Advantages to Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking has several advantages over automated search engine “spiders”. The tag based system is done by people who understand the content unlike algorithmic software attempting to parse the meaning. It also allows users to find web pages not yet noticed by web spiders allowing for faster indexing by search engines. Moreover, a page can be ranked by the number of users who have bookmarked it, creating a more useful metric of relevance than the number of external links directed to it.
Social bookmarking is useful for users as a means to access an aggregated set of bookmarks from any computer, organize them and share them with others. Libraries are finding social bookmarking useful as a simple way to supply lists of relevant and informative links to their patrons.
Drive Traffic to Your Site With Bookmarking
Social bookmarking can not only introduce your site to others, it can drive traffic and provide valuable links. Search engines value user generated tags much like backlinks. Content defined by users not associated with site marketing gauge the relevance and importance of the content and tags used on the site.
Users bookmarking sites provide an unbiased and honest description of the content. The more users who bookmark it, the more quality and authority is reflected. Similarly, the more users who vote for a page on Reddit or Digg, the more useful the content usually is and the more valued by search engines.
One of the best reasons to employ social bookmarking for your site is search engine indexing. Bookmarking can introduce a site before a search engine bot finds it through another type of inbound link. Pages deep in sites that are not easily found or linked to will benefit from bookmarking. Categorization helps define the subject, helping the search engine answer a user’s intent.