In a previous article, I itemized the five ways (perhaps there are more?) that webmasters can benefit from the social bookmarking craze. I explained exactly how their websites can benefit from:

- Repeat visitors
- Viral social bookmarking
- Viral linking
- SEO-friendly links (from social bookmarking sites)
- SEO-friendly links elsewhere (as a result of links on social bookmarking sites)

Now let's look at what steps you, as a webmaster, can take to increase your website's benefits from social bookmarking.

MAKE IT EASY for your visitors to social bookmark your website.

This means offering them as many options as possible. You might want to use a multi-bookmarking service, such as the free script that I developed called The Bookmarketer.

It also means making the bookmarking links easy to find, usually at the top of the page or at the base of an article. You can see this in action at the top of http://www.thehappyguy.com/frugal-living-tip.html or at the bottom of http://www.wv-travel-directory.com/directory/0-world/191-limousines-and-shuttles/view.html.

BOOKMARK YOUR PAGES yourself. Yes, this means signing up for accounts at several bookmarking services. Choose as many or as few as you wish, but remember that when it comes to marketing your website, the more venues the better.

Do I have to remind you to call your mother? This would be an excellent time..."Hi mom, How are you doing? Yes, I know it's been a while...by the way, do you Digg?" Don't be shy; ask family and friends to social bookmark your pages, too.

SWAP BOOKMARKS with others who also want their pages bookmarked. For instance, if you search Google for "Grab The Bookmarketer For Your Site", you will find other websites that are actively courting social bookmarks. All you have to do is offer to bookmark some of their pages if they bookmark some of yours. It's a lot like a link exchange, except that it plays out on other websites. Now some social bookmarkers look askance at such joint ventures, and some even think that webmasters should not be promoting their websites at all.

PARTICIPATE in the social bookmarking site. There are some services that don't feature much participation; others are very participatory. Where you have the option, develop a large friend's list, so that you can easily share bookmarks. Bookmark, tag or comment on others' bookmarks. Being a good citizen gives a person credibility in the community...even the online community.

BOOKMARK OTHER PAGES that already link to your website. Don't just bookmark your own pages; bookmark those that link to yours. Choose especially pages that are relevant, that do not compete directly with yours and that list very few of your competitors. Let's face it, if traffic to all those pages goes up, so does traffic to your website. And if link value goes up to all those pages, so does link-value to your website.

IF YOU HAVE A LIST, ask them to bookmark any new page on your website that you want to generate traffic to. And speaking of new pages...

HAVE OUTSTANDING CONTENT. If your content doesn't stand out, the best you can do is your own contrived bookmarking. Sure, that can help, but it's nothing compared to the power of thousands of people bookmarking your web pages because they think it's just awesome!

All the social bookmarking and SEO tactics you employ can massively help to market your website, but without great content your chances of success are pretty slim. Put up the content, make it easy for people to social bookmark your website, bookmark some of your own pages and encourage anybody you know to do likewise.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

David Leonhardt is "The Happy Guy", a respected SEO writer and marketing consultant. Read the David Leonhardt SEO blog, specifically the post on social bookmarking from which he expanded this article.