Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most extensively used buzzwords in the Information Technology world. However, with this ubiquitous use and unqualified popularity comes an increasing tendency to misunderstand this most intriguing of disciplines.

Today, social bookmarking and search engine optimisation are being increasingly mentioned in the same breath. Social bookmarking has emerged of late as an extremely popular activity on the Internet, presenting unprecedented socio-cultural as well as economic dimensions. This increased and effective communication has brought with it great opportunities, a development which has consequently spawned a surge in Internet marketing activity aimed at extracting monetary benefit out of this elusive medium.

Many Internet marketers have come to realise that social bookmarking websites are great sources of traffic. Since the ultimate goal of search engine optimisation is also to drive (preferably targeted) traffic to a website, the two are often viewed in the same vein. However, this is a mistake many naïve Search Engine Optimisation practitioners make. Even though social bookmarking and SEO can appear to the layman to substitute each other, such an oversimplification of the social bookmarking phenomenon would only serve to obfuscate the critical realities underlying the search engine realm.

Social bookmarking is a practice that originally arose without commercial intent, serving as congregation points for the like-minded. Great centres of discussion arose, with websites like Digg pushing the underlying themes of open source promotion, political liberalism and consumer activism. Each social bookmarking site began to market itself to a select subculture of like-minded surfers. With time, these websites began to look more and more like vast cultural hubs that commanded great, unswerving loyalty from their followers.

With such popularity came monetization strategies. High traffic volumes also led savvy Webmasters and SEOs to try to tap some of the traffic for their own benefit. This evolved into a sophisticated consulting business. Consequently, today we see specialised consultants serving social bookmarking marketing services to clients. However, this activity should not be confused with Search Engine Optimisation.

Although social bookmarking management can complement SEO, the two are not the same paradigm. Social bookmarking has very little to do with search engines, and the traffic they provide comes solely from the social bookmarking websites. Most of this traffic, as can be confirmed by multiple studies, is usually untargeted and comprises mostly apathetic individuals looking for an interesting read or a good laugh. Many researchers have suggested that traffic driven from social bookmarking websites is untargeted, non-converting and often a drain on bandwidth. Although social bookmarking sites remain a good source for traffic, the challenge for Internet marketers is now to channel and convert this highly unpredictable medium.

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