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Most websites and blogs can and do attract new visitors through search engines and social ’site sharing’ networks. Three of the main players in these fields are Google, Digg and Stumbleupon. But do webmasters or bloggers critically assess the traffic which these sites bring, and it’s relative importance to their website or blog?

Diggers

What do people Digg?

A quick look through the Most Popular on Digg.com will show you the type of things that are Dugg most regularly. It makes for interesting viewing. Generally speaking, you’ll find three main types of page are consistently highly Dugg:

• Videos - short clips which are funny, mind-boggling, bizarre or have a high impact (such as a mine going off etc). More and more, we see little collections of videos (i.e. a “Top Ten <INSERT GENRE(ish)> Videos”) doing extremely well on Digg.
• Pictures - again, collections of pictures do well on Digg. Usually, as with videos, pictures which are ‘wacky’ or out of the ordinary in some way do best. They do not necessarily have to be great photographs - it is the subject matter that counts. Collections, such as top tens do extremely well, and, it matters little whether the author of the Dugg page actually took the pictures him or herself.
• Articles - it is more difficult to get an article to the top of Digg. Generally, those that do best concern funny or bizarre stories, or an extremely well-written piece. Top Ten, or Top 20, lists which are snappy, well written and funny do well too. The bigger sites with prominent Digg buttons also do very well here (e.g. bbc.co.uk etc), as their exposure is much higher: they get more Diggers to read the article who don’t just come in through Digg.com.

‘Digg Bombing’

Digg bombing is when you write a piece solely because it will do well on sites like Digg.com. There have been numerous examples of this, for example, a piece about the ‘most gnarly injuries ever (sic)’ which was essentially a rehashed article from a medical journal, that was heavily Dugg.

Insincere Friendship

Because of the social aspect of Digg (and StumbleUpon too)- you can make ‘friends’ and have ‘fans’ - I often find people try to collect as many friends on Digg as possible, to gain more exposure for the articles of their choice. I even read an article (which was heavily Dugg) which suggested that you should thank everyone who Diggs (or Stumbles) one of your posts, as this will help you in future. This is pretty insincere, whatever your motives might be - and it comes across as a little desperate, in my opinion.

What Diggers Do on Your Site?

Generally speaking, Diggers don’t hang around, though they might look at another article or two if it is listed in a “related articles” box etc, they certainly won’t visit your sponsors, and are unlikely to return (from my analysis) - only around 1 in 100 will subscribe to your RSS feed.

Googlers

Googlers, on the other hand, are a different breed again. Where Diggers and Stumblers are looking for something ‘cool’ or ‘offbeat’ - or, in the case of Digg, a piece of news related to a theme - Googlers (those who search Google (or any other search engine) for something), are looking for something very specific - the keyword, or phrase, they enter in the search box.

Depending on how well you’ve optimized your site, and it’s Google PageRank, you’ll get Googlers on your website. These people may visit your sponsors, are likely to read related articles and posts, and may also subscribe to your RSS feed, or sign up to hear more from you. Why? Because they were looking for exactly what you have (rather than generally surfing, looking for instant gratification).

Googlers (and Yahooligans, or, erm, Livers) are, therefore, the most important people to get onto your website - they will buy your products (if you are selling any!), read what you say, and will be back for more.

Stumblers

People from StumbleUpon.com are similar to those from Digg, though what they like, and what drives them are slightly different.

Where Diggers are generally very web-savvy, Stumblers are (very broadly speaking - I appreciate this is a huge generalization!) more ‘artsy’ and will be more impressed with the design, workmanship, or quality of a site, than the subject matter.

Stumblers, in common with Diggers, will like a top ten, or similar, list of cool pictures or videos, though they may (due to the nature of Stumbleupon allowing one to select from more interests) like an article which is more poetic, or just a good piece of literature, rather than a piece about a really cool gadget.

Stumblers will like a well taken picture, where Diggers will like a picture of something ‘freaky’ or ‘ hilarious’ even if it is a very blurry photo of someone that might be George Bush falling off a unicycle onto a thousand upturned thumb-tacks.

I have found, though, that Stumblers like Diggers, prefer something short and sweet - instant gratification. They are not looking to spend twenty minutes reading an article, they just want 5 or 6 paragraphs, with pictures, making a swift conclusion.

Stumblers will generally only visit the “Stumbled” page, NEVER visit your sponsors, will not buy anything, and will leave no comment (on your site) behind them as they leave, save for a “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” as they stumble off into the distance. In short, it is difficult to see Stumblers as useful traffic whatsoever.

Conclusions

While it is nice to have five or ten thousand extra visitors due to a Stumble Assault or Digg Bomb, in reality, these achieve little of immediate benefit for a website. Stumblers and Diggers will hardly ever buy anything from you, or your sponsors, so they won’t increase your bank balance. As we’d all like to be read by more people, it is a nice ego stroke to know that you’ve ‘reached’ a few thousand extra readers through these sources, though, as very few of them will ever be back, the benefit of this, too, is negligable.

I’ll reiterate what I stated above: (organic) search engine traffic is the absolute most useful traffic your site will ever receive, whatever your aims and intentions. Whether you are selling widgets, or writing articles on fainting goats, it is always best to connect with the people who are directly interested in what you are selling or writing about. Organic search does this.

However, and this is a big however, Diggers and Stumblers do have a huge impact for one reason: each Digg or Stumble effectively adds a new link in to your page (and not just your homepage - a true deep link) - a huge number of Diggs or Stumblers therefore adds a huge number of links. Whether these be “no-follow” or not, I find that they are accessible through Google’s “Webmaster Tools” (the inlinks section) and Yahoo’s SiteExplorer. If the search providers know that these links are there, they are surely doing your page some kind of good, so your ranking will increase (albeit minutely) with each Digg or Stumble too.

I also find that Diggs can speed up the time Google takes to index your page, and even if your site itself is low ranking, Digg’s is not, and will deliver Googlers through Digg, to you.

Diggers and Stumblers are not, then, entirely useless, though the discernible benefits of their immediate visit are few, the impact of a Digg goes beyond those that are actively scouring Digg for the next top ten list, or funny photo - you’ll also get the organic searchers who don’t even know what Digg is.

Googlers are what you want more of, and Stumblers and Diggers help to connect them to your site.