How relevant is social bookmarking for SEO today?

[garrettkite]

I've been doing SEO for a little over 4 years. I've never used sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc. either personally or on behalf of my clients. This past week I had a discussion with another SEO who asked what I'm doing for my clients with regard to social bookmarking. I responded that I'm really not doing anything and they were shocked. I took a pretty good verbal beating over it. She was borderline offended.

I have always been able to deliver solid results for my clients without any type of social bookmarking, so I struggle to see the need, but am surprised at how shocked this other SEO was that I don't do it. How beneficial is it and am I really missing out?

[MoosaHemani]

Garrett trust me you are doing it right and especially for the client end I don’t really see any need of it. The most they can deliver you is some extra amount of traffic (with the bounce rate of 90% and plus) as far as the link equity from social bookmarking is concern, it’s more like directories.

The reason why they are shocked is because they have no idea how to ACTUALLY build quality links so they keep workin on shit that are not important at all in my opinion.

[SamuelScott]

Garrett, thanks for the question. I hate to give a complicated answer, but the answer is, "It depends." Specifically, it depends what you and the other SEO mean when you talk about "SEO." The phrase means different things to different people. Let me explain.

If you are referring specifically to helping a website rank more highly in organic search results, then the number of Digg submission, StumbleUpon shares, Reddit links, Diigo saves, and more will not help a website directly. These are not direct ranking factors (one reason, among many, is that it would be too easy for anyone to spam Google's algorithm via these methods).

However, these methods are useful in general online marketing (which some say is to what "SEO" refers) in ways that can help to increase a site's organic prominence indirectly. Here's an example. Say that you use social-bookmarking sites to "spread the word" about a site and its content. People find out about the site and its content via the social-bookmarking sites and then decide to write about the site, share it on their own social networks, and link to it. Then, the mentions and links that result indirectly can eventually help the site in organic search via the natural, earned backlinks.

Here's the key. Social media and bookmarking sites are public relations and communications channels that can be used to reach a targeted audience (for any purpose). One use is to spread the word in the ways that I described above to increase awareness of a site and its content. The more you do this, the more that referral traffic and the resulting mentions and links will follow -- and the more that organic rankings will likely increase as an indirect result. (Of course, do not spam.)

So, I guess my answer is that social bookmarking will not help organic rankings directly. But it can and should be used in a strategic way in terms of what is called off-page SEO, public relations, or content marketing (depending on who you ask) to help long-term organic rankings, sales, conversions, and more over the long term indirectly.

I hope this answer is clear and makes sense!

[DanielleGreason]

Great response Samuel, thanks for sharing your thoughts.