Social bookmarking encourages Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage a collection; of noteworthy web resources. It also represents a great opportunity for website owners and webmasters, to improve consumer awareness, promote their brand and generate additional website traffic. It has been widely suggested that, the more often a webpage is submitted and tagged, the better chance it has of returning favorably; in search results.
Back in 2003, Delicious (then called del.icio.us) pioneered a system of user generated tags, and was highly successful in coining the term "social bookmarking." In 2004, as Delicious began to gain popularity, Stumbleupon released a related system of recommendation. Today, there are a number of other credible bookmarking websites on the Internet (including Digg and Reddit); who offer a similar system for organizing news and events.
To create a personalized collection of social bookmarks, users must register with a bookmarking website. Once registered and verified, participants can store bookmarks, add tags and designate individual bookmarks; as either public or private. Because social bookmarking is widely available, many of the entries are performed by Internet users; who are unfamiliar with the importance of properly tagged content. As such, with no monitoring of how resources are organized and categorized, the result is often the inconsistent or improper use of keywords; and as such, unreliable and fragmented resources.
Although it would appear that Google continues to place some emphasis on social bookmarking links, there are a number of differing opinions; as to their true value. Some individuals have discovered that utilizing bookmarking as a complimentary SEO tool, can improve the visibility of their website. As such, social bookmarking websites have become susceptible to corruption and collusion. Nefarious webmasters have embarked on campaigns, to bookmark the same webpage multiple times, and/or tag each page of their website; with the most popular keywords. This creates a monumental responsibility, for developers to update and adjust their security systems, to overcome the abuses of spammers; and maintain the integrity of their content.
Kristoffer Howes is TWMG's CEO, Corporate SEO Team Leader and veteran Search Consultant. His new SEO Training manual, Need To Know SEO, offers more of the proven Do it Yourself SEO strategies, that have helped hundreds of Internet businesses and Marketing firms; succeed on the Web.
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