The Social Network Marketer

Social Bookmarking:  What is it?

Social bookmarking is a marketing method of bookmarking, or saving interesting websites, articles, videos, anything that you want to take note of.  And, you save them to a public Internet bookmarking site.

By saving your bookmarks to a public Internet bookmarking site, and tagging them with keywords, and maybe a description, you are organizing them so that not only you can find them, but that others can find them.

How does Social Bookmarking help you?

When you organize your bookmarks in such a way that others can find them (tagging with keywords and descriptions), you are providing links that they can click on and that brings traffic to those sites.  Because some of your bookmarks will be your own personal content....you've got traffic!

Make sure you do not set your bookmarks to private at any of your bookmarking sites you use, unless they are truly private. Some sites are public by default and others will require that you check off a box in order to set the bookmark to "public".

What does Social Bookmarking have to do with Search Engine Optimization?

Your bookmarks are essentially "votes" for the bookmarked content.  The bookmarked links point to the content and let the search engines know that the content exists, and is noted by others...like a vote for its popularity.

The more bookmarks that your content receives, the more popular it is deemed by the search engines.  That doesn't mean that you can just go around and bookmark your own content everywhere you go.  You'll have to use good bookmarking practices in order to not be perceived by the search engines as a spammer.  

Bookmarking content in an unnatural way can actually hurt your search engine rankings.  You'll want to learn how to bookmark content in a natural manner and not in any pattern.  For more information on how to use good bookmarking practices, take advantage of a short bookmarking coaching session on how to bookmark correctly for your Internet Marketing goals.

It's also important to understand a little bit about Do Follow and No Follow.  When bookmarking sites are listed as being "Do Follow", it means that your bookmarked links can be followed, or traced back to their original home.  This gives your links more visibility; more weight, and is considered to be a backlink to your content. 

Try to choose Do Follow bookmarking sites in most cases.  Even though Delicious is not considered Do Follow, it is hugely popular and that counts for something.  In order to discover what sites use Do Follow links, consider downloading an SEO addon for FireFox called SearchStatus that lets you see which links are No Follow (then you know which links are Do Follow).

How to use Social Bookmarking sites?

Most bookmarking sites include a bookmarking toolbar that you can download to make bookmarking to their site a simple procedure.  In this video, I demonstrate how easy it is to add a bookmark to a very popular bookmarking site: Delicious.  It also happens to be my favorite, for ease of use.

This search engine optimization tutorial highlights how simple it is to bookmark content to increase your search engine rankings and bring traffic to your links.  Remember, social bookmarking makes your links more visible and accessible to others, therefore creating "votes" for popularity and bringing attention and traffic.

As an Internet Network Marketing coach with Coaching Cognition, Becky presents Internet Marketing techniques in a non-technical manner to the technically-challenged. Having proper support is the key to learning a new skill.  With an Internet Marketing guide to support you, your Internet Marketing success is a sure thing.