Digging for Google and Avoiding the Hate
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The Digg community's hatred of SEO and SEOs is legendary; unfortunately, so is their power to generate traffic. Many postings even get noticed in Google, generating more traffic and potentially boosting a web site's SERPs. So how do you conduct a campaign without getting buried and ridiculed? The answer is that you don't look like you're conducting a campaign. Keep reading for some advice.
Full disclosure here: I'm not a member of Digg, but I've participated and lurked for years at a number of other online social sites, some of which operate in ways very similar to Digg. And I don't shy away from doing research.
Digg, as you probably know, is an online community whose members post links to various items they find that they think might be interesting to other members. Their home page as of this writing - on the US election day - included stories on the ten most athletic US presidents, 18 crazy ways to hang your hat, a 45 percent drop in GM sales, Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philadelphia, and so forth. The community decides which stories will get on the front page by voting them up or down. Enough up votes brings a story to the front page; enough down votes "buries" it.
As you'd expect, getting to Digg's front page gets the lucky story (and by extension, web site) a ton of traffic; it's known as the Digg effect. When a story gets enough "Diggs" voting it up - only 50 to 100, according to Chris Lang - it is seen as relevant by Google for its particular key words. This means that at least Digg's link to the story shows up in a Google search using that key word. If searchers follow the Digg link, your site ends up getting even more traffic.
As I said, however, the Digg community hates SEOs. I don't mean just a little; I mean vicious, butt-of-jokes-worse-than-lawyer-jokes level of hatred. Here's an actual example: "What's better than ten SEOs nailed to a tree? One SEO nailed to ten trees." Ouch! It's only cold comfort that this hatred was brought on by SEOs who clearly went about ranking the wrong way. It doesn't tell you how to do it right.
As near as I can tell, there's no need for all the Digg hatred, because it's not difficult to do it right. You just need to approach the community in the right frame of mind when you're ready to get your content out there. Taking information from, among other sources, a case study and an interview with Digg Director of Operations Scott Baker, what follows will hopefully serve as a guide for safe Digging for you.
Next: Start with Your Content >>
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