Social Bookmarking Quiz
Take this Social Bookmarking Quiz and determine how much you know about the collective voice!
- What Is Social Bookmarking?
- What Are The Major Social Networks?
- What Are Social Bookmarking Chicklets?
- What Are The Benefits Of Social Bookmarking?
- What Is Social Bookmark Tagging?
- How Is Social Bookmarking “User-Generated Content”?
- What Are Some Of The Popular Uses For Social Bookmarking?
- Is Social Bookmarking A Good Search Engine Optimization Technique?
- Are Social Bookmarks Currently A Factor In Search Engine Ranking?
ANSWERS
What Is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is a web 2.0 fad where users indicate that a specific web page, article, podcast, video, or other content is of particular value. The “bookmark” is seen as a vote for that item. The more users who bookmark an item, the more pronounced (popular) the item becomes within the social bookmarking network.
What Are The Major Social Networks?
Different social networks appeal to different demographics. For example, “Digg” is a relatively technical social network, so the focus of most resources found in Digg are technical in nature. “Delicious” contains a wider variety of materials, and is easier for the average user to manage. Here are a few of the most popular networks:
What Are Social Bookmarking Chicklets?
Social bookmarking “chicklets” are icons that webmasters place on their web pages, which identify the various social bookmarking networks. Typically when they are included on a web page, the visitor can click the icon and it will automatically bookmark that page within the social network that the chicklet represents.
What Are The Benefits Of Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is a grassroots process that allows users to establish the value of a specific web page, article, podcast, or video. By bookmarking an item, individuals are casting a vote to endorse that specific resource. The idea is that social bookmarking gives a resource credibility; the more users who bookmark a specific item, the more valuable the resource is considered to be. Social bookmarking is all about the collective voice. Most of the social bookmarking networks increase the profile of items that receive numerous bookmarks. It probably won’t be long before the major search engines begin to include social bookmarks as a part of their ranking algorithms.
What Is Social Bookmark Tagging?
Tagging is used as a way to categorize related bookmarks. The tags are keywords that relate to the resource. In most cases, users can search on specific tags to locate similar bookmarked items.
How Is Social Bookmarking “User-Generated Content”?
Social bookmarking is all about people power. “Users” enter their favorites, and the social bookmarking networks manage all of the user information, provide aggregate data by keeping score, and manage social bookmark tags. Essentially, without “users” the social bookmarking websites would not have any content.
What Are Some Of The Popular Uses For Social Bookmarking?
Scholars and researchers often use social bookmarking to share research material and information. News headlines often find their way into social bookmarking networks, and users determine the popularity of a story with their voting power.
Is Social Bookmarking A Good Search Engine Optimization Technique?
While social bookmarking may generate some marginal attention for you, the content quality must be decent in order for others to endorse the site. The power of the collective voice and multiple bookmarks is what will really draw attention to your website. Social bookmarking will certainly not hurt your search engine optimization efforts, but social bookmarking alone will not result in a top search engine ranking.
Are Social Bookmarks Currently A Factor In Search Engine Ranking?
At this time it does not appear that any of the major search engines use social bookmarking as part of their ranking algorithms. That said, the incoming links for social bookmarking sites certainly do not hurt a website’s search ranking. It is likely only a matter of time before the major search engines begin to use the collective voice as part of their ranking algorithms, as it is becoming too loud to ignore.
About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.
Written by: Sharon Housley
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Blogging Help, OS WebMaster, Social Media-Marketing, Web Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I find I get a good amount of traffic from social bookmarking sites. I think the more important piece as far as marketing is the backlink. Backlinks to your site are a huge factor in search engine ranking. I try to bookmark my new content to many bookmarking sites. It opens up the possibilities more people will see my links as well as it gives me links for SEO. I created a quick and easy system to effectively manage my daily bookmarking efforts. Now I find it much easier and quicker to bookmark up to 50 sites a day.
Jackie Lee
February 12th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Hi Jackie — Your system to quickly do social bookkmarking sounds interesting — you might be able to sell it as an ebook. Thanks for your comment. - Scott