The SEO Benefit Of Facebook Page Likes

40 replies
  • SEO
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Facebook is a big site, it gets as many visitors as Google, and people stay there for ten times longer.

It's possible to rank Facebook pages on Google, (and Facebook) quite easily for low competition searches, just by getting Facebook page likes.

There are other factors obviously, like updating the page regularly with relevant content, adding custom tabs, making back links to it, and cross linking within Facebook, and it helps if there's some interaction on your page from visitors like comments.

You can do cross linking within Facebook by commenting on relevant pages, or by creating more pages yourself, and clicking add to my page, or like the page with yours, while using Facebook as your page.

The simple act of getting likes is cross linking within Facebook, (a do follow, high PR link) and because Google and Facebook have no way of telling how many are targeted likes, and how many are random likes, it's quite easy to trick them.

You can make a Facebook page a PR 6 or higher in a few months, and even though it's no follow to sites outside Facebook, it's still a very valuable back link to your site.

Don't make too many pages that link to your site, cause Google can see through that. Make one main page that links to your site, and back link and cross link it thoroughly. It may turn out that your Facebook page does better than your website in a Google search.

You can use custom tabs to redirect people to an affiliate link, or any URL you want. You can have an entire mini site on your Facebook page with payment buttons, or anything you want using iFrame.

The SEO benefit of Facebook, and Facebook page likes cannot be ignored.
#benefit #facebook #likes #page #seo
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      There is no SEO benefit to facebook likes, except maybe linkbait.
      But even that would be debatable.

      You err in saying facebook gets as many visitors as google.

      Google does not just own google.com, but also gives search
      results from yahoo japan, and many, many other big sites.
      Like answers, aol, netscape, etc.

      Don't forget google owns blogspot and youtube, which means
      google owns how many sites in the top 5?

      Plus toss in country specific search engines, like google india,
      denmark, etc. and those sites make out quite a bit of the
      top 25.

      Facebook gets as many visitors as google? Hardly.

      Now, toss in google chrome, which now leads firefox. Aint
      that a kick in the teeth?

      Come on. facebook is for facebook. Social, that is.

      I supposed if getting people to find you on facebook
      is "SEO," then maybe you have something.

      Not to mention the Brazilian amount of google-powered
      smartphones out there.

      Facebook is facebook. Period. Hardly anything you describe
      has any value to organic SEO.

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    Alright, well you mentioned that Google own You Tube. You can get millions of views from You Tube without ranking on Google. The same is true in Facebook, if you make a viral page that people share with their friends. They just have to find you, and it's easy to be found if you're on the first page of results in a Google search, or a Facebook search with a high volume of searches. Unfortunately, there is no Facebook keyword search tool that I know of to work out the numbers, but millions of people do searches on Facebook, and Facebook compared to any other site, (not a group of sites), has people spending four times longer there.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      The same is true in Facebook, if you make a viral page that people share with their friends.
      That has nothing to do with SEO.

      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Unfortunately, there is no Facebook keyword search tool that I know of to work out the numbers, but millions of people do searches on Facebook, and Facebook compared to any other site, (not a group of sites), has people spending four times longer there.
      They might be searching, but what are they searching for? You are just throwing darts at a wall here.

      Facebook can be great for generating visitors. I will not argue with that. However, generating visitors from a Facebook page has nothing to do with SEO.

      There is no SEO benefit to Facebook Likes. As we can all see from your signature, you sell Facebook Likes, so you are obviously hoping that people believe otherwise.
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      • Profile picture of the author packerfan
        I sure would like to a link from the facebook.com homepage to my money site though. Now that's how you get some SEO benefit from facebook!

        Problem is I can't even figure out how to use the dumb site, so I can't friend Zuckerburg and ask for a link exchange.
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    Alright, well is the keyword phrase: social media tricks something you might want to rank for? I made that Facebook page two days ago in an hour, and it's now on the first page of Google for social media tricks, (number 10). I will probably get it to first on the first page within a couple of weeks if I try.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashcow
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Alright, well is the keyword phrase: social media tricks something you might want to rank for? I made that Facebook page two days ago in an hour, and it's now on the first page of Google for social media tricks, (number 10). I will probably get it to first on the first page within a couple of weeks if I try.
      Not really, there's only 36 exact monthly searches for that. No one is searching, therefore the competition is not tough at all. You could probably rank for that with no likes at all.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Alright, well is the keyword phrase: social media tricks something you might want to rank for? I made that Facebook page two days ago in an hour, and it's now on the first page of Google for social media tricks, (number 10). I will probably get it to first on the first page within a couple of weeks if I try.
      Nice work man! Now all 16 people that search for that every month have a 2% chance of finding your page... And yes, I checked. 16 people search for that keyword every month.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    I dont' see how a "like" could have SEO value. I'm actually experimenting right now with ranking some facebook fan pages and I think the real value is getting people interested in your page and commenting on it etc..

    Facebook may (or may not) have as many visitors as Google, but IMHO there is a HUGE difference because Facebook visitors are there to socialize and google searches are looking for information, products and solutions to their problems.

    Lee
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    I thought I explained it pretty well. If you want a high PR back link to your site from Facebook, you can get it easily, by doing what I said, and yes that's of value to your rankings even though it's no follow. If you want to rank a Facebook page on Google for a low to medium competition search, do what I said. It works.
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  • Profile picture of the author watson229
    I am also doing a deep research on the context of seo benefits through facebook. These points are really going to improve my research results.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bofu2U
      Originally Posted by Mike Grant View Post

      I'll strongly disagree with those saying social factors do not influence SEO.
      As do I. My tests show otherwise.
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  • Profile picture of the author gepong2000
    it seems to me after reading comments here, facebook has no bearing with regards to seo. so it's useless to buy facebook likes if that's the case.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      Originally Posted by gepong2000 View Post

      it seems to me after reading comments here, facebook has no bearing with regards to seo. so it's useless to buy facebook likes if that's the case.
      I don't know about buying likes, but there's a hell of lot more to marketing than SEO. If you had a real fan page with 100,000 fans for example, pretty sure that's better than SEO benefit you might get.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaryMartha
    really good post and very help full thanks friend
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  • Profile picture of the author BigNorm
    If your going to go to all that trouble of trying to get high PR for a low level search phrase, why not target a high commercial KW and open a Facebook page built on solid SEO and then backlink the **** out of it? I've noticed a huge jump in people now using Facebook pages as review sites and ranking those on the first 3 spots of Google and driving traffic that way to their money sites opposed to competing with a website alone.

    Seems logical if you think about given how Social Media is starting to get favoritism. Instead of writing a bunch of high competition KW articles, you may as well create a Facebook page for each one and then rank it using conventional methods and throw in hooks to direct traffic back to your money site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Canal IP
    I agree with SEO benefit of Facebook and with the use of Facebook as a strategy for get better search engine ranking of our website. If we build links from our fan page (or from Twitter or another social network) and many people share it, our position in search engines will improve.

    Get rank of our Fan Page is also correct, but as paulgl says “Facebook is Facebook”, and users should land on our website to get real objectives.
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    As I said, you can rank a Facebook page for almost anything, particularly if Facebook is part of the search. Try searching: God Facebook. What's first on the first page? A Facebook page obviously.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      As I said, you can rank a Facebook page for almost anything, particularly if Facebook is part of the search. Try searching: God Facebook. What's first on the first page? A Facebook page obviously.
      Are you kidding me? Of course if someone searches "God Facebook" they are going to find a f#@king Facebook page.

      Guess what else? If you search "God Digg", oh my gosh it is a Digg page that is number one. Wow!

      If you search "God Tumblr", holy sh!t again. A Tumblr page. Amazing!

      Wait, wait... one more... "God Warriorforum"... and... drum roll please... A Warrior Forum page is number one. Holy Christ on a cross. This is astounding.

      :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    Alright, well try searching: affordable social media marketing services. Today, my Facebook page got onto the first page of that search. It's two days old.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bryan V
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Alright, well try searching: affordable social media marketing services. Today, my Facebook page got onto the first page of that search. It's two days old.
      Your are digging you into a deeper hole.

      Ranking a page for a term with very weak competition and next to zero search volume is meaningless.
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      Perhaps an attic I shall seek.
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    The point is how easy it is to rank for low to medium competition searches. Don't forget that people search on Facebook as well. Personally, I'd rather be on the first page of 100 searches that get fifteen views a month than on the first page of one that gets 1,000. I've written dozens of blog posts and articles on my site and on other sites trying to compete for similar searches, and not had as much luck with getting traffic from Google as what I'm doing now. Facebook is PR 9, my site is PR 4. If I can convince Google that my page is an important page in Facebook, by cross linking and back linking, I would say I have a pretty good chance of ranking higher than my site ever could. I chose the domain name poorly, and my home page is not ranking for anything much, but I'm almost on the first page of a Google search on Facebook page likes, so I know a little about SEO. I'm only just starting to use this method, and from what I can see, it works.
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  • Profile picture of the author stellaandreapark
    The Like button is a very convenient way to make a connection with things that Facebook users have the affinity for.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Alright, well try searching: affordable social media marketing services. Today, my Facebook page got onto the first page of that search. It's two days old.
      Wow. Congratulations. That keyword gets 12 searches a month! And you are on the first page, not even #1, so I would suspect you will get at least 2-3 visitors... a year! Good job!

      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      The point is how easy it is to rank for low to medium competition searches.
      No. You are using examples where there is NO competition. Keywords that nobody searches for or gives a crap about.

      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Don't forget that people search on Facebook as well.
      Yes they do search for things on Facebook... Things like their favorite bar, restaurant, movie, baseball team, star athlete, or actor. Facebook is a social medium. It is not a place people are going to find a plumber or dentist or social media guru. They are still searching in Google for their needs.

      I'm not even arguing whether or not social media has a benefit to SEO. You are using some pretty pitiful examples though.

      You make threads like this pretty often on here and it is extremely obvious you are just trying to sell your silly Facebook Likes package. If you want to make a worthwhile thread, find some better evidence to back up your claims with.
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    OK, here's an example I found today. A guy bought some likes from me, and he has a book called Making Life Better. I told him that he needed to get a custom URL that had the exact keywords in it, like facebook dot com/makinglifebetter.

    Unfortunately, someone had already taken it, and he is on the first page of Google for making life better, about halfway up, and that phrase gets over 500 Google searches a month. I would hazard a guess to say that that phrase also gets a few searches a month on Facebook.

    I am competing for keywords to do with internet marketing, and social media marketing, which have a lot of competition, even if the exact match search doesn't, and I'm glad for any traffic I can get at all from Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author webworm
    Thanks a lot for sharing.Facebook links are really very important for the site marketing and increasing traffic.
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  • hey,
    Facebook page likes will help you in getting quality backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    Alright, well we mentioned the search: God Facebook, but have a look at God as a search. number nine is the Twitter profile of God. Why is He ranked so highly for a Twitter profile? Lots of followers, similar with likes. You have to update your page regularly, get some interaction and engagement with your fans, but 10,000 PR3 or PR 4 do follow cross links within Facebook will rank a page, especially if you have lots of high PR relevant back links from outside Facebook as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by rowanman28 View Post

      Alright, well we mentioned the search: God Facebook, but have a look at God as a search. number nine is the Twitter profile of God. Why is He ranked so highly for a Twitter profile? Lots of followers, similar with likes. You have to update your page regularly, get some interaction and engagement with your fans, but 10,000 PR3 or PR 4 do follow cross links within Facebook will rank a page, especially if you have lots of high PR relevant back links from outside Facebook as well.
      Okay, well if followers are so powerful, then why is Ashton Kutcher's Twitter profile not ranked #1 for "ashton kutcher"?

      He literally has more followers than God, or anyone else for that matter, but the account is not even ranked #1 for his own name.
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  • Profile picture of the author retsced
    The purpose of getting people to "like" your page is to have 'targeted people" interested in your product, advice and whatever else. Any facebook packages for thousands of "likes" is counter productive and can give you false assumptions on your marketing strategy.

    Any relevant keywords that you wish to rank for will have competition, and i can guarantee your "fanpage" will not come close to ranking for such terms.

    Adding extra effort into cross-linking should be spent on engaging, marketing and building a list of fans that actually give a damn about your fanpage.

    If you go down the road of mixing social media with SEO you are taking your eye of the ball...period.
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  • Profile picture of the author raw almond
    yeah, Facebook isn't affiliated at all with SEO aside from promoting it's own domain. It's of no use when it comes your site.

    although it is a good way of marketing. easily becomes top ranked on SERPs and what not.
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    God the Facebook page is on the third or fourth page of the search on God. I'm not saying that you can definitely rank a Facebook page higher than a proper website, but consider how hard it would be for someone who knew nothing about website building and SEO to rank their website higher than their Facebook page.

    My Facebook page is ranking higher than my home page, for the same keywords I'm targeting. I screwed up a bit with the domain name, and I started off making back links to it from different link text, but nevertheless, my home page is PR 4, and my Facebook page beats it.

    I am finally on the first page of Facebook page likes, and on the first page of get Facebook page likes, and cheap Facebook page likes, but it's hard to get to the top of those searches, and it still isn't giving me much traffic. I get 95% of my traffic from social media marketing, although I have to actively tweet and share pages to get a few hundred views a day.

    You may be right, or I may be right. It's possible to rank social pages, sometimes they go viral, and if I can make one really popular page, then I can use it to promote anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author metysj
    Interesting thread and thoughts.

    Ultimately, only search engines (Google, Bing,...) really knows the impact on their rankings and they won't tell us. Whether Facebook Likes technically have an impact on SEO or not, they are a relevant indicator and booster of traffic.

    Rand Fishkin, CEO of seomoz, and probably more knowledgeable on the topic than most of us, has an interesting piece about that.

    Search his blog for facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings.

    The bottom line is this, and I quote:

    While we can't say for certain whether these numbers mean that Facebook strongly influences Google rankings, I personally have some big learnings and opinions to share:

    1- Social Metrics are Well Correlated with Higher Rankings
    To me, correlation alone is interesting because I want my sites/pages to be similar to the pages that rank higher in Google, irrespective of whether those traits are directly measured in the algorithm. Pages that earn tweets + Facebook shares also correlate well with earning links, and send direct traffic on their own - ignoring these services at this point seems foolish.

    2- Testing the Direct Impact of Facebook Shares on Google is Imperative
    We've already observed several remarkable results from testing Twitter's impact. Facebook should be next on the list for many search marketers.

    3- I Need to Learn More About How to Earn Facebook Shares
    Given the potential importance and the obvious direct impact (traffic from and visibility on Facebook itself), I, and probably many web marketers, need to examine successful strategies and brainstorm new ways to earn sharing activity from Facebook's massive user base.

    4- Shares Might Be More Valuable than Likes
    In Facebook's own environment, a "like" of content will show up on your own "Wall" and in "Most Recent" (a new feature as of last week), but it rarely shows in "Top News" where most users scan and click. If that alone isn't reason to encourage sharing v. liking, the data above certainly is (at least to me).

    5- Twitter May Be Less Powerful than I Thought
    The correlation data and the presence of tweets in SERPs was less, in comparison to Facebook, than I would have expected. It could be that in cases like those of our experiments, where many influential Twitter users shared a URL in close temporal proximity, Google takes it as a signal, yet for standard search rankings, it's not as powerful. We'll definitely keep testing and watching, but my expectations for tweets correlating with rankings, after controlling for links, were higher, and thus the results, somewhat surprising.


    It's up to you how to interpret this data, but whether you believe (or have tested) the causality of Facebook/Twitter or not, all of us in the SEO sphere should be carefully watching the social space and Google's social efforts.
    To add some food for thoughts, something tells me that the +1 button is playing an even bigger role in the Google search results than all the Likes/Tweets combined...

    Happy Holidays!
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  • Profile picture of the author chrislangley
    I agree that getting traffic from Facebook is beneficial regardless of if it's no-follow, and many people should be focusing on directing that traffic to their money site
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  • Profile picture of the author rowanman28
    I've got a new service on my site where I will make you a Facebook welcome page with a You Tube video, Pay Pal buttons, an opt-in form, or whatever you want, hosted on your own server. The benefit of this is you don't have to pay monthly fees to get ads removed, (like on "free" page builders like Pagemodo), and you can pretty much have your whole site on your Facebook page.

    If you're directing traffic to your fan page from Facebook Ads and haven't set up your welcome page properly to accept payments, or to get an email opt-in, you may be wasting a lot of money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Petrovpeteski
    May be Im not doing it right but I can never get a Facebook fan page to rank in google not highly anyway but then again I've never put much effort into getting google love for a FanPage Waht you really need for a Fan Page is fan love which is why if you hate google the viral exposure on facebook can be great
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  • Profile picture of the author rachelfraire
    Pretty good share, thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author tamkim
    Thanks for sharing
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  • Profile picture of the author freeson
    I am really not sure about Google, but for Bing it matter.

    Also just note thank link from Facebook page are counted in the eye of Google.
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