Tips On Social Bookmarking

Tips On Social Bookmarking

Author: Santiago Caicedo

Along with other forms of Web 2.0 technology, social bookmarking is one of the latest trends to explode onto the online world. The principle behind SEO bookmarking is very simple. If someone comes across your website and finds it useful or interesting, they can post it on a relevant social site so that other web users can easily find it, and so that they can find it again themselves.

How social bookmarking can benefit your business

There are various ways that having your website bookmarked can benefit your business. Firstly, many customers will not buy your product or service on their first visit to your site. If they bookmark you and can find your site again easily, they may be more inclined to buy on their repeat visits. If they have tagged your site on a 2.0 bookmarking site, other users that see the bookmark and visit you may comment on your site, encouraging your original visitor to return and buy from you.

Another advantage of 2.0 SEO is that it is viral. If someone sees an interesting or relevant bookmark on one site, they may put it on their own site, blog or forum, or on another site.

This technique has limited value in increasing your web ranking directly. This is because many websites use a type of link that search engines will not follow, and therefore will not index. However, there are others that offer search engine friendly links, and if a bookmark to your site is added to other sites, blogs or forums, you will get a lot of valuable back links to increase your web ranking.

What works and what doesn´t in 2.0 bookmarking?

As with most forms of internet marketing, the most crucial key to success in Web 2.0 is to have compelling, interesting, and informative content. No one will want to risk their online reputation by bookmarking a site that if full of fluff, and other users certainly won´t copy that bookmark onto their own sites.

Encouraging your visitors to bookmark your site can be as simple as placing links on your web pages in places that your readers will see them easily, such as at the end of an article. You can put links to a number of social websites, but beware of cramming your pages with Web 2.0 links as this can look a little desperate. Where possible choose specialized sites that are really relevant to your business.

There is some debate over whether you should submit your own web pages to social websites. Undoubtedly, this will become harder as sites crack down on users doing this, but at the present time, bookmarking a few of your own pages can be an effective strategy. After all, you can sign up for an account with a user name that doesn´t relate to your business. You could also consider bookmarking other sites that relate to your business, and then asking if they will bookmark you, in a similar way to gaining reciprocal links.

Web 2.0 Social Marketing is gaining in strength

The influence of social bookmarking sites such as Digg is on the increase, certainly for the foreseeable future. Getting your website tagged on social bookmarking sites can increase your online exposure, generate repeat traffic to your site, and improve your web ranking if you can find sites with search engine friendly back links. Web users love to talk about new sites that they have found, which are interesting or out of the ordinary, so having web content that is informative and compelling increases your chances of being social bookmarked.