Social bookmarking is a significant part of any social media strategy. Its methodology requires submitting an article with strikingly fresh content in a short span of time, a wide network of friends and associates, and immediate follow-up. Investing the time to submit articles to social bookmarking websites can give you a sharp spike in website traffic and some backlinks in the process.



Social bookmarking is one part of a social media strategy that can build your website traffic and optimise your website for search engines by providing a rich resource for backlinks. Submitting articles to social bookmarking websites as well as article submission websites provides your website with backlinks. A strategic goal of article submissions to article directories and social bookmarking websites is to not only gain a backlink from the website you submitted the article to, but to also gain backlinks from other websites that refer back to your original article. Reprints of your articles that lead back to your original post are not the duplicate content that search engines discourage. If you submit duplicate articles with a link to your website on multiple websites simultaneously in a short period of time without a logical linking chain, then the search engines may penalize the articles as duplicate content.

To submit articles to social bookmarking websites and article submission websites to gain backlinks, you must be the original source of the article, and your articles should have content that is within the scope of your website. The search engines will attempt to map out the original source of reprinted articles and give credit to the originating source. The article reprints will not be penalized, but the originating source of the article will carry the heaviest weight when the search engines evaluate websites for the search engine result pages.

Backlinks, however, are not the only reward of submitting articles to social bookmarking websites and article directories. Direct traffic from interested visitors that become lifetime customers is the ultimate reward. Investing time in social bookmarking can widen your audience, provide you with backlinks, and give you the opportunity to gain a strong readership following.

Networking is a crucial element to successful social bookmarking strategies. Before you begin networking, build up a credible profile for yourself. Your social bookmarking profile can be your actual self or a persona for your website. You or your persona can then bookmark articles on your website, create tags, and join groups.

You can begin networking with friends and business relationships you may have already forged. Once you have a profile and a network of contacts, you can begin building new social bookmarking relationships that offer the opportunity for reciprocal voting. Your networked relationship can also promote the article you bookmarked by contributing comments. Social bookmarking websites are fast-paced, and articles that aren"t followed up or don't garner votes or comments will quickly become obsolete. Articles that don't have intriguing headlines won't be read.

Follow-up is necessary for successful social bookmarking. Asking your network for votes and comments in response to your bookmarked article, and taking the time to expand on reader comments, can give a push to your article's popularity and increase your chances of gathering backlinks and website traffic. Readers are more inclined to click on an article that has already been proven to show interest.

Social bookmarking requires an almost instantaneous follow-up that submission to article submission directories don't - however the time invested in that follow-up can provide an almost instantaneous increase in web traffic and backlinks. Social bookmarking strategies for website optimisation require a persona, networking, captivating content, and follow-up. With those four requirements in place, your social bookmarking strategies can captivate readers to visit your website, then you can follow-up on building your customer relationships.