How Does Social Bookmarking Help?

Hi JoshuaG,

If you choose to, you can simplify all of this complicated stuff into a few short(ish) rules of thumb that you can go by, and then concentrate on getting things done.

Firstly, remember that search engines are robots with an algorithm at their core.

Secondly, factor in that theses SEs have a lot of money to spend on their system, a large human staff, a lot of data to process to help them improve, and a lot of people so keen to sell their SEO products that they either give their 'secrets' away for free, or for a small fee - to anyone who wants to buy them, including people working for search engines.

Thirdly, the part of the algorithm allegedly relating to backlinks is rumoured, at the basic level, to rank sites based on a system where backlinks are treated as some kind of 'vote' for the site that they link to.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly for people like most of us, however complex their system is, at it's core, logical thought would suggest to us that it's ranking system would be based on a starting point where, after putting all of the relevant link factors into it's algorithm (IE age, page position, anchor, relevance - and many more things) at the basic level it would give more weight to links that are difficult to obtain than those which are not, because the algorithm is most likely to be trying to decipher which links are self-created and which links were truly provided as a 'vote' from an independent 3rd party.

Make sense?

So in short, the harder they are to obtain and the more they appear to be obtained 'naturally' (IE not self-created) then in all probability the more likely they are to carry weight.

Your question -

If you were maintaining the algorithm, how much weight would you provide to a social bookmarking link where the majority of these bookmarking sites are absolutely powerless to stop mass automated backlink self-creation?

I'm not knocking social bookmarking as a promotion tactic, but I am suggesting that people consider these things in a logical manner and try to predict the best course of action to take, in order to maximise their productivity based on their own future internet predictions.

People are attracted to social bookmarking as a promotional tactic due to it's ease. We know this, but so do the SEs.

One last thing to consider. When you try and create long-term benefits from your actions, you should consider that the internet (and specifically the search engines) change very rapidly.

Therefore, if you choose a course of action in an area that over time is likely to provide MORE benefits if things change as you predict, then that's a smart move.

If you do the opposite, and choose a course of action where you feel that due to the changes that you think will occur in the future on the internet and in the SEs then whatever action you have taken will provide less benefits over time, then perhaps you should reconsider your actions.

In summary, if you end up following the specific advice given by SEs themselves, then you are likely to be less prone to damage from their changes.

But at all times it's prudent to remember that they are not God, they are not a law making agency, they are a fellow business that has profits to protect and grow and shareholders to please - therefore, they may not always give you advice that is genuinely in your best interests - there's a high chance that they are trying to protect their own investment and increase profits, whilst appearing to look altruistic and positively/socially motivated.

In public, it is in their interest to act as if they have a 'conscience' and that they are solely motivated to provide internet users with a lovely, seamless, helpful and reliable search experience - in order to maintain the perceived integrity of their organic search results, and therefore the integrity of the internet as a whole - because currently, the two are inextricably linked.

In private, they are a normal profit making business with their focus and priorities devoted to that profit and to increasing it and achieving further growth and market dominance. The usefulness and accuracy of their organic listings directly relates to the success of their core business which is paid advertising and data-mining.

The job of an SEO person therefore, in simple terms, is to find a way to create actions that have the most benefit whilst making them appear to be innocently occurring via the actions of unrelated 3rd parties (in the 'eyes' of the SEs), with the least amount of effort possible - in order that they can scale those actions up and outrank less capable competitors.

HTH