a link that marks a web page so you
can find it easily again, but also so you can share it with
others, usually by posting it to one of several dozen social-
bookmarking websites.
Social bookmarking is all the rage these days, with websites like
Del.icio.us and Digg commanding a presence among the top traffic
generators on the Internet. People like to bookmark their
"finds" and they like to show off their "fiends" to others.
Hence bookmarking, hence social bookmarking.
Webmasters hoping to capture the attention of today's Internet
user should head the signs and recognize the phenomenal
opportunity presented by social bookmarking. In a follow-up
article, I will explain the "how-to"s, but here are five ways a
website can benefit from social bookmarking.
REPEAT VISITORS: Considering that many people do not
buy/register/contact/take action on their first visit to your
website, repeat visitors are a necessity (not to mention laser-
targeted prospects!) You can get more repeat visitors to your
website if they can find your website again. That means getting
them to bookmark your website, either on their computer or on the
social bookmarking site of their choice. The more bookmarking
options you offer, the more visitors are likely to return. The
easier you make it for them to bookmark your site, the more of
them will. However, you really must have quality content, or
nobody will want to bookmark your page.
VIRAL BOOKMARKING: When somebody bookmarks your website
on their own computer, they share it with, well, themselves.
It's a private thing. But when they bookmark a web page on a
social bookmarking, it's more "social". Other people will see
it. Other people might share it. Other people might even
bookmark it. Websites like Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia and SpicyPage
are ideal for this. In fact, many of the biggest users of a
social bookmark website are often users of several. However, you
really must have quality content, or nobody will care that
somebody else has bookmarked your page.
VIRAL LINKING: When somebody sees your link at a social
bookmarking website, they might bookmark it...or they might add
it to their own blog or portal or fan site. Suddenly one
person's bookmark becomes several links to your website,
presumably from reasonably well-targeted sources of traffic.
However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will
want to blog somebody else's bookmark.
SEO-FRIENDLY LINKS: Many of the social bookmarking
websites offer no direct SEO value. The links might feature the
NoFollow attribute. Or the mea robots tag might be set to
NoFollow. Or your bookmarks might not show on unique URLs. Os
the links might use a redirect script that search engine spiders
don't follow. But there are some social bookmarking websites
that offer SEO-friendly links.
SEO-FRIENDLY LINKS ELSEWHERE: Even if a link from a
social bookmarking website is not SEO-friendly, don't
underestimate its SEO potential. There is a whole industry
growing just to game Digg and Del.icio.us, knowing that if a
website's bookmark can stick on the home page for an hour or two,
it will mean dozens or even hundreds of inbound links from
reasonably relevant blogs and portals and fan sites. And this is
natural linking, the kind that search engines love! However, you
really must have quality content, or whose going to post a link
to your website just because they found it bookmarked?
ABOUT THE WRITER:
David Leonhardt is an effective
SEO marketing consultant. Read the David Leonhardt SEO marketing blog,
specifically the social bookmarking blog post
that inspired this article.
