A couple of days ago I wrote about an experiement being conducted by Chris Lang about the effects of “shouting” your own posts on Digg. At the time of writing, Chris suspected that shouting your own posts to your Digg friends actually caused Google to derank your information and not list your posts in the natural search engines. However, that was conjecture at that time.

Hats off to Chris, he persisted in his experiementation and has since developed a reasonable case that “Shouting Your Diggs” can indeed hurt your Search Engine Rankings. I won’t go into the details of it here, but check Chris’ post out for more detailed info at Key Web Data.

Suffice to say, that once Chris had stopped shouting his own diggs, his Search Engine Rankings started to improve. Interesting? I think so.

But what does that mean for my readers? Simply, you shouldn’t Digg or Shout your own posts. If you want your post to rate on Digg, you need to have someone independantly Digg it, and then get your friends to digg it as well.

This just comes back to my point in my original post, Should You Digg and Shout Your Own Articles?, you need to be a good social citizen. If you find a post you like in your journey through the ‘Net, do the right thing and promote it! Install the Share This toolbar, the StumbleUpon Toolbar and bookmark or vote on the sites, as you go. It really isn’t that hard.

Then go visit your favourite sites and see what your friends, and others, are bookmarking themselves and vote on them. You never know what you’ll find of interest out there.

If each of us did this as we surfed and read, the issue of “Digging and Shouting” our own posts would disappear.

Thank you Chris for spending the time to work it out for us.

About the Author Charly Leetham

Charly Leetham has worked for over 20 years in the IT industry, specifically in the area of data communications and local area networking. Charly is a qualifed "tech", holding an Associate Diploma in Electronics Engineering. Her experience with Personal Computers ranges from building computers to providing 2nd level user support. Charly also holds a Masters of Business Admin (MBA), specialising in Internet Marketing. Visit her site at ArvoreenTreasures.com

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