Posting links on social Sites built to share Content is a pretty well-used & well-known method of boosting traffic. If the links are “Do-Follow”, this strategy will also fuel your “SEO juice”.
This type of link building is known as “social bookmarking”. Just like regular Internet bookmarking it provides a reference to a particular resource, albeit for a community of users to investigate & share. Obviously, if the Content you share, links to your own Website or blog, & if you do it right, this method of gaining views can really pay off. But just how to do social bookmarking?
The critical factors governing a good social bookmarking campaign over a dismal one rests on the Websites you choose to share your Content, how well you build your reputation on these Sites, & ultimately, how various search engines rate your link building efforts.
Another salient factor is that you must use the Site for its Content & information, as well as for your own gain. Users who engage with social bookmarking sites to drive traffic & backlinks are easy to spot, & they’re usually banned fairly quickly.
Here are some social bookmarking Sites:
Not all links on Reddit are “Do-follow”, which means that the link is “seen” by search engines & listed in their results. To leverage Reddit to deliver traffic & backlinks is difficult, unless you’re prepared to invest your time & effort in gaining a good reputation on the Site.
To use Reddit effectively you must create an account & interact with the Site on a regular basis, engage with Content posted by others in a constructive manner, & share Content other than your own, which community members find interesting & topical.
Reddit is made up of thousands of sub-Reddits, based on hundreds of topical categories, & it’s up to you to find the one that best fits your Content.
Reddit’s golden rules:
- Don’t spam
- Read the rules
- Engage with respect
- Build your reputation
Actually, Reddit is so interesting that you’ll soon find that these rules are not too much of a burden, & if your post makes it to the front page, you’ll be richly rewarded with solid backlinks to your content & virulent traffic.
Quora
Quora is not really regarded as a social bookmarking Site, but if you can post links to your Content which fits in with people’s questions on the Site, not only will you get excellent engagement, but your links will be recognized by search engines, possibly even as “authority links”, which are the most valuable kind. However, as with Reddit, you will need to build your reputation & gain followers to be taken seriously.
Pinterest is big news for those interested in driving a social bookmarking campaign. Not only can you engage within niche topics using image links to your Content, but you can create a business account & drive “paid” traffic to your website. When driving social bookmarking campaigns, an enormous amount of effort is usually involved. If you were to advertise on Pinterest, your “Pins” are shared in the normal manner, but “shown” to a vast number of users, this builds both reputation & gains followers, so it’s worth a thought.
Here’s a warning: DO NOT PAY FOR YOUR LINKS.
All over the Internet you’ll see adverts promising to build a strong backlink profile for you for a few dollars. If you use these methods your links will probably end up on Sites specifically built for this purpose, which have no reputation with search engines & could mean that your results are dropped entirely. The same warning goes for buying software to post automated links, remember search engines’ algorithms are more “intelligent” than you give them credit for.
The key is to work at it, gain reputation & use it to build your campaign.
Image by Diggity Marketing from Pixabay
