You’ve probably heard of it, but do you know what social bookmarking is? And how it can help your website?
It is a very simple concept, similar to using bookmarks or favourites in your web browser to remember and give fast access to your favourite site. However in this case, they are stored on a website, which means everyone can see your bookmarks and you can see their’s. Results can therefore be collated and the most popular sites identifed.
The most well-known social bookmarking sites are Digg, Technorati and del.icio.us , but there are many more. Some are focused on particular geographic areas, others on topics. Here’s a list of the current Top 20 social bookmarking sites.
Social bookmarking can help raise the visibility of your site with the search engines and bring more traffic to it. How?
Each time someone bookmarks a page on your site, they are storing a link to you on the social bookmarking site. For example, a interesting blog article could attract lots of bookmarks and therefore generate lots of in-bound links which will benefit your search ranking.
The social bookmarking sites are very busy sites with lots of readers tracking the popular/new/high ranked bookmarks. Some have developed strong on-line communities, based on trust and recommendation. A site which has visibility on a social bookmarking site will therefore attract visitors.
OK you say, its a ‘good thing’, but what does it mean to my website?
First of all, make it easy for your visitors to bookmark the pages and articles on your site by providing links to the major sites, such as the ‘Share This’ link below. And encourage your existing readers to do it.
Ideally get someone outside of your business to do it on a regular basis – bookmarking your own content is viewed as ’spamming’ by some social bookmarking communities.
And to get the process started right away, click the ‘Share This’ link below, select a social bookmarking service and set up your first free account.
WSI offer a range of services for businesses wishing to harness the power of social bookmarking to promote their websites. To learn more, please contact me.
