Digg is a social bookmarking site. It is currently one of the biggest and most popular bookmarking sites around, and can be utilized to generate spikes of untargeted-traffic (which by the way isn’t going to do you a whole lot of good), but more importantly, quality one way links.
There are a couple things you should think about before jumping into Digg. Realize that this is a social bookmarking site, and people will Digg things just because they are “cool.” If you’re selling something or monetizing your site, chances are that if you get to the first page on Digg and get a traffic spike, the visitors are just going to glance around quickly and then leave. They are there to look, not necessarily to convert into customers or click ads. That being said, who doesn’t like traffic spikes? I mean hey, they make you feel like you’re doing something, right? And of course, getting spread virally through Digg may be just the thing you’re looking for… publicity.
1. Signing Up
The first step, as with pretty much any social site around, is to set up an account. This is a simple ordeal with Digg. Just look at the top lefthand corner of the Digg homepage, and you should see a ‘Join Digg’ button. Click through and fill out the info. Alternatively, you can sign up with your Facebook account, because Digg has integrated Facebook Connect with their site log in and registration.
2. Digging A Webpage
This is also pretty simple. If you are signed into your account, look at the top of the page, and you’ll see a bar with a couple options, the second-to-last being ‘Submit New’. Click on this option.
You should now be on a page where you submit the URL of the article or site you want to Digg. To make sure I get the correct URL, I usually like to open up the page in a new tab and copy/paste the URL into the box. But it’s quite fine if you want to type it out as well.
The rest is pretty simple. If your article or webpage has not already been submitted to Digg, it will open up a new page. Here you enter in a Title and Description. You choose a thumbnail icon. You choose the category which your article will be under. And Last, you type in one of those really annoying ‘Are you human?’ things (one of the ones that’s even more annoying because it’s not words, and it’s case-sensitive). All that is pretty self-explanatory I think. No images needed here.
3. Some Thoughts and Notes on Digg
Like I said before, you probably aren’t going to get highly targeted traffic if you’re article gets a lot of Diggs and makes it to the front page. But there are a couple of other really good benefits from achieving such.
(1) Publicity. Just getting people familiar with you and your site. If you can somehow get people talking about your site, that’s good. The more known you are the better. And hey, you might just get some readers for your blog. This is a great way to get a whole bunch of people to read a really good blog post you wrote.
(2) Blog traffic and links. A lot of times, people will write blog posts about things that get onto the first page of Digg. They might review the site, or just randomly write what comes across their mind, or if the article is interesting enough, they might just want to tell the people who read their blog about it. This works two goods for you. It will give you free one-way links (always good), and it might even get you direct traffic from the blog.
(3) SEO. If you get popular within a major social site like Digg, it is a HUGE boost to your search engine rankings. All the internal links and stuff that go on inside of these giant social sites… search engine heaven. This is another great reason to do social sites like Digg, because they will greatly increase your authority in the search engines. And everyone knows that good search engine rankings are a one-way ticket to more traffic.
I think that about does it for Digg… Oh, one last thing.
4. Adding a ‘Digg This’ Button to Your Blog Post or Website
You can also add a ‘Digg This’ button that makes it easy to Digg your article if a user is signed into Digg when they view your site. (If they are not logged in, they will be directed to do so before they can Digg.) This will GREATLY increase the number of people who Digg your stuff (if any do it in the first place), because not many people want to spend a whole minute to go out of their way and Digg an article. A button at the bottom of the post makes it easy for them, and your chances of getting a Digg will go up greatly.
You have a few options when it comes to how to insert a Digg Button on your site. You can use the Digg Digg WordPress Plugin, the Digg It WordPress Plugin, or by bypassing the plugin path all together and coding it yourself. (A good writeup on how to do that can be found here at The Code Central.)
Enjoy!
Don,
I have recently started using Digg for my SEO purposes, and also more lately just to Digg stuff I genuinely like. It’s fun going through the stories and seeing what other people are interested in. Another social media site to do lol.
I got into Digg a while ago, and I love it. I have found some really great articles that I would have never come across otherwise.
I do a lot of social marketing but for some reason I have left Digg to the side and never really explored it. I know this is a bit off subject but how would you rank Digg in the Top 10 social networks to utilize?
.-= Greg@Dropzone.us´s last blog ..Available dot us domain names from outer space =-.
Thank you! I’m such a dummy when it comes to Digg so I appreciate all the help I can get here! Just starting to use it more now.
Thanks!!
Digg is a good site for traffic, links and branding.
But, they always frown upon those webpages or sites that is too commercial for them.
Also, those SEO articles wont really make it to the front page of digg.
The best way we (SEO Peeps) can capitalize digg link love and traffic is to create a link bait that is not really seo related.
.-= Ron Leyba´s last blog ..Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign =-.
I’ve been using digg for almost a year now. It really helps a lot in building traffic. Digg is on top 5 in my social bookmarking list.
We’ve just started with Digg as part of our new SEO efforts. Still trying to get used to it so this post was very helpful, thanks!
@mobile
Digg now turns into a javascript nofollow type of link. Unless you make it to the frontpage of digg, then you have the greatest link love ever.
.-= Ron Leyba´s last blog ..Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign =-.
Digg is really a cool site. I publish my site on Digg and get amazing response. There are too many informative and interesting articles i found only on digg.
Amazing.
i read an article on an A-lister’s blog saying digg is dead.
I think the best way for me to find out is to try it for my self. I’m off to design my digg page.
.-= Olusegun´s last blog ..20 Reasons Why You Should Choose WordPress – PART 1 =-.
I actually utilize onlywire to submit to many sites at once. Takes some time to set up, but I have found I use only about a dozen so not too much time really.
Digg, though is not one I use. Maybe I should give it a try with all the PR going on here.
Maybe it’ll help with my new site http://clarkcoleman.com
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Progress is Exhiliarating =-.
Digg is one of my favorite sites. I use them a few times per week.
I can’t believe how many useless comments there are on this post. Don’t people actually read anything on this blog?
Digg is one of my favorite social bookmarking site because it help my site to be index faster. Even though it is a nofollow social bookmarking site(as far as I know) it is still very reliable.
.-= Rommel@Study and Work Australia´s last blog ..New Translated Website Content =-.
I really dont like using Digg Myself. From past experience Ive only got a small spurt of traffic that was temporary. It may be different if you get to be on a top story or something. Please share your thoughts on this.
.-= Joshua Pitts @Admin Blog´s last blog ..Good and Bad Ways to Advertise =-.
I’ve been trying to get digg more emboldened to my website and my marketing of my blog, but I haven’t really seen much of a payoff and I’m starting to wonder whether it is worth my time anymore. Even this post doesn’t convince me it’s worth my time. Maybe it is something that I start outsourcing to someone who knows what they’re doing.
.-= Brendan @ Online Marketing Consultant´s last blog ..Main Street Marketing Machines =-.
I have to agree with Brenden above….sometimes I wonder if putting the effort in Digg is even worth it. I check my stats every day to monitor where my traffic is coming from, and I’ve yet to see anything significant come from Digg.
If anyone has any personal experience with success on Digg, I’d like to know!
Nice article mate. I always thought Digg as useless, but you changed my thoughts!
Digg is on of the most organised social bookmarking site on the web, since you submitted your article to digg, try as much as possible to get lots of users to digg your article in other to push it to the front page for better traffic.
Digg is one of my favorite social bookmarking site because it help my site to be index faster
As you rightly mention though, unless you’re a Digg celebrity, it’s highly unlikely anything worthwhile will come of using Digg.It can take some time to build up a decent reputation on the platform and isn’t really widely used here in the UK compared to the US.
Digg is a good place to get links to blogs, but not to webshops.
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I went to digg and I love it. Thanks for this article.
good article! thank you!
wonderful post!
Your article are great, will visit very soon.
Digg is also useful and helpful. Nevertheless, there are also some sites that have the same function and will really create traffic to a site.