Using Directories to Hide Social Bookmarking SEO

Many search engine optimization professionals consider directory submissions dead.  They say that the links have been completely devalued, de-indexed, and otherwise worthless.

This may or may not be true.  I tend to believe that they still offer SEO value to some extent, but that's not why you should use them.

They serve as great camoflage.  Period.

Since you are on this blog, you are interested in using social bookmarking for search engine optimization.  We will assume that you see the value and you are ready for more learning.  Here's the nut, plain and simple.  Submit to directories.  Whether you believe they have SEO value or not, directories add a good handful of links very quickly that competitors will have to sift through when trying to analyze your SEO plan.

We suggest using Directory Maximizer.  It's cheap - 14 cents per submission.  It's manually done.  Most importantly, you are in control of the timing and nature of the submissions.  Pick up to 5 anchors at a time, plus 5 descriptions and 5 sets of keywords.

$28 buys you 200 backlinks.  You can spread them out over time or get them in one big push.  It's up to you.

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Read more articles about using social bookmarking for SEO on this blog.

Using Social Media for SEO: Time to Hedge Your Bets

Mark this one up under the category of "believe it or not".

You see, this dinky little SEO blog that is a blip on nobody's radar has received some "insider information" that belongs on a higher quality blog.  The problem is, I don't know how many people I want to know about.

Loyal readers (all 2 of you) and random finders of this blog, I am about to tell you something that is a semi-exclusive.  It is semi- because I have seen it alluded to in previous months, but nothing definitive has been said about it until today.

Social media sites such as Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and Mixx have been excellent sources of link-juice for SEOs.  The backlinks can be very powerful and the indexing abilities that they offer are unmatched.  That is, until very soon.

An unnamed source for this insignificant blog gave information that reliably says what some have been saying for a while.  The spam-ability of social media sites is coming to an end soon, at least from Google's perspective.  They are working on ways to prevent the power of social media from being so influential in their search algorithm WITHOUT hurting what these sites offer in the way of relevant rankings.

In other words, Digging a story and getting just a couple of Diggs will no longer be as effective.  To work, a story has to get a certain number of Diggs before it is counted, possibly before it is even indexed.

Reddit already does this to some extent by placing nofollow attributes on any submission with 1 or fewer points, but it appears that Google itself is working on a way to determine through custom means when a Digg submission is strong or not.  Same holds true for other social media sites.

Here is a test: simple keyword, brand new website, nothing done to it yet.  In the past, this automotive microsite would have been easy to optimize for the keyword "Raynham New Buick" but we contend that simply submitting it to Digg and a few others will not be enough to get it ranked quickly.

How they are going to do this -- I have no idea.  Seems impossible, but then again, I am not the world's brightest.  Google, on the other hand, has the world's brightest, and I'm sure they have it all figured out.

What does this mean to search engine optimization?  It means that the good old days of submitting and going or using automated software are over.  To get the benefit from social media sites, SEOs will actually have to (gulp) participate and build up (gulp) friends.

Again, believe it if you want.  Don't if you don't.  I just want this information out to the select few who read this blog.  The others -- no worries.  You'll find all of this out soon enough anyway.

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Read more about social media optimization on this blog.

Social Media Marketing from SES San Jose: Report

With Search Engine Strategies San Jose over and the posts starting to roll in about it, there was one in particular that seemed to stand out above the rest. One of the articles that I read from the blog rang true for the same reasons that this blog exists: social media marketing is absolutely effective.

What is it? Why do businesses need it? Those are great questions, and "What is Social Media Marketing" delves deep into the idea.

"The flexibility of social media is perhaps what draws companies of all sizes. For car dealers, social media has the ability to address a local demographic, but social media is truly without borders, allowing marketers to communicate with a global audience if required."

It is in the flexibility and the tremendous results that social media marketing has its strongest advantages over traditional marketing and even over other forms of Internet marketing. Businesses of any size have the opportunity to reach areas that they normally couldn't before.

For businesses that only serve a local area, city, or state, social media marketing offers a way to pool the combined marketing powers of the global Internet to focus a spotlight on local businesses. By being positioned strongly on one or multiple local areas through a focus from the whole world, it is possible to build up branding, credibility, and stature that is normally only reserved for large companies.

We will be exploring and posting more on this blog regarding social media marketing and will report back with tips, tactics, and tales of success and failure.

Image via Widgetaday.com

Back for More SEO with Social Bookmarking

For a while last year, this was my primary blog. Once I started getting into Wordpress and publishing on my own domains, this one just sort of fell off.

I'm here to say that, "I'm back!" It's not as dramatic as when Michael Jordan said those words on his way to three more National Championships, but this announcement probably falls just below. Maybe not.

Either way, please feel free to come back here again soon. As the weeks go by, I should be able to dedicate at least one or two blog posts a week to this, so keep the feeds rolling!

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Read more about Social Bookmarking for SEO on this blog.