How To Use Facebook To Rank Well In Google

[justinbaker84]

A while ago Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.org released the results of a study his company did that analyzed the impact of social media signals on search engine rankings. You can find the study here.

Basically it said that the search engines pay a lot of attention to social media signals and Facebook shares are the most important signal. I wanted to test this idea myself so I brought an exact match domain name for a two word phrase that is not very competitive. I submitted it to Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Within a week it was in the index of all three, but it did not show up in the top 100 results.

Then I shared a link from my own facebook account. Within 24 hours the site ranked #14 in Google and #12 in Yahoo and Bing for its core term. I got two friends to share links to it and again in 24 hours it move up to #6 in Google and #4 in Yahoo and Bing.

I think this proves that Facebook shares are a VERY BIG DEAL in SEO. Has anybody else seen this kind of result? There is no way I would have gotten the same result from a few links from PR3 sites.

[Rayjak]

I had similar results with Google+. My new website was not on page 1 of the Google SERP (search engine results page) for my main keyword phrase. I created a post in Google+ referencing the blog on my website. Within a few days, the post appeared on page 1 of the SERP and my website had 2 entries on the first page of the SERP. Social Media is where it is happening.

[Mike12]

I agree on the impact of social on search, but is Google still using Facebook data? I thought their agreement fell apart after that SEOMoz article was published, but perhaps that was only for the real time search feature.

[AnnaDelfin]

That said, Facebook is also an effective method of ranking your website. Thus, if we share some good stories coming from our website and it gathers a good amount of crowd on Facebook, then Google will probably give importance to the post.

[gab]

Thank you for this link to the SEOMoz.org survey - the impact of the Facebook share seems disproportionate - maybe the impact will be only in the short term?

[alocsin]

Thanks for those experiment results, Justin. I've noticed the same thing with my websites and Facebook. But, how long did you website stay ranked in those positions? After about a week, my websites started dropping and are on their way out of the top 100 results.

[vikashmunda]

Originally Posted by justinbaker84

A while ago Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.org released the results of a study his company did that analyzed the impact of social media signals on search engine rankings. You can find the study here.

Basically it said that the search engines pay a lot of attention to social media signals and Facebook shares are the most important signal. I wanted to test this idea myself so I brought an exact match domain name for a two word phrase that is not very competitive. I submitted it to Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Within a week it was in the index of all three, but it did not show up in the top 100 results.

Then I shared a link from my own facebook account. Within 24 hours the site ranked #14 in Google and #12 in Yahoo and Bing for its core term. I got two friends to share links to it and again in 24 hours it move up to #6 in Google and #4 in Yahoo and Bing.

I think this proves that Facebook shares are a VERY BIG DEAL in SEO. Has anybody else seen this kind of result? There is no way I would have gotten the same result from a few links from PR3 sites.

It is a temporary effect the same thing happens with the social bookmarking when you bookmark a fresh content it rapidly rises this effect may be called as Google dance but the steady and strong position of websites can only achieved by link building.

[DeniseTaylor]

Whether the FB effect on a site's search engine position will be lasting or not, I cannot foresee. However, we have found that properly using a FB fan page to be very effective toward getting exposure. Then linking to the site brings many more people into contact with your service or product than would be otherwise. It can create a lot of interest. It's a matter of attracting through the right message, then engaging and then retaining the interest.

[IsaacB]

this is a great example of 'viral' seo. meaning its a short term boost. You may also want to take into consideration while testing this yourself that search engines will take into account the websites you like when generating results

example: If you +1 abcdef.com and then do a google search that is relevant for abcdef.com google will bump that higher on YOUR search results. This doesn't mean its boosted abcdef.com to the first page of everyone's results.


Its always good for your seo if you can get others interested in and sharing your content, but dont put all your eggs in this basket

[chinlee]

Yeah.. SEO for me has been a lot more work than it used to but it's not that bad it's just that the addition social search engine stuff are bringing more new things to the table that a lot of small business owners are not familiar with.