SEO using Social Bookmarking Type Sites

Sunday, February 24. 2008

A while back I wrote about SEO using social bookmarking and blog communities and since nearly a month has passed I thought I'd update my notes on the subject

I've been most happy with Blogcatalog this month, it really seems to have powered ahead to the extent that I am now actively working my Blogcatalog profile. I think the very fact of mentioning it in my last post attracted a lot of visitors who then added me as a friend, and the widget helps too. You may have noticed I've been more active in the Blogcatalog forums and I've updated my profile and joined a couple of groups.

Next month I'll be keen to see how Blogcatalog continues to develop for me so I think I'll be making use of the friend feature more to drive more traffic and increase subscriber numbers. Strangely though, Blogcatalog traffic increases haven't increased the number of comments, and commenting is something I'm really monitoring, BTW thanks to Paul and Jillian for taking an interest.
Because I want more comments, at least more than 10 commenters per entry, I've added the "U Comment, I Follow" banner in my sidebar and this seems to have encouraged a couple of newcomers to make comments. Not sure if I need to move this to the foot of each entry as well to make it more visible, I'd love your opinion on this.

MyBlogLog has a new widget that I installed and I'm quite happy with this, it looks nice and it gives a lot more detail about who the site visitor is. Um BTW, when I see an attractive face or an artistic icon I almost always check out their profile. Traffic from MyBlogLog is virtually nil on this blog but I get significant numbers of people going to my Ning themes network from MyBlogLog so I think the audience hasn't really been interested in my Spanish entries of late. That isn't a problem, other people seem to find them quite interesting and I'm getting more Spain or Spanish keywords appearing in my visitor logs, more so than SEO related entries.

Speaking of search results, I notice Flickr is really doing well in the SERPs recently and several of my images appear in the top ten for certain keywords. Traffic to my Flickr account is increasing as a result but isn't also visiting my blog but its interesting nonetheless. Have you noticed any impact on your blog traffic from your Flickr account?

Technorati has been interesting lately, traffic is crawling along but I did get a significant spike in my authority, its at 470 this morning. I suspect the number of people at Technorati who are interested in anything to do with Spain are very small. That's a shame because I really enjoy living here and I want to write about it.

Hope these comments are useful to someone, and don't forget, you have a voice, make a comment even if you think I've got it all wrong.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.
in SEO, Traffic   Comments (13)
Defined tags for this entry: , , ,
Related entries by tags:
My experiences with blog communities for SEO
Search Engine Optimization Tips for Ning Networks
Search engine optimization tips from Costa Rica's premier SEO expert


Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

  1. Costa Rica SEO said,

    Sunday, February 24. 2008 at 08:45 (Reply)

    Have you tried a listing in dofollowblogs.com? I get a fair amount of traffic from there. Your high page rank is sure to drive solid traffic.

  2. Carl said,

    Sunday, February 24. 2008 at 08:47 (Reply)

    Honestly I had never even heard of them, just checked it out, but which category, ho hum, too many decisions...

  3. Jillian said,

    Sunday, February 24. 2008 at 17:11 (Reply)

    I think I'll check out dofollowblogs.com as well. I think I came across their site when I first started blogging and had no idea what that community was for. And since I am not a dofollow blog, I couldn't for the life of me remember the website... I kinda move that to the back burner.

    I have noticed you being more active in the BC discussions. I have too and I've earned a few new friends. They visit but don't comment. And that's fine because I do that, too. Sometimes I'll visit a blog regularly and only comment when I can relate to the subject matter or have something witty to say. I know comments are important, Lord knows I crave them but I hope the people that aren't saying anything are doing it because they found the post interesting but just didn't have anything to add. And if that's not why they are quiet then let me think whatever makes me feel good! :-D

    I like where you placed the "you comment I follow" button. It was one of the first things I noticed upon visiting your blog. Of course maybe I noticed because I stop by here regularly... who knows? Although I still feel it is in a prominent spot!

    Most of my traffic comes from BC or from other blogs I've commented on. I've gotten a few people from Google searches and that was weird because they searched my name and part of my blog title. Are these people that couldn't remember the site name? I've gotten ONE hit from Technorati and this surprised me because the one search I did of myself I was on page 80.

    Is this comment long enough or what?

    Now, let me send that email!

  4. Jillian said,

    Sunday, February 24. 2008 at 17:12 (Reply)

    Since I am now** a dofollow blog.

    I HAD to correct that!

  5. Carl said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 00:59 (Reply)

    Yay, another convert to the cause. Do follow is a great way to build a community, and that's where I'm struggling at the moment with this blog.

    Other sites I've owned/managed haven't been a problem but on this blog I've been too focused on HTML/CSS and templates so most people come, see what they want, take it, then leave and maybe I see them back in a year.

    BTW Jillian, congrats on getting Google search engine traffic, you must be doing something right, and thanks for sharing our BC experiences.

    On this blog about 90% of traffic is new, probably never been here before. A lot of network marketers would envy me for that but it means the community is small, and I know talking about community might sound pretentious but we all want our ten minutes of fame and I'm no different. And I like to think the worthless drivel I spew has an audience.

  6. Jillian said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 01:09 (Reply)

    Amen!

  7. Carl said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 01:44 (Reply)

    Don't you be getting all fundamentalist on me, unless of course your congregation likes reading my message of wisdom ;-)

  8. Carl said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 01:47 (Reply)

    Oh BTW, that "u comment i follow" badge is actually just text, no need to host an image, and I think it looks better than the images anyway

  9. Jillian said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 01:58 (Reply)

    Just text? I didn't know that. I thought you hosted yours like I do and just removed the link!

  10. Carl said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 02:03 (Reply)

    Nope, I can't claim the credit, I found it on another blog and just copied it rather than write my own, and I can't put the code into a comment so I might have to email you the code if you want it.

  11. Jillian said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 02:21 (Reply)

    Nah, if Photobucket ever crashes I'll hit you up for it. Of course that will be the least of my problems!

  12. Costa Rica SEO said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 08:58 (Reply)

    OK, sporting the CSS badge on my site now. Do you think there would be any advantage to suggesting a "dofollow" default plugin for serendipity? Or maybe the powered by Serendipity plugin could state that it's a dofollow blog.

  13. Carl said,

    Monday, February 25. 2008 at 09:04 (Reply)

    Absolutely, although I should also say it took me a while to finally get round to putting it up here because I was so concerned about the possible ramifications. In practice it seems to be working, I've had a few newcomers making comments which is really good.

    Time will tell of course but blogging is about community building and ten minutes of fame, it's not about SEO. Maybe thats the mistake I've been making. Of course I won't stop doing SEO I just have to balance the twin goals of increasing traffic and building a community

Add Comment

Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

 
 
 
 

Friends


$40 per month. PR6, Alexa 154,716.