Social bookmarking is a relatively new phenomenon. While we can look back to the mid-to-late 90′s for a predecessor, social bookmarking didn’t spring onto the unsuspecting world until the forerunner site Delicious appeared. Social bookmarking sites gather together information, articles and blog posts which are stored, organised and managed according to relevancy, or tags.
Some people have defined social bookmarking as search engine marketing with a human touch. The information is seen as relevant due to the fact that it has been provided by a human being, rather than assessed for relevancy by a robot and through search engine algorithms. As most of the individuals who use social bookmarking sites often give points to the content based on its relevancy and usefulness, this human touch is emphasised even further.
Social bookmarking is viewed as a great SEO tool for online business, as it feeds off the networking capabilities of the web. The most famous sites have incredible numbers of active followers who are essentially establishing a new trend by getting their news on any particular subject or niche online instead of through other more traditional methods. Social bookmarking sites can be linked and an RSS feed set up, thereby creating an aggregate of news that can be delivered efficiently with very little necessary effort.
While it is not always the case, you can build back links to your site by attaching URL’s to your content. There are quite a few social bookmarking sites out there that have a “no follow” policy, which means that the managing personnel invovled attach tags to your links that neutralise any SEO advantage you may have otherwise achieved. This does not stop people from clicking through to your site and becoming a potentially valuable visitor, of course, but it means that you won’t gain any advantage in terms of the search relevancy ranking for your page.
If you’re savvy about your online marketing and website development, you can use social bookmarking to great effect. Put meaningful content out there with valid and informative material, and people within the social bookmarking arena will rate it highly. Sharing of content is actively encouraged, and as a user’s network is informed of the existence of your content, the potential to go viral appears.
Make sure that your marketing message is subtle, as with any Internet marketing initiative. Blatant advertising is frowned upon, but relevant links when displayed in a soft-sell way will result in an increase in visitors. Make sure that you accurately attach your tags or keywords, to ensure that your message can be found within this vast Internet world!
There are hundreds and hundreds of social bookmarking sites, and you should try and include a plug-in within your site to allow people to easily and quickly bookmark your content. Sites such as WordPress make this very easy for you. RSS feed aggregators essentially summarize blogs and content and allow users to categorize things they find of interest into one easy to find place.
Social bookmarking should be an essential part of an overall Internet marketing and SEO strategy.
Michelle Dale is Chief Executive of Virtual Miss Friday, an adept and highly-proficient Virtual Assistant Service which works closely with enterprising people who really want to succeed in their chosen field. If you’d like to learn more about online business building success strategies that are tailored to your needs, contact VMF today!