When LinkBait Goes too Far

For the past several months, my firm has been handling SEO duties for Promises Treatment Centers - the Malibu rehab facility. Many of you probably know where I am headed with this. Since February 23rd, our numbers have exploded. Uniques up 4300%, page views up 3600% and 541 new links. This just happens to coincide with the arrival at Promises of a certain celebrity exhibiting some rather bizarre behavior.

My dilemma was whether to and how to take advantage of Britney's arrival for longer term gains in the SE department.

From a public relations perspective, I really think any attempt to benefit off this, or a situation like this, hurts your company's reputation. Masking your linkbait attempt behind a "support" page that tells the paparazzi to back off and let Britney recover in peace could still backfire. In your heart-of-hearts, you know you're trying to capitalize off someone else's suffering. Don't pretend you seriously care that Britney's privacy is being taken advantage of. (You don't, and she doesn't either or she'd stay inside.) Your visitors will see through that and you'll ruin the emotional aftertaste called branding you're leaving in their mouth.

Even if you were able to create something "funny" and you gained some links and exposure, the long-term effects could be forever damaging. You'll lose credibility with your target audience, respect (and links) from your colleagues, and likely tarnish the brand you've worked so hard to create. It's like that guy who writes a blog post flaming someone not because he's right, but because he can. Publicly, people may comment and laugh, but you know when they turn off their computer at night they're thinking, "now THAT guy? He's an ass." If it's human nature to want to tear someone down, it's also human nature to despise the person who does the tearing. Even if you enjoyed watching.

Don't be that guy.