exposure.
In one case (in the health niche), this approach drove links at around $30 per backlink — without doing any manual outreach or “technical” link building.
You’re not building links.
You’re earning them — by putting useful, reference-worthy content in front of the right people.
