How to Get Your Site to the Front Page of Digg

Social bookmarking sites are often misunderstood by website owners, who are inundated with the advice that simply posting links to these sites constitutes a good backlinking strategy.  And while that advice may have been good in 2007, it’s simply not going to cut it in today’s competitive marketplace.

It is possible to get your site to the front page of Digg (and to get the massive flood of traffic that accompanies this feat), but you’re going to need to follow a very different set of strategies than what’s being repeated ad nauseum by the so-called SEO “gurus”.

But before we get started, we need to understand what Digg is, how it started and how it’s evolved over the past few years.  Basically, the site started out as a social bookmarking site – a place where people could share links they found interesting or learn about new stories that other users had highlighted.

It was also a very easy way for website owners to build up high PageRank backlinks to their own sites, improving their off-page search engine optimization.  Simply sign up for an account, drop in a few links and wait a few hours for the spiders to pick them up from this frequently-indexed site.

Of course, real Digg users have always been on to this scam – when you’re truly invested in a website, it’s pretty easy to tell who’s using the site naturally and who’s attempting to game the system for personal gain.  But in the last year, Digg has undergone a major site redesign that puts more of an emphasis of social interactions, devaluing these backlink spam tactics even more.

So let’s look at the new Digg…  Following a poorly received redesign in August 2010, the site has largely returned to its original roots as a content collector that allows users to either “vote up” or “vote down” a story.

As you can see, the homepage itself hasn’t changed much since its launch in 2004 – the site still features the stories with the most Diggs across a variety of categories, including Business, Entertainment, Gaming, Lifestyle and more.  And, as you can see, sponsored stories (a function that was added back in 2009) are still featured amongst these results.

However, where the new version of Digg has really expanded its capabilities is in terms of connections between users.  Similar to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, Digg now allows users to expand their personal profiles and view a custom homepage where news articles from contacts are displayed.

This “My News” section becomes the homepage for users after they log in, which presents articles that have recently been submitted and promoted by the people the user is following. If a user hasn’t taken the time to connect to other Digg users, no articles will be displayed here.  From this screen, users can edit their own profiles, submit content or comment on the articles their connections have submitted.

So that’s Digg in a nutshell, but considering the site’s shift away from communal news sources and move towards increased social sharing, how can users benefit most from this service?  And how can they attain that highly coveted top spot on the Digg homepage?

Well, as you’ve probably guessed, the answer isn’t to create an account simply for the purpose of submitting every blog post you write without engaging the community in any way…  Instead, the key to earning traffic from Digg is to become an active part of the community.  Here’s how to do it:

Step #1 – Set up your own profile.

Which type of person would you be more likely to interact with?  Someone whose profile includes a picture, a full name and some fun, personable details, or someone who’s only personal information is his or her user name?  The reality is, if you want to get noticed on Digg, you’ve got to have your profile filled out, so if you’re new to the service, be sure to fill out the following fields:

• Full Name
• Picture
• Location
• About Yourself
• Gender
• Links

Step #2 – Connect with leaders in your niche.

The next key to getting noticed on Digg is to identify the major “movers and shakers” in your industry.  These people are the authority bloggers, the big names and the people with hundreds or thousands of friends and followers.

Generally, these people are pretty easy to find.  Heck – Digg may even suggest them to you using their new social tools, based on the words in your profile and the content you’ve submitted.  But if you don’t have any suggested connections, look through the articles in your niche that have been dug the most or have the most comments, and you’ll typically see a pattern that points to the most active users.

Step #3 – Interact with these Diggers.

Don’t just follow the leaders you identified in Step #2 – actually engage with them.  Digg the content they submit and comment on the stories they share.  Make it a point to connect with them on other services, like Facebook and Twitter, and share the stories they submit on Digg on these other sites as well.  Get their attention and show them that you want to be an active part of the Digg community.

Step #4 – Write damn good content.

Admit it – you thought this article was going to be all frou-frou, “engage with your community” social networking speak…  But the truth is, it doesn’t matter who you’ve connected with or how many people are following your Digg submissions.  You aren’t going to make it to the front page of Digg if you only ever submit mediocre content that no one’s interested in.

Of course, you don’t have to be the next Shakespeare to get your content noticed on Digg.  In fact, writing good linkbait content is less about grammar and sentence structure and more about writing content that people actually want to read and share.

So what types of content tend to do well on Digg?  Consider writing and submitting any of the following options:

• Current events posts. Whenever there’s a major development online (like the launch of the Google+ network or the Panda SEO update), people want to read as much as they can about it.  They want to read different opinions and reactions, so if you can pick up on hot trends quickly and be the first one to submit an article on a new topic to Digg, you might be able to ride that initial wave of interest to the front page.
• List posts. There’s something magical about list posts (as an example, see “4 Tips for Pitching Guest Posts”) that make people want to read them and share them.  These posts can take a little longer to write, but that investment of time can pay off big if your article takes off on Digg.
• Controversial posts.  Don’t be needlessly inflammatory, but if you can write a well-reasoned controversial post that challenges accepted industry wisdom, you can bet that people will be falling all over themselves to promote your content on Digg.

Of course, none of these techniques are guaranteed to get you a front page article on Digg.  Web users can be fickle, and what works well one day might do nothing the next.  However, by making an effort to engage with the Digg community and regularly writing content that’s likely to be shared, you’ll get the biggest possible benefit from this unique traffic source.