Are Bookmarking Images Worthwhile?

[TeamPlayer]

Maybe not the proper folder for this question, but if not I`m sure one of the mods will do the necessary for me.

This is a question about using a bookmarking image, which mostly point to social networking sites.



Does it help with Google and other search engines in any way? Does it encourage more traffic/loyalty/repeat visitors by having one of these on your site or blog do you think?

Here`s what it says on this `add button` site.

» Easy Bookmarking & Sharing
» Spreads Your Content
» Removes Clutter
» Fast and Reliable
» Easily Customizable
» For Websites and Blogs
» Completely Free

Also,do you have to register your site or blog at each individual social network site?

[Roo]

I use the add button in a few places, it doesn't seem to add a lot of value, and I doubt it improves your chances with any of the search engines.

What it does do (or can do) is allows the visitor to click it and then choose which of their social network sites they are going to submit it too. At the bottom of each post here are links to 5 of the common social network/bookmark sites, Digg, Del, Technorati, furl, stumbleupon, though these are five seperate links.
With the 'add-all' bookmark you click on the one button and then have a choice of lots more social network/bookmark sites. This thereby increases the chance that someone will bookmark the page on their preferred network.

It depends what you mean by 'register', if you are the first to submit the article most will require you to be a member and also to write a little blurb, some may ask for suggested tags, topics. Each one is different and does require you to be a member to be able to submit to them, though one other thing in common they have is none of them like you to only submit content from one site only

[TeamPlayer]

Thanks Roo. So, I suppose from my point of view it might be worthwhile to place one on a site to try it out, even if it`s only for the use of visitors. It could be beneficial if it means some will bookmark the site with the social network they use.

[Bagi Zoltán]

As far as we can experience nowadays the natural backlinks are the necessary 'tool' to become a winner of the google game. Go for natural backlinks. It is quite easy to say, but is it easy. Not at all. For many of us free directories are a good source of backlinks, but they were devalued since it was recognised that most of those sites were opened not for the human visitors but for crawling bots. So how to go for natural backlinks? As first step create value for the human vistors, but it won't warrant you too much since in the era of the hardcore PageRank addicted webmasters you can not expect to be linked selflessly, because of the PR leakage, what a shame. So you need to provide possibility to gather backlinks which cost nothing for the site owner. And this is time when you place those icons to your site. Personally I belive that googlebot is smart enough to judge the social links as a sign of real, human acknowledgement. Plus, I can hardly suggest better for deeplinks.

[TeamPlayer]

I`ve placed the `Add This` button on one of my sites, Outdoor Living - Garden Supplies, Hiking, Camping, Outdoor Decor, Patio Furniture. in the top half.

They have 36 networking sites listed so that probably covers the top ones such as Stumbleupon, Google and so on. It doesn`t look too conspicuous so I might place one on my other sites too.

[KingPin]

Adding a bookmark button will not help in the short term per se but if you do have a good user base that Digg your page or whatever, in the long run your site will benifit because if the back links from each social network site.

I have them on my blog and already seeing back links created.

I recommend them to anyone who has a blog.

KP

[TeamPlayer]

I`ve now added the same button on both my other sites, and on my 3 blogs.