What Is the Point of Social Bookmarking?

I'm often asked what exactly social bookmarks are, why they are important, and how they are beneficial for SEO. They are a great tool for search engine optimization, because it was never meant to become one. Social bookmarking's original purpose was to be able to save your bookmarked/favorite websites to a website, such as Digg or Del.icio.us, so you can access these bookmarks later from a different location.


The reason it has become a marketing strategy is that your bookmarks are visible to others, meaning they have the potential of following the same sites you do. People that follow your sites can spread the bookmarks you create and as the popularity grows your site's traffic will grow, giving them the potential of any other social network's virality.


There is always the potential you will never draw significant traffic from social bookmarks directly, but that's okay as it is only half their purpose. The real beauty is the fact that you have control over a great link back to your site. As others follow your bookmarks they are also providing free one-way links from their own social bookmarking pages. So even if the traffic from the bookmarks is slow you have the added benefit of a linking campaign providing solid links to your site, increasing your site's ranking in the search engines.


Hopefully you can see the value and power of social bookmarks. Remember, while you don't want to base your SEO campaign on bookmarks you definitely do not want to leave them out.

Social Proof

Social proof is continuing to play a paramount role in determining how a web page ranks in the search engines. This article is going to define what is social proof and what you need to know to use it to your advantage.


Social proof means that the actions which other people have taken in the past can influence people in the present to believe that those actions represent correct behavior. The effect of this is that those people take the same actions themselves. Social proof is especially powerful on the internet where it influences people to do all kinds of things just because someone else has done it before them.


Most of the time, social proof reflects a real truth, other times it does not. Whether or not that action is in reality correct or not seems to be a moot point, however.


Some examples of social proof could be putting a ticker for either your total number of subscribers for your email list or your Twitter following. If you have a substantial number of Twitter followers, someone is far more likely to also follow you while you have that proof in place.


We're starting to see social proof being shown off everywhere. Virtually any popular blog or website which you go to has social network integration. Even the major social networks have available integration with the other major players.


Of course this proof isn't just aesthetic or important to impress potential followers, friends, etc. but it's also very important in terms of the search engines. Google for example has recently shaken up their algorithm which they use to rank web pages. They do this quite often, but recently they dealt a large blow to content farms.


I believe that a major effect of this update was that Google took a much greater emphasis on proof. Whereas content farms were symbols of low quality, Google looked for the only true metric for measuring quality according to other people. This is again where social networks like Facebook come into play.


The more "Likes" a web page has, the more implied quality is in its content. Google knows that bad content won't get praised by its peers, so this is a reliable way from its eyes to decide what is of higher quality and deserves a more visible search engine ranking. Google is effectively putting its own users in charge of deciding what is good and what is bad and, consequently, how a web page should be ranked.

Social Bookmarking

Now if you've been involving yourself in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) business for quite some time, then you would know all too well about the significance that link building serves in the profitability and online visibility of any web marketing business. Obviously, online businesses need a good website that features useful content and information about the services and products that you are offering online. No matter how good your website is or how interesting or how useful your content is though, all of that would certainly amount to nothing if online users can't even find it online which is why some form of online advertisement is clearly needed. Backlinks are a significant part of implementing such advertisements and one of the most effective methods for building links lies in social bookmarking.


What exactly is social bookmarking?
Social bookmarking as an effective and viable SEO strategy revolves around storing and organizing bookmarks in fairly much the same way as you add sites to your favorites except that in this case, the websites that were bookmarked can be accessed by anyone online. Websites for social bookmarks were initially intended as an online resource that practically anyone could tap into that is until it was discovered that it presents an excellent opportunity for one-way link building. These sites often feature fairly high page ranks which mean they possess relevance and authority in the eyes of major search engines which will certainly benefit your efforts at attaining quality and effective backlinks.


Social bookmarking and its advantages
If you look up several resources online about the subject, you'll find that among the significant advantages of this particular solution for building links is its accessibility and convenience. You can access your bookmarks from practically any computer connected online. This enables web marketers to reach out a broader range of audience making it an important tool for web marketing.


Another significant advantage of social bookmarking is that it yields a large number of backlinks and generates ample traffic from potential consumers looking for a specific product or service. That and the implementation of effective strategies for building links helps web marketers generate the traffic they need to strengthen their online businesses and create more opportunities for generating profit. Link building is after all a highly competitive and tedious business. If there is to be any chance of success, online businesses need all the leverage they can get in their SEO efforts. Link building through social bookmarking can offer you just that!