For best SEO - Social networking direct links, or 3rd party tools like AddThis ?

[bmnobbs]

Hi,
I've only really started to look at this in depth for my sites.
Which is better from a SEO point of view? - Adding social networking link submission to a webpage via tools like AddThis's bookmarking button, or inventing your own 'direct link submission codes'
eg I've come up with the code below for a page on one of my sites about customs duty.
Would I get as good a result, SEO wise, from an AddThis button?

Please share this article with others: <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&amp;title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports">Delicious</a>
| <a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&amp;title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports">Digg</a>
| <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&amp;title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports">reddit</a>
| <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html">Facebook</a>
| <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&amp;title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports">StumbleUpon</a>
| <a href="http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&t=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports" >Furl
It</a> | <a href="http://www.spurl.net/spurl.php?url=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports" >Spurl</a>
| <a href="http://www.rawsugar.com/pages/tagger.faces?turl=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&tttl=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports" >RawSugar</a>
| <a href="http://simpy.com/simpy/LinkAdd.do?title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports+&href=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html" >Simpy</a>
| <a href="http://www.blinklist.com/index.php?Action=Blink/addblink.php&Url=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html&Title=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports" >Blink
It</a> | <a href="http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?t=Customs duty for non-EU clothing and footwear imports+&u=http://www.clothing.ie/clothing-customs-duty.html" >My
Web</a>

[bobitza]

I'm also using AddThis.

I tried to do my own links (although I'm not that good) but after doing reddit, digg and sphinn I decided that the easiness of AddThis is a bettter choice. AddThis will also "update" the button if some other cool, uber-hyped social media site becomes popular

[bmnobbs]

But which is best from a SEO point of view : - your site / page being added to Digg, Furl, Del.icio.us etc by going 'direct' through them, or via the third party's links / toolbar ?

Or is there no difference, and if there's no difference why isn't everyone using AddThis or similar ?

[bobitza]

There is no difference seo-wise. The AddThis buton is a link just like your custom button.

The only difference is that with addthis you are limited with the design options (button size, colors, etc.). If you think you can get a better "effect" (I'm talking about influencing people to vote for you) using your own buttons, go for it.

Why isn't everyone using addthis? Well, addthis is some sort of NKOTB, plus there are a lot of other options.

LE: I stand corrected
Button customization - You now have full control over the customization of the the button image, text, and style. We essentially moved the button image and link outside of the javascript, so you can now change the image, text, or style of the button as much as you want, and very easily.

[bmnobbs]

I'm going to re-phrase my question.
For the purpose of my question I'm going to assume that a social bookmark link is worth .005 'PageRank score'

Will Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask etc. give equal weight to the site page for a bookmark delivered via a social bookmarkers 'direct link' as compared to being delivered through AddThis?

Or will the AddThis website get some of the 'PageRank score', eg AddThis gets .001 and you get .004 ?

Is there a downside to using AddThis vs DIY bookmarking code ?

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by bmnobbs

give equal weight to the site page

Weight for what or who? The social bookmarking website?

[kgun]

Here is a related thread:

SMO:: Social media optimization content and IBL's

If you go to the article I wrote on my site (link in post 6), you will see that I have used AddThis. I am not sure who gets credit for the links.

In addition today:

I social bookmarked some of my favourites to del.icio.us. Click "Social Bookmarks" in the upper right corner. Only those bookmarks that I have chosen to share with the community should be shown. This should give traffic WPW / members and my own site.

The next is to use JavaScript to streamline the badges.

You can upload a favourites file of 5Mb, with thousands of favourites.

1. Export your updated favourites from the file menu, organized in folders with descriptive names.
2. Log into your del.icio.us account and import the file you just saved to your disk.
3. Import the file and choose which links you will share with the community.
4. Done in minutes if you do no manage too many links.

[kgun]

My JavaScript solution using JSON is explained here:

Add To: Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo My Web | Furl, and others