What social bookmarking is...

There are a group of web sites on the internet that are allowing people to save links ie. create bookmarks to web pages that they want to remember and/or share with others. These links or bookmarks are saved on a social bookmarking site and are usually viewable to the public. Social bookmarking sites sort of resemble web site directories.  The actual "social bookmarks" are basically links on a social networking site that have been added into an appropriate category by including the URL, descriptions, titles and keywords that apply to the bookmarked web site.

These bookmarks or links on the social bookmarking sites can then also be tagged or voted on by others which then provides some indication of its value, popularity or give an indication of a developing trend at that social networking site. Voting and Tagging of bookmarks are done by independent account users at each social bookmarking site. Social bookmarking links will tend to accumulate more tags over time if the social bookmarking site receives a fair amount of traffic. The more tags and votes that a bookmarked site receives, the higher the ranking of that bookmark within that particular category of the social bookmark site.

What social bookmarking means to you...

Links! Permanent links! But there is more to it than just that. In the world of social bookmarking, in most cases web site social bookmarking links and listings are public listings. Therefore, other people will see and click on these links if the social bookmarking sites are receiving any volume of traffic.

Additionally, some of the better social bookmarking sites have high Google page ranking (tm) and some of these sites do not place any "nofollow" coding tags inside the bookmarking links that would then prohibit the search engine robots from following and indexing the social bookmarked web sites. This means that some of the social bookmarking site's Google page ranking (tm) can and will flow down to the socially bookmarked sites from the links. This Google page ranking (tm) that flows down to the social bookmarked site can then in turn, at least theoretically help to increase search engine rankings on Google for those sites that have been socially bookmarked. 

Who uses social bookmarking...

Anybody that has a web site whose content is found to be acceptable to the standards set forth by the social bookmarking site can add their web site as a social bookmark. The practice of social bookmarking is not an exclusive club. The new web site listings on the social bookmarking sites usually appear as thumbnail shots and are listed on the social bookmark site under the specific category in which the web site applies.

Examples of social bookmarking sites include: Delicious, Digg, Dropjack, Backflip, Google, Propeller and many others.

Website links are important. They are your business's internet currency. Links determine your relative internet property value by influencing your web site traffic, your search engine rankings and positions for your important keywords, and ultimately links will influence your online sales and profits. Every internet marketing strategy must include a robust process of website link building. Social bookmarking is one of those methods that should be combined with other web linking strategies to achieve online success. Since social bookmark links do not scroll off of a social bookmark site or lose value over time, (if anything they gain value over time) it is in your best interest to have your web site url AND all of it's important interior page urls to ALSO be socially bookmarked in all the important social bookmark sites on the internet.