As I put down my pen to write this article, I was considering many divisions that we have among Bloggers and website owners.
It is the issue of the appropriate method that one should use to rank on a search engine.
I was thinking about whether social bookmarking is Google friendly or not. In this article, I will rely on what Google’s John Mueller has said about social bookmarking on search engines.
He stated categorically that it does not count when it comes to search engine ranking. That means if you are engaging in it to rank on Google search results, you may have to put a stop to it.
What is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking has to do with the process of bookmarking a web page on social media to read later. It’s just like saving important pages on your browser. While doing this, the pages are not stored on your browser but in some webpages available online.
When you add your webpage to social media sites, it will tell search engine algorithms that the site is valuable. Some believe that this will increase the authority of your website.
Dedicated SEO experts see it as a variation of social spamming. Some believe that social media sites contain “authority” and that by creating links on social media sites, a new location could obtain some of its “authority” from those sites and begin to rank.
Recently, Facebook has been very aggressive in banning websites on social media. Some of these Bloggers felt that they could increase their MOZ Domain Authority and Page Authority, among others, by spamming social media platforms. These are not yielding the desired results.
In this article, I want to talk about some of the facts that you need to know about social bookmarking and some of the reasons you should not engage in it.
First and foremost, according to John Mueller, social bookmarking links cannot increase the authority ranking of a web page.
When you get links from social media pages and do not own a social media page, the authority will not be transferred to your web page.
If you have a technology-related blog and are trying to get backlinks from a health-related blog, the authority will not be transferred.
What I am saying, in essence, is that it is a wrong notion that web owners and Bloggers have when they continue to engage in this unwholesome practice. It will only harm their domain.
When you plan to rank on search engines, most notably Google, which controls about 85% of global searches, you have to play by the rules.
Google assumes it is bad; then we should all agree it is terrible to engage in a website’s social bookmarking.
To me, I will say that social bookmarking is not relevant to SEO. If Google believes that it will never be considered for ranking. Then you should know that such practices are Black Hat.
Never mind, in the later part of this article, we will look at some of the good practices that you need to consider for link building.
Does Social Bookmarking affect Google Ranking?
Google considers over two hundred signals or factors when they are ranking articles or a web page.
Of all the considered factors when positioning articles on search engines, the most important factor is the number of quality backlinks that a website has.
Your focus should be on how to get quality backlinks by writing authoritative articles.
It would be best if you wrote articles that generate or attract backlinks instead of spamming social media.
If what Mueller said is anything to go by, getting unnecessary links from social media platforms will not improve your Google ranking.
It will only cause more harm when Google discovers that you are trying to outsmart their highly technical team. You might get burnt!
Should you do Social Bookmarking?
I will be beating about the bush If I advise you to engage in social bookmarking saying that it’s relevant for SEO. Therefore, if I ask you not to engage in it, I must show you a better way of ranking your website.
Here are some of the white hat SEO methods that you can practice to rank your website.
#1 Guest Posting
One of the very first effective strategies that you should consider is Guest Posting.
You can decide to write on an authoritative website that is in the same niche as yours.
This has two major benefits. It will show that you are an authority when it comes to that subject matter. If the blog has substantial traffic, the followers on that blog where you have posted an article will also become your follower.
#2 Distribute Infographics
If there is one trend that has been helping in Building traffics and generating backlinks, it’s the concept of Infographics.
These Infographics present information on one single page. It acts as a form of summary for all that you have discussed in your article.
The use of Infographics can boost traffic to your website and generate backlinks for your website. You can also share these infographics on sites like Quora or Medium to increase your site’s popularity.
#3 Get active on Social Media
This is what most people mistake as social bookmarking. When you are active on social media, you can start getting references and backlinks from social media people.
This will help to become a social influencer. It would help if you made sure that your social handles are included on your blog, and it is visible.
You also have to contribute to discussions relating to your topic and your niche on social media.
#4 Leverage on Broken Links
When it comes to broken links, they are links that link to nowhere. You might have posted an article, and you deleted it.
Such an article will generate 404 Page Not Found errors. It is expected that a website owner will do a redirect to avoid 404 errors.
You can assist other website owners in detecting 404 errors, and in return, you will ask them to link to your related post instead.
As you are helping them to solve their broken links problem, you are getting something in return.
#5 Grow Your Personal Brand
There are many bloggers and website owners that do not have the understanding that their blog is their personal business and personal brand.
There are some names in the Blogosphere today that we have to mention when it comes to some discussion in some niches.
This is because they have built a brand around their name. You can also build your brand by writing quality content that solves people’s problems. This will boost your reputation as a writer.
#6 Check Competitor’s Backlinks
When it comes to search engine ranking, you should always allow your competitors to do the hard work for you.
There are tools such as Semrush and Ahref that you can use to discover where your competitors are getting backlinks from.
Finding out these kinds of links will help you reach out to some of the websites where your competitors are getting backlinks.
You can always reach out to them through email and other platforms. Please note that some will accept and some will reject your request.
#7 Link Roundup
Some Bloggers do not know how to network with others. If you want other Bloggers to link bank to your website, you should also know how to reach out to others.
When you write an article, you should try and link out to at least one external source. Some of us are very good at doing internal linking, but we need to do external linking as well.
One of the importance of this kind of linking is that it tells your readers that you have done your research very well.
At times, when this happens, the webmasters at the other end will notice that you have linked to them, and they may decide to return the favor. This is a perfect way to build links for your website.
#8 Reclaim Social Mention
One important step that you should take when it comes to link building is to leverage social mention. In this case, you are always on the lookout for platforms where your name is mentioned.
You will now have to send a mail to them, asking them to link back to your website or your social media profile. This is a form of backlinks, and it will also drive traffic to your website.
#9 Interview
You can also make use of interviews and podcasts to build links back to your website. There are times that you can link up to Podcast owners and grant them interviews.
You can also discuss with product owners to get backlinks from them. You can volunteer to review a product in exchange for backlinks.
For example, you are an SEO expert, and someone has a podcast, and he decided to grant an interview where you are asked questions about what you know. You can also use this medium to tell other people about your website.
#10 Outreach
There are times that you have to reach out to get backlinks to your site. It would help if you carried out keyword research when you want to write your articles. You can reach out to some of these bloggers and suggest your website to them, asking them to link back to your website. Just make sure that your content is really high quality and gives value to the reader.
A perfect example is this:
Hi, I hope you’re the right person for this,
I hope my email finds you well. I am emailing from ABC Agency. We have recently put together an article that we consider to be an extensive “Guide To A Successful Ecommerce SEO Strategy“. We think it’s full of great info on the subject.
If you enjoy our article, too, would you consider linking to our article on your site “10 Free SEO Ebooks Worth Downloading”.
If you have any feedback or thoughts regarding our proposal, I’d love to hear back from you.
Another Example you can use:
Hey,
Matt here from (Your Website Name), the largest peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange in the world.
Just emailing you because I think our website would make an excellent addition to (Their Website Article) and wanted to see if you’d be interested in linking to it?
Benefits of LocalBitcoins vs other exchanges:
- The largest number of offers, currencies, and locations
- More options of payment, including Paypal, credit card, and bank transfers
I’ll let you be the judge though, review it below!
What do you think? Would you be interested in a little collaboration?
Let me know!
Wrapping up
You should always follow best practices when it comes to building backlinks for your site and avoid using techniques like Social Bookmarking because they’re not relevant in SEO anymore. The best should be to churn out good contents that other writers will want to link to naturally. This will ensure that search engines are not penalizing you. Good luck to you as you continue to build your brand online.