Social Bookmarking – Link Building the Web 2.0 Way
Posted by admin in Articles on Aug 14th, 2009 | 0 commentsAnwar Alam asked:
Website owners resorting to SEO (search engine optimization) for promotion know the importance of link building. Building backlinks for your site is even more important than onsite optimization these days. It is common knowledge that more backlinks a site has, higher the site ranks on search engines for a specific search term. Imagine how profitable your online business would be if more targeted people were to find your site and visit.
While SEO is time consuming, it is often free or costs low. Due to being a low cost method of promotion, smart online business owners are wisely taking advantage of this method to promote their sites and to make money online. Social bookmarking is a method of Web 2.0 style link building and promotion.
What is Web 2.0 and why it is important to build backlinks using Web 2.0 sites? Well, Internet is not what it used be 10 years back. If we look around, we see everything changed and so did the internet. While traditional methods of link building still works to some extent, utilizing current generation of Web just puts more weight in your link building campaign. Social bookmarking sites are all Web 2.0 sites for which using this method of generating backlinks can help you a great deal.
In case if you are wondering what social bookmarking is and how you can use these social sites to build backlinks, there are thousands of social media sites out there where you can setup an account and bookmark your sites or links of your interests. These bookmarking sites are often public meaning they get visited by lot of people each day. So these bookmarks are not only giving you backlinks to your site, but also sending the most precious traffic to your site as well.
Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, these are few most popular social bookmarking sites where you can bookmark your story pages. Other registered members can vote on your story shooting your submission to the top if your submission manages to get a lot of votes. It is important to spend some careful time crafting your submission details which is very vital to your success.
All the social sites are categorized by topics where you will need to submit under. They also allow you to add your title, description, tags (keywords), and URL. Make sure you use your primary keyword in the title and description and use few of your top related keywords as tags. This way you will have a chance to come up on search results when people within the social network searches for any terms related to your site.
Not only people will find your site if you can submit properly, you link building will be more effective as you will get more relevant backlinks from a page were other related sites are listed.
In order to submit URLs to these social bookmarking sites, you will need to register first for free accounts. Then you just login and submit your site under the right category. More bookmarks you can make, more people will find your site and more traffic and backlinks you will get. You just need to search the web to find as many social sites as you can get so that you can submit to them.
It is however extremely time consuming to keep searching for these social sites and find out how many of them you can submit to. It also takes a lot of time to register with them as you cannot submit without registration. It is ideal that you spend some time initially to find as many sites as you can so that you can put a list together.
Once the list is made, next step is to start registering with these sites one by one. Keep a spreadsheet with the list of sites including their login information. If you find that you have to devote more time than you can manage or find the entire process simply boring, you have the option to hire an SEO Company who can do the submissions for you.
Social Bookmarking Ethics – 5 Points to Consider
Posted by admin in Articles on Aug 1st, 2009 | 0 commentsCraig Edmonds asked:
Social bookmarking websites are helpful for attracting your desired niche to visit your pages. Like most sites that require registration, there are terms and by-laws that you need to abide by as a user. However, there are some situations that are not covered by the rules. These situations call for good judgment, and your decision could make or break your standing and more importantly, your credibility in the social bookmarking circle.
Usually, the more difficult assessments you have to make are ethical more than technical. Your social bookmarking account represents your brand as it tries to build relationships with your niche. Although you’re online, remember that it is a social bookmarking website. Ultimately, you’re still dealing with people more than links and landing pages.
Here are 5 points to consider before doing anything to your account- so as not to risk people disliking you or your brand.
1. Do I like what I’m about to bookmark?
The point of social bookmarking is to share interesting pages to others in your network. Before adding a page to your bookmarks, think about whether or not the page is something you actually liked reading. Was it helpful or informative for you in any way?
Every time you post something, make sure it adds value:
• Adding your own pages will give you the chance to be heard.
• Adding pages of the same topic from other websites will establish your credibility.
2. Is it worthy of others’ time?
If you’re bookmarking your own pages, make sure that the content is unique and relevant, so as not to waste other people’s time. You don’t want to encourage people to keep associating disappointments with your brand.
Make sure that your content is unique-either in tone, writing style, or information-to set it apart from other pages that offer similar content. Doing so would create favorable associations with your brand, your social bookmarking network will always have something to look forward to and they’ll have a reason to add your pages to their bookmarks.
3. Is it easier for others to find what they need from my bookmarks?
The best social bookmarking websites allow users to organize their lists. When you organize yours, make sure that it follows a logical flow. You might want to keep your own pages together and arranged chronologically. Organizing you pages this way not only highlights your web pages, but it also serves as an update to your social bookmarking network.
4. Am I spamming?
If you’re bookmarking more than 10 links a day, every day, then it might be wise to assess the pages that you bookmark. You don’t want to ruin your credibility by being labeled as a spammer to the point of being banned. This is why it’s important to ask yourself whether this page that you are about to bookmark is:
• Useful
• Informative
• Entertaining
• Relevant
5. Is my social bookmarking page/profile beneficial to others as it is to me?
Keep in mind that you are using social bookmarking websites to foster relationships with your niche. Bookmarking your page can be beneficial to you as it could lead traffic into your website. However, you also have to think about the sustainability of your pages-more specifically you content-to make sure that you remain relevant and useful to your niche.
