Is Social Bookmarking Over Rated?

16 years ago

Yes, absolutely, Social Bookmarking is valuable. It's not only getting your site indexed, but getting it to rank well in the search engines. Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites are one of the best types of sites for this. It's not just traffic from the Social Bookmarking sites you are looking at. It's search engine traffic as well.

No, it's NOT overrated; I honestly believe that many people UNDERrate how valuable it is.

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edpudol1973

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards

Yes, absolutely, Social Bookmarking is valuable. It's not only getting your site indexed, but getting it to rank well in the search engines. Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites are one of the best types of sites for this. It's not just traffic from the Social Bookmarking sites you are looking at. It's search engine traffic as well.

No, it's NOT overrated; I honestly believe that many people UNDERrate how valuable it is.

Well said Angela. I am a big fans of socialbookmarking, if you know what your doing with these sites surely you make tons of targeted traffic. There are many SB sites that are already authority sites all you have to do is take advantage on them... You can easly get rank from this SB sites if you know how to manipulate them for your own benifits

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rondo

16 years ago

"There is no way I way I would do it manually"

I usually do it manually. It takes about 2 minutes. The links help boost your rankings in the search engines so it's time well spent.

Andrew

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Anna Johnson

16 years ago

You can also hire people to do it for you fairly cheaply. You post the articles, blog posts, etc and, based on having accounts at the various social bookmarking sites, they will bookmark the articles, posts, etc for you.

Having said that, I'd argue that the most popular blogs, etc on the web are so popular due to lots of people naturally and willingly bookmarking their articles. So if you had to choose between focusing your time and energy on creating killer content... and bookmarking it... I'd go with creating it.

But as Andrew said, bookmarking doesn't take long, and, in any case, you can have both: you can create it... and you can hire other people to bookmark it.

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natedamm

16 years ago

I have outsourced some social bookmarking before and seen pretty good results. But lately I have just been bookmarking at 8-10 sites it doesn't take too lomg.

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TheRichJerksNet

16 years ago

It is not so much over-rated but many times not used proper. You can try Social bookmarking service. Fast tagging and posting to all major social websites - SocialMarker.com or Bookmark & Share - The Power of the Button | OnlyWire - But I warn you that currently there is no software known that can do true social bookmarking.

Now sure these software / online services may give you a good temp fix and ofcourse many bookmarking sites are a waste of your time. You should be focused on the top ones but there is also a certain method to get true social bookmarking.

I am in the process of working on a method so I can not give full results yet but it is my opinion until someone produces a real online submission, you should use the top 30 ones and submit to them manually.

James

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Suthan M

16 years ago

of course, social bookmarking is still worth it. The idea is to do it right, use the correct methods, tag, pings and so on, and have a funnel to ply the incoming visitors as your subs.

Besides that, it is also helpful for SERP.

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MRomeo09 16 years ago

SENuke makes it pretty easy, it's really about as easy as press a button and it's done.

Bookmarking Demon is pretty decent as well.

Good Luck,

M
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ltdraper

16 years ago

If you don't mind having your site getting caught in the next big Google Slapdown, then go right ahead and do mass social bookmarking.

Last year at about this time Google warned people about the dangers of link spamming to social networks. If your link doesn't have adequate internal support on the social network that's linking to you, they'll detect that as a user that's linking to themselves. And they've promised to crack down on that. They'll regard you in the same boat as the people buying links -- if they catch you, you're done.

The mass social bookmarking strategy worked really well about a year ago. Now, no so much. And it runs the risk of huge negative consequences.

The best stragegy is a to pick a few of the big ones (Digg, SU, Propeller, Reddit) and build users with social proof -- lots of links coming into your user profile and lots of user profiles linking to your submission. For instance, there's a huge difference in the SEO value of a link from Digg with 5 votes and with 50 votes.

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Angela V. Edwards 16 years ago

Originally Posted by ltdraper

For instance, there's a huge difference in the SEO value of a link from Digg with 5 votes and with 50 votes.

How do you know this? What makes these links more valuable to the algorithm? How does "voting" by users influence a link in Google's algorithm?
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- ltdraper 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards
  
  How do you know this?
  
  Because I've been involved in case studies that show it to be true. You can run your own experiment. Find a current story on Digg with 50+ votes and then try to rank for the same keywords with just a few votes.
  
  What makes these links more valuable to the algorithm? How does "voting" by users influence a link in Google's algorithm?
  
  Every time a user votes it shows up in their profile as things they've dugg. It's an internal link. More users voting means more internal links supporting the page that has the link to your article. Shouting a story also drops links in users profiles, but shouting tends to hurt your ability to go to the front page so don't take that route unless you're sure you don't need front page.
  
  Likewise, more votes puts you onto pages such as "upcoming", which are more powerful pages to get a link from than buried in the bottom of the "submitted" pages. A front page is a very nice PR 8 link, although somewhare short lived.
  
  The number of friends/fans you have also influences the power of your profile page, because each of them are linking to you in their profile (and vice-versa). When you've got a spam account without social proof it doesn't have much internal link support. We did a study on the pagerank of Digg profiles and showed a pretty strong correlation between the numbers of friends/fans and the toolbar pagerank of those profiles. And of course the strength of your friends profiles (the people voting on your stories) has a lot to do with the strength of the link you'll get from Digg. That's why a big part of the strategy is to try to get the Top Diggers to friend you and vote your stories.
  
  The 50 vote level just seems to be the magic number that we've found for ranking well. It might be something like 32, but 50 seems to always be enough to rank. And yes, the rankings are short lived, but if you're following this strategy you can always have an article at the top of the SERPs.
  
  So far I've only talked about Digg because that's what we have the most data on, but the concepts are the same on any social network. Digg is just one of the few that still provides those wonderful do-follow links.
  
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  Nothing to see here, move along...
  
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cliffmaster

16 years ago

Itdraper might have a point. I also heard google is going to crackdown on this. Will have tow watch this one play out.

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Angela V. Edwards

16 years ago

People say that "Google is cracking down" on a lot of things: blog comments, forum signatures, social bookmarking, and on and on and on. THOUSANDS of people sign up on sites but don't use them as much as they'd planned to; that's very common. If Google "cracks down" on every site that has only one or two links on it, then they are going to be completely annihilating "natural linkbuilding".

Millions of sites mention another site only once. Maybe something happened in the news that the other site mentioned or maybe there was some sort of "linkbait" going on. If Google "cracks down" on every site that has only one or two links on another site, their entire index will crumble. Trust me, Google isn't going to every social bookmarking site and actually reading what you've added there. It's an algorithm that makes that determination.

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TheRichJerksNet

16 years ago

I have been saying this for 10 years and probably will say it for another 20 more years. "Goggle is not the only source of traffic"

Now while I will agree posting to 100 bookmark sites may get you a little boost, it is not going to build that traffic as some claim. If you focus your time on the top 30 bookmark sites, build your profile, upload your pic, invite a few members to be friends, and etc .. Basically PARTICIPATE in the social bookmark site, this is what it is meant to be for.

By doing this you will by far see a great deal more results. Google so-called submit software is crap and full of dead bookmark sites that was just tossed on a domain name.

As for Google's algorithm - Nobody and I do mean nobody can possibly fully understand it. This even includes the developers, they do not even have a full understanding of the system. It is also tweaked and changed on a constant basis.

James

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Benchlegs

16 years ago

I agree with Mark.
When I submit RSS feeds I get indexed quickly and sometimes highly.
When I've bookmarked, I have seen no change in ranking and I bookmarked to about 10 of the best social bookmarking sites.

Originally Posted by Mark-Dickenson

You always hear people to social bookmark your blog posts or your articles...but is it really worth it?

I am talking about using some kind of automatic bookmarking service/software. There is no way I way I would do it manually

I just don't think Social Bookmarking traffic converts. People say to bookmark to get your site indexed but I can get mine indexed quickly by submitting my RSS feeds

I can see value in bookmarking to digg and propeller maybe...but to submit them to all of the other sites?..even with software?? I am not sure

I know I will get some back links...but is it worth getting a piece of software and spending the time adding tags and writing descriptions to your bookmarks? I found it to be just one more thing to do which didn't pay dividends

Any opinions on this?

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Christopher R Everson

16 years ago

Big time.

If you use it correctly, and for what its intended (and very rarely is solid monetary value involved in this), it's fabulous.

There are people making a fortune with it, but you have to find a way to profit from it, while using it in the correct manner.

At least speaking from my own mixed results with it!

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DavidTheMavin

16 years ago

Your accounts will get banned and you'll probably end up getting hit by Google if you use software. I wouldn't do it.

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Peter Adamson

15 years ago

Originally Posted by DavidTheMavin

Your accounts will get banned and you'll probably end up getting hit by Google if you use software. I wouldn't do it.

Why? You are making unwarranted assumptions about what the software does. The only way you can get banned is by leaving a footprint, or evidence of spam tactics. If your software behaves like people, posts links to many accounts created by people, mixes your links with those of other users, observes natural link velocity and just generally cannot be detected as being anything other than the people using it, then the backlinks you generate this way will have a positive effect on your rankings.

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TheRichJerksNet

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Peter Adamson

Why? You are making unwarranted assumptions about what the software does. The only way you can get banned is by leaving a footprint, or evidence of spam tactics. If your software behaves like people, posts links to many accounts created by people, mixes your links with those of other users, observes natural link velocity and just generally cannot be detected as being anything other than the people using it, then the backlinks you generate this way will have a positive effect on your rankings.

Software is just another tool, pretty much it does what you tell it.. Some are mis-informed and then just pass that mis-informed information along thinking it is fact. Course some software is crap while other software is just built properly.. As for getting banned, yes you can get banned with or without software, this has to do with the user not the software.

Doing bookmarking the proper way with or without software can have a massive positive effect on your rankings and traffic. Not only traffic from search engines but direct traffic from the social bookmarking sites..

James

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SurviveUnemployment

16 years ago

Seconded and thirded on the "Don't do it," comments. If you put quality content up there, people will bookmark it, and that's worth a lot.

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TheRichJerksNet

16 years ago

Originally Posted by SurviveUnemployment

Seconded and thirded on the "Don't do it," comments. If you put quality content up there, people will bookmark it, and that's worth a lot.

So what you really trying to say is ....

James

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Wakunahum

16 years ago

If google bans your site for bookmarking, why wouldn't your competitors just bookmark you out of the search engines?

If anything they may not value the links anymore, but they aren't going to make it so it actually hurts you or delists you. Then those with the bookmarking software win.

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TheRichJerksNet

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Wakunahum

If google bans your site for bookmarking, why wouldn't your competitors just bookmark you out of the search engines?

If anything they may not value the links anymore, but they aren't going to make it so it actually hurts you or delists you. Then those with the bookmarking software win.

Actually those with bookmarking software lose, especially if you are using that software that submits to 100 dead websites that have no traffic.. You think you saved time when you actually wasted your time and money.

There is a proper way to do bookmarking, software is not the answer and as I already posted currently there is no real solution to do true bookmarking .. Yet!!

You are better to spend your time on the sites yourself.. Nothing wrong with bookmarking sites yourself just be smart about it..

James

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Wakunahum

16 years ago

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Actually those with bookmarking software lose, especially if you are using that software that submits to 100 dead websites that have no traffic.. You think you saved time when you actually wasted your time and money.

There is a proper way to do bookmarking, software is not the answer and as I already posted currently there is no real solution to do true bookmarking .. Yet!!

You are better to spend your time on the sites yourself.. Nothing wrong with bookmarking sites yourself just be smart about it..

James

I think you missed my point.

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TheRichJerksNet 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Wakunahum

I think you missed my point.

Nope .. if you use crap software and submit your competitors to 100 dead websites then how does that hurt your competitors...

James
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- Wakunahum 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet
  
  Nope .. if you use crap software and submit your competitors to 100 dead websites then how does that hurt your competitors...
  
  James
  
  It doesn't and it never will. That's my point. It will never hurt them, it will never hurt you.
  
  So it's either beneficial or it's pointless.
  
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TheRichJerksNet

16 years ago

That's what I just said only in simplier terms ..

If you focus your time on the top 30 bookmark sites, build your profile, upload your pic, invite a few members to be friends, and etc .. Basically PARTICIPATE in the social bookmark site, this is what it is meant to be for.

It pays to become a member of the community, not just a software submitting freak because you do not want to spend 10 minutes a day at a social bookmarking site...

James

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cctravis

15 years ago

I am going to try some new social bookmarking strategies strictly for SEO not traffic purposes and see how they work. Should be interesting to see how the results affect a page that ranks ok but not well.