'Panda' FB Fanpage Backlink 'Major Link Juice'

[jasonvs]

Hi everyone,

Here's my question. I recently read somewhere that G's new update 'Panda' ranks a website higher when backinks are pointing to it from social sites such as FB. In this article I read it stated that G would be providing MAJOR link juice if it were to coming from a Fanpage.

What are your thoughts on this? And what are your methods going to be for obtaining lots of backlinks from FB Fanpages?

[Jeffrey Reidy]

I find that hard to believe. Generally, links from social profiles carry less weight.

Who was the source of the article? Unless it was an SEO heavyweight, like a Danny Sullivan, I wouldn't put much stock into it, but that's just my opinion. I've been wrong a couple thousands times before (at least).

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by jasonvs

I recently read somewhere that G's new update 'Panda' ranks a website higher when backinks are pointing to it from social sites such as FB. In this article I read it stated that G would be providing MAJOR link juice if it were to coming from a Fanpage.

What are your thoughts on this?

I give it the same level of credence as I give anything purely theoretical, that nobody knows for sure, but many people have financial and/or emotional incentives to propagate, want to believe themselves, and have other people believe. Unless all that changes, of course, and there's a genuinely authoritative source - in which case I'll happily and quickly reconsider.

Originally Posted by jasonvs

And what are your methods going to be for obtaining lots of backlinks from FB Fanpages?

I don't intend to use up any of my time/attention trying to get any at all.

Call me a skepchick but if, over the last nearly 3 years, I'd closed my ears firmly, right from the start, against all "information" contained in sentences starting with words like "many marketers believe that" and "people are saying that" and "I read recently somewhere that" I'd have saved myself, overall, an enormous amount of time and attention without it having any net adverse effect on my business or on my income at all.

[cma01]

I find that hard to believe. Generally, links from social profiles carry less weight.

Really? Because everything I've been reading for the past six to eight months has been saying that "social signals" will carry more weight.

If you read the SEOMoz report that came out recently, they included branding as one of the ranking factors.

How do you think that branding would be determined? By links, mentions, and citations from various sites and social profiles across the web.

They have been including Tweets in the search results (although I read there was an issue with the licensing agreement lately.) Google pulls reviews from across the internet into a business's Place page and also includes other mentions.

Why wouldn't you think it would be a factor?

In this article I read it stated that G would be providing MAJOR link juice if it were to coming from a Fanpage.

I don't know about "link juice" as you would think of it normally (anchor text, do follow/no follow, page PR.) However, I do think that it helps on a contextual level as well as providing social proof.

[Jeffrey Reidy]

Originally Posted by cma01

Really? Because everything I've been reading for the past six to eight months has been saying that "social signals" will carry more weight.

If you read the SEOMoz report that came out recently, they included branding as one of the ranking factors.

How do you think that branding would be determined? By links, mentions, and citations from various sites and social profiles across the web.

They have been including Tweets in the search results (although I read there was an issue with the licensing agreement lately.) Google pulls reviews from across the internet into a business's Place page and also includes other mentions.

Why wouldn't you think it would be a factor?

I probably misunderstood the OP, and thought that he meant profile backlinks.

I was more or less talking about links on the profiles themselves, not the mentions. I know that if someone in your social network shares a link, it will carry more weight in your serps if you're logged into Google when you do the search.

It's highly personal though, from what I understand. If one of my friends or contacts on a social site shares a link, it carries more weight in my search results than it does in your search results if no one in your networks shares the link. Not to say that if a million people share a link on Twitter that won't affect everyone's search results.

P.S. Google's contract with Twitter ran out, so they're not offering real-time search results at the moment. I'm guessing that they will integrate Google+ as a replacement really soon.

[BloggingPro]

Originally Posted by jasonvs

What are your thoughts on this? And what are your methods going to be for obtaining lots of backlinks from FB Fanpages?

Facebook Fan Pages carry a NoFollow tag, which means they don't pass any weight or juice. Doesn't mean that the link doesn't count, just means that it doesn't have any weight when it comes to ranking your site in the search engines.

Because of that you are seriously wasting your time trying to get links from FB fan pages solely for an SEO benefit. However, it is good to have a Facebook fanpage.

Why? Because it helps build your brand across yet another channel. Any exposure is good exposure. On top of that, those that like your page are interested in what you have to offer--which means they will generally click through to your website when you make a post w/ a link.

[JamesGw]

Speaking of SEOmoz, they showed some correlation between rankings and Tweets / Facebook likes. That doesn't necessarily mean causation - popular sites are bound to have more likes / mentions anyway, but (if I remember correctly) Rand did mention that Google was supposed to be using social data in its rankings.

http://searchengineland.com/what-soc...ly-count-55389

+

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/early-ran...nkscape-update (April)

[jasonvs]

Thanks everyone for your input on this subject. I do appreciate it. When I read the article "and wish I remember where I read it from" I was a little flustered because I was thinking, "great, how am I going to get on a lot of other people's FanPages".

I guess time will tell right?

[christopher jon]

I give it the same level of credence as I give anything purely theoretical, that nobody knows for sure, but many people have financial and/or emotional incentives to propagate, want to believe themselves, and have other people believe. Unless all that changes, of course, and there's a genuinely authoritative source - in which case I'll happily and quickly reconsider.

What she said.

[KLaAz0r]

If you suck in seo you get hit by things like google panda, every seo'er with a brain knows how to use and build links the right way

[rowanman28]

I have at least one Facebook page thats first on the first page of a Google search, and I wasn't trying all that hard. It surely has some benefit, if just for the extra traffic it sends, but dont call your Facebook page the same title as your site, or it just may beat it in a Google search.

[Brendan Mace]

Originally Posted by KLaAz0r

If you suck in seo you get hit by things like google panda, every seo'er with a brain knows how to use and build links the right way

Disagree completely. If you followed Chucky's thread, you'd notice that at least some competent SEO'ers have been hit by google panda. I will agree that it's quite possible to trick google. But you didn't used to have to jump through as many hoops to do it.

For example, anchor text variation is now very important to avoid a google slap. But 6 months ago, an seo'er was better off blasting the primary keyword anchor text as much as possible.

A competent seo'er with a brain will be able to build links the right way. But no Seo'er has any control over what google will do next. So in other words, the "right way" to build links can change at any time. Which is why EVERY seo'er is vulnerable to google changes. Not just the dumb ones...

[jekis4sv]

Originally Posted by co2

Disagree completely. If you followed Chucky's thread, you'd notice that at least some competent SEO'ers have been hit by google panda.

Yeah, even such monsters as EzineArticles, Squidoo, etc

[mi100us]

I don't think you will see link juice passed, but you need to remember that this is only part of what google uses to decide your position. Facebook can send signals I have found that social media brings google bot to your site much more often.