Koozai > Blog > Top Social Bookmarking Sites For Your Content Promotion Strategy

Top Social Bookmarking Sites For Your Content Promotion Strategy

| 7 minutes to read

8 Quality Bookmarking Sites to use in After-Penguin WorldIf you expect your content to go viral or at least get the traffic you want without doing anything apart from pressing the ‘Publish’ button, you’re wrong. There are many ways to help people find your content – social media is the preferred method, but bookmarking is still useful, if used correctly.

When it comes to content promotion, not only must you use a variety of channels, you need to have a strategy. As part of your strategy, as well as your promotional arsenal, social bookmarking sites should not be overlooked. For sure, you still need to engage on social media, as well as have a rigorous outreach strategy, but social bookmarking sites are still an effective way of putting your content in front of the people who are interested in your industry, products and services. Therefore, these should be implemented into your SEO and content promotion strategy.

Key Benefits Of Social Bookmarking and Content Curation Sites

Whilst times have changed and bookmarking is no longer considered a link building practice on a massive scale, there are still a lot of benefits this can generate for your website. These can include:

  • More traffic –  Many of the top social bookmarking sites can be a great referral source; for example StumbleUpon often appears as one of the top three referral sources
  • Qualified visitors – If you operate in a specific industry, the use of highly targeted/niche bookmarking sites can help you gain qualified visitors
  • More social signals – The more social signals your content receives across multiples sites the better, as it is believed this can have a positive effect on your rankings
  • Faster indexing – Social bookmarking platforms are crawled almost constantly by search engines which can often result in your content being indexed much faster

However, given Google’s recent algorithm updates I believe you need to have a strategy when it comes to social bookmarking to avoid any pitfalls, or even worse, receiving a penalty from Google.

Bookmarking The Right Way

According to Google’s latest quality guidelines, links coming from low-quality directories and bookmarking sites can be seen us unnatural and therefore could have a negative effect on your rankings.

Years ago, social bookmarking was pretty much about getting your content bookmarked on every site, no matter the quality, out there in order to generate as many links as possible. Well, these days are gone so if you’re still doing it, STOP now!

The correct way to use social bookmarking and content curation sites is to use them on a regular basis. You need to be active, grow your followers (if possible) and most importantly engage with the audience, otherwise you won’t get the results you want and you can actually put your website at greater risk.

I would highly recommend applying the Pareto 80/20 rule where 80% of the content you bookmark/curate/submit is not from your website, but still relevant to your industry. The rest (20%) of submitted or shared articles should be from your website or blog.

6 Rules for Social Bookmarking In the Post-Penguin World

  • Find quality bookmaking sites that are relevant to your industry, products and target audience
  • Create complete profiles when setting up your profile/account as you would with Facebook, Twitter or Google+
  • Quality over quantity – avoid bookmarking your content on as many sites as possible, relevancy is the key. Stop using automated Social Bookmarking tools
  • Use the 80/20 rule – don’t just promote your own content
  • Build a portfolio of good bookmarks that will help other users. This can help you build trust; in other words people will be more likely to share, like or vote up your bookmarked content
  • Be active – re-share other’s content, engage with people, ask questions and post comments

Top Social Bookmarking and Content Curation Sites

It’s time to take your content beyond the usual social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. I’ve created a list of top social bookmarking sites which I have a good experience with and use on a regular basis.

1. Pearltrees

Pearltrees is one of my favourite bookmarking sites as it’s very powerful and an easy-to-use platform. I use it as my number one personal bookmarking site and have already seen good results in terms of traffic, as well as likes within the platform itself. Below you can see how I structure the content I share.

Pearltrees Social Bookmarking Site Example

  • Pros – very easy to setup and use, simple yet powerful, paid options available
  • Cons – you need to build up a good portfolio as sporadic activity won’t help you

2. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a must-use site not only for those who want to share their articles, but also for people who want to find interesting articles, hence the nickname ‘discovery engine’. It can be a powerful traffic driver for many businesses, big as well as small. With a wide range of categories to choose from, you’ll be able to show your content to a relevant audience.

StumbleUpon Social Bookmarking Sites Example
  • Prosgreat for finding interesting content, many topics/interests/categories which to submit content,
  • Cons –  Again, you need to be active first; make sure you submit other articles and have friends on it before you submit your own content.

3. Delicious

Delicious is a very effective bookmarking site that enables you to easily bookmark sites you like and create personal collections based on tags/keywords. As a bonus, all of your bookmarks can be shown in a feed allowing others to follow/subscribe to your bookmarks.

Delicious Social Bookmarking Site
  • Pros –  Extremely popular bookmarking site with a large base of users, it can be a powerful traffic driver
  • Cons –  A good and active account is required in order to see results

4. Digg

Digg together with Delicious are top bookmarking sites with a high authority. If your website/content is shared and voted up and makes the Digg Home page you can expect a lot of traffic.

Digg Social Bookmarking Site

The main pros and cons are similar to Delicious, so don’t expect much from your first submission.

5. Flipboard

Flipboard claims to be social magazine which collects news and other content and presents it in magazine-style format. With Flipboard you can create your own magazine on any topic you like. This way you can create visually appealing magazines on topics relevant to your industry and audience.

Flipboard Content Curation Site Example

This SteamFeed article will show you how to use Flipboard to promote your business.

  • Prosstunning visual design, great way to showcase your best content or even image-based content, e.g. an online story book
  • Cons – need to signup via phone (Web-based platform launched recently), being active is a must as no-one will have a look at your 3 page-only magazine

6. BizSugar

BizSugar is one of my favourite curation sites which I use on a regular basis. As the name suggest, BizSugar is a social bookmarking sites made for small and medium sized business to share useful content. If it’s good users can reward it with ‘sugars’ (votes); the more you get, the better. Plus your submitted content can become ‘hot’ and make the first page. Below is an example of one of my SEO posts that became hot, resulting in a traffic increase as well as additional comments:

BizSugar Content Curation Site - Example

  • Pros – Easy to use platform, you can create your own Meta descriptions to make it more engaging for readers, instant user interactions (votes, comments)
  • Cons – fully completed profile, as well as community engagement is a must, otherwise there are limitations on the number of posts you can submit in a day and you’ll only receive business news

7. Sharebloc

Sharebloc is a very similar to BizSugar where you can curate useful content and get votes. It’s a quite new platform, but it has great potential to grow.

Sharebloc Content Curation Site - Example
  • Pros – simple and easy-to-use platform, as it’s still new you have a great opportunity to become an expert
  • Cons – fairly new platform with a smaller user base than BizSugar

8. Bundlr

Bundlr is another site which is fairly new on the block. I’ve only explored it recently, however it’s a very simple and easy to use platform allowing you to add content about your favourite topics, photos, videos and more.

Bundlr Content Curation Site Example

If done correctly social bookmarking can be still a very effective tactic at driving traffic in today’s post-Penguin world. However, don’t forget that relevancy and regular activity is the key.

How about you?

What experience do you have with social bookmarking? What other social bookmarking and content curation sites do you find useful and effective in the post-penguin era? I would love to hear your suggestions and thoughts. 

If you’d like to know more, be sure to check out our content marketing services or contact our friendly sales team today.

Image Credits

Social Bookmarking from BigStock Photo

Responses

  1. Kashmirani avatar

    I found this article as eye opener and for an Seo person this is life. Quality backlinks are backbone for the growth of any website

    1. Stacey Cavagnetto avatar
      Stacey Cavagnetto

      Thanks for your comment Kashmirani, you’re absolutely right! Glad you found our article useful.

  2. imran avatar

    nice information about social bookmarking ,keep shearing this type of information

    1. Stacey Cavagnetto avatar
      Stacey Cavagnetto

      Thank you for your comment!

  3. […] You can check out the social bookmarking website you should use from Koozai’s Blog. […]

  4. Biren avatar

    What other social bookmarking and content curation sites do you find useful and effective in the post-penguin era? I would love to hear your suggestions and thoughts.

  5. Maria Marina avatar

    Great article…Useful information about the sites…

  6. Wingstud avatar

    It is very useful post. Thank you for sharing it.

  7. khuongnguyen avatar

    Thank you, I have used all of your suggested social bookmarking as above.

  8. noahwilliam avatar

    Great blog on how do we use social bookmarking sites to improve the traffic.The sites mentioned here will be useful for increasing organic search.

  9. sara sandeep avatar

    Thank you very much for sharing it’s very useful article and hope to read more about your experience.

  10. Pankaj Dhingra avatar

    it’s a unique and detailed information of social bookmarking sites.. i haven’t seen any site on internet providing such pros and cons on related topic..

    kudos..

  11. Afra Siab avatar

    Excellent post. Social bookmarking plays an important role in improving your website rank and traffic, Thanks for sharing such a great post.

  12. Umar avatar

    Good Information , Keep up the good work

  13. Emily avatar

    I have read your post really very interesting thanks for sharing post with us

  14. SEOserviceBD avatar

    Good list to start with. Thanks for sharing…

  15. Deepak Parashar avatar

    Hi Lenka,
    Thanks for providing the list of high pr social bookmarking sites list with useful information
    keep up the good work

  16. Rishi @ Coqins avatar

    That’s a very helpful list, just used it! Thanks :)

  17. Signature Forex avatar
    Signature Forex

    great site. thanks for post site

  18. liton avatar

    Great tips for link building. Social bookmarking is the great link building ideas.
    This article help me to know about these social bookmarking site.

  19. Abhijeet Thakur avatar

    the article has lots of information on SEO tips, thanks Lenka Istvanova

  20. Makemyhall avatar

    Nice listings.Thank you

  21. TIBacademy avatar

    This Article is very useful for SEO Analyst, Thanks to share

  22. Sudhakar avatar

    Thank you for the valuable information

  23. raj avatar

    nice post thanks for sharing

  24. kavi avatar

    thank you for sharing awesome article

  25. Riyaz avatar

    Hey Lenka,

    Thanks for sharing this list. The site listed are really helpful.

  26. Balakumar avatar

    Thanks for giving valuable information.

  27. Balakumar avatar

    Great Post ,Thank you for sharing such a useful social bookmarking sites list.

  28. Elizabeth avatar

    Great list of recommendation.

  29. Kokolu Boutique avatar

    Thanks for the sharing these nice sites. My fav is bizsugar :-)

    Keep Sharing.

  30. Teddy avatar
    Teddy

    One bookmarking site I don’t see on this list is Poolit (https://poolit.me/betaregister). Here are the main benefits I’ve noticed from this simple and dynamic bookmarking tool:

    – Saves links to personally made categories
    – Visually browse all saved links on one page
    – Invite other people to save links into categories
    – Keep notes directly on the pages you save

  31. Kaite Miler avatar

    Thanks! Nice list, It is very helpful for me.

  32. amita avatar
    amita

    Did you say Digg?? Digg is no more a social bookmarking site. Look at the site. It has become another social media content publishers. Almost 2 years back they just reformed Digg with new looks and new rules and everything has changed there.
    Instead of Digg, you could mention Diigo. This is quite a good bookmarking site and has been very stable for years.

  33. CNA Guy avatar

    Thank you for the list of social bookmarking sites. I will try to submit to them my links and hope it will work. :)

  34. Ivonia avatar

    Never know about pearltrees.com before.
    But I just signup and love it very much.
    Easy to use and I can “save” anything I like.
    Thank you for sharing the information.

  35. Andie avatar
    Andie

    Thank you Lenka! it really helped me a lot :) keep it up!

  36. allshare avatar
    allshare

    though pearltree is interesting in design but i dont see it helpful in building traffic

  37. NFLOverSeas avatar

    It’s a great tool for organizing your bookmarks . thanks for sharing.

  38. Basmaty avatar

    Hi Lenka,

    Thank you for sharing this. Would you recommend any tool to submite my bookmark to muliple website at once?

  39. rakesh kumar avatar

    Thank you so much Lenka, I was really looking for such types of social sharing sites that make sense now a days.

  40. […] For more information about the value of Bookmarking, read this Koozai’s post. […]

  41. Alex Thompson avatar

    Thanks for such an informative article. I have used most of it but was unaware of the websites like Sharebloc, Bundlr, and Flipboard. Thanks for letting me know about these websites.

  42. Arjen Robijn avatar

    I’d like to suggest Start.me as well. It’s a great tool for organizing your bookmarks.

  43. Rajiv Kumar Sharma avatar
    Rajiv Kumar Sharma

    I use “Digg” but submitting URL it show it submitted. How Digg Give us a traffic like you said on above post. I never see in my Google analytic that some traffic comes from “Digg”. Am i doing in a wrong way?

  44. Addy avatar

    Hey

    Thanks for great share. Am actually confused because as i have in my knowledge Google does not appreciate the same content on many websites and if we are sharing the same article on Social bookmarking sites it may cause penalty.

    So what should be strategy then? I think if you blog quality content on regular basis your ranking can be boost up.

    I only use FaceBook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest to share my content.

    I’ll appreciate the advice in this regard please?

  45. biggie avatar
    biggie

    Scoop-it is also one great curation site I use and the best part is you can suggest content to power curator.

    1. Quadcopter avatar

      Like biggie I use Scoop.it every day and find it drives regular traffic to my site

  46. Umar khan avatar
    Umar khan

    I think Reddit should be in that list. What’s your opinion?

  47. Digitt Trendz avatar
    Digitt Trendz

    Informative article to know how to bookmark your Web page on high traffic Social bookmarking sites. Stumble Upon is one of my most favorite one to get more traffic on an informative URL.

    1. Lenka Istvanova avatar

      Thanks Alex, glad you found it useful. Same here, StumbleUpon is great.

  48. David Cheng avatar
    David Cheng

    Thanks for the shout-out. We’re still very early (as rightly pointed out) but I think we’ve been growing pretty quickly for a 3-month old startup. Thank you for being a valued user and curator!

    1. Lenka Istvanova avatar

      No problem, David. I really like ShareBloc and have seen some great results already.
      Good luck in the future.

  49. […] Top Social Bookmarking Sites For Your Content Promotion Strategy, Koozai […]

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