Social Bookmarking and More Top SEO Tips for 2007 - 11. THE SECRET WEAPON: Social Bookmarking
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Wikipedia defines it this way:
In a social bookmarking system, users store lists of Internet resources that they find useful. These lists are either accessible to the public or a specific network, and other people with similar interests can view the links by category, tags, or even randomly. Most social bookmarking services allow users to search for bookmarks which are associated with given "tags", and rank the resources by the number of users which have bookmarked them. Many social bookmarking services also have implemented algorithms to draw inferences from the tag keywords that are assigned to resources by examining the clustering of particular keywords, and the relation of keywords to one another.
GaryTheScubaGuy defines it this way:
One of the best free ways to get increased ranking, back links and traffic, for very little time commitment other than setup.
This very moment most search engine algorithms are placing a ton of weight on end-user "bookmarking," "tagging" or one of various types of end-user generated highlighting.
Before doing any of this run a rank report to track your progress. I have tested this on terms showing on page one, on terms ranked 11th through 12th and others buried around pages 5-10. It works on them all in different time frames, and they last for different periods of time. This you will need to test yourself.
Be careful because you don't want to be identified as a spammer. Be sure to use genuine content that provides a benefit to the user.
Here is how I recommend doing this.
1. Download this: Roboform. (It says it will limit you but I've had as many as 30+ passwords created and stored in the trial version) This will allow you to quickly fill out signup forms and store passwords for the 10 bookmark sites that I am going to be sending you to.
2. Within Roboform go to the custom area and put a username and password in, as well as your other information that sites usually ask for to register. This way when you are using these different bookmarks it's a 1-click login in and becomes a relatively quick and painless procedure.
3. Establish accounts with these social bookmark sites:
a. Digg
b. Technorati
c. Del.icio.us
d. NowPublic
e. StumbleUpon
f. BlinkList
g. Spurl
h. Furl
i. Slashdot
j. Simpy
k. Google Toolbar (w/Google Bookmarking)
4. Internet Explorer, Firefox and most other browsers have an "add a tab" option, but I use Firefox because I can bookmark the login pages in one file, then "open all tabs" in one click. From here I click on each tab and in most cases, if you set it up right, Roboform will have already logged you in. Otherwise you're on the login page and by clicking on the Roboform button everything is prefilled, all you need to do is click submit. (Some of the bookmark sites will allow you to add their button into your browser bar, or you can get an extension from Firefox like the Digg Add-on to make things quicker).
5. Lastly, install the Google Toolbar. It has a bookmark function as well, and you can import all your bookmarks from Firefox directly into it. Google looks at many different things when assigning rank and trust. For instance, when you search for something and go into a web site, Google will remember how long you stayed, how deep you went, and if you came back out into the search to select another site, which means you didn't find what you were looking for. This is all part of the Privacy Issues that have been in the news.
Here's what Google actually says! "The Google Toolbar automatically sends only standard, limited information to Google, which may be retained in Google's server logs. It does not send any information about the web pages you visit (e.g., the URL), unless you use Toolbar's advanced features."
They practically spell it out for you. Use their bookmark feature just as you used the social bookmarking I outlined above. This is just one more click.
Some of the elements that Google looks at when grading a website are:
How much time did the average visitor spend on the site?
What is the bounce rate on the landing page?
How many end-users bookmarked the page?
How many users returned to the search query and then on to a different site?
Each time you publish an article put a Google Alert on a unique phrase. Each time Google sends you an alert, bookmark it on every bookmark site. This will take some getting used to, but will eventually become second nature. Remember what I said in the beginning: "One of the best free ways to get links and traffic, for very little time commitment other than setup."
When you start seeing traffic coming in and your SERPs getting better you will use the heck out of this. I'm waiting for someone to come out with software that will automate this process completely, but by the time that hits nofollows may come into play. But for the time being it works and it works well.
(Update: Found one) Bookmark Demon and Blog Comment Demon. It automates the process.
Since I am sure someone is going to refute this claim based on the fact that if the site has a no-follow on it, the results will be nonexistent, I'll just add that yes, it does still get indexed, and it does still help.
One more thing regarding posting to blogs and forums. When I create an account I sign up and use a very unique member name (eg. GaryTheScubaGuy). This is because many blogs and forums have a no-follow, which means the link in your signature or on your member name won't show up. So I also sign, or add my member name to the bottom of my post, then add a Google Alert on my signature so that when Google finds the post, it will alert me, and I will then start bookmarking the forum page.
Next: 12. Create a Small Google Adwords Account: Five Great Reasons Why >>
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