Is A Like As Valuable As A Link? Why Facebook Is Now So Important For Your SEO Strategy

I’m sure that many of you will have seen the countless online casino adverts scattered across the side of your Facebook home page, but how many have you ever stopped to think why they are suddenly doing that?

Is it because they feel that they haven’t quite spammed you enough through the alternative mediums? Perhaps … But, more likely than that, it’s to do with the latest Google algorithm update that now means Facebook pages and even comments are being crawled and indexed.

For the past decade and more, Google has based its algorithms purely on the reputation of a site from outdated page rank rules, age and relevance … but thanks to its most recent update: Google Caffeine v2, it has joined the 21st century and is now counting social media as a major cornerstone in ranking websites and blogs.

So what does that mean for the average Joe Bloggs who has a website and is trying to accommodate all the new changes in his SEO strategy? Well it’s simple really – get on Facebook. Their search box at the top of the site is being used by an army of 800million active accounts (so they say), and is a great place in which to index your site. Think about it, by creating a fan page for your business or even a listing, people can find you without you having to pay a penny.

More importantly than that, Facebook ‘likes’ are becoming as effective as backlinksand this is a great way to expand your audience. Posting some content on Facebook in a couple of relevant category groups will earn you a ton of new readers, potentially some new unique visitors to your site, and even (fingers crossed) some sales.

First things first, ensure that you have some presence on Facebook – even if it’s just on your profile saying you work for the company or website. Then look to create a fan page for it; nothing too flashy, and remember, just like your own website – content is king! Don’t just spam a load of links on the page as no one wants to see that. Try offering something unique, maybe a comical picture of the day, company quote each week, even talking about something topical and current … the news, sports, anything remotely to do with your company will work.

Then once you have done that, start finding people with common interests and add away (but remember: after 20 requests, Facebook will start getting suspicious as to whether you know them or not. Try and stagger these over a few weeks – maybe 10 a day – ensuring that you don’t attract too much attention).

Lastly, once you have built up a nice following on Facebook, make a few posts with your keywords in and links to your site and encourage your members to like them. As Google continues to update its algorithm, you can only benefit from these.

So that’s about all there is to it. Rather than continuing to focus your SEO strategies on outdated article sites that probably lost all credibility and page rank in the most recent updates, focus on Social Media and particularly Facebook. After all – it looks as if a link is as good as a link if not better.

This is a guest post by Daniel Laming who is the webmaster for Bigg Gains No Pains Online Casino Review website. Your comments are welcome. If you would like to submit your guest post please see here.

Comments

Vince Stevenson says:

2011/12/12 at 1:23 pm

Yes, we have recently started a company Facebook page and it’s receiving plenty of interest. We post items like our free mobile app Public Speaking Pal as well as many other free resources that are linked to our web site. All traffic is good traffic but Facebook traffic does seem to have raised our profile in the Google rankings. It’s important to keep the page fresh so we update it twice a day with news interesting articles in the field of Public Speaking. See if you can make it work for you too?

Alan Jones says:

2011/12/12 at 1:25 pm

Looks like Facebook is starting it’s own little Google
Great article! SEO is about to change! I’m interested to see what litte jewels the new Twitter will have for us.

Chitra@SocialVani says:

2011/12/12 at 1:27 pm

Thanks for the wonderful post. I didn’t know that Google’s update means we can get social media presence indexed too… Good! I guess we have to rethink our social media marketing campaigns now…

Bryan Knight says:

2011/12/12 at 3:00 pm

At first blush, sounds like great advice. If only Facebook were easier to use and fresh content simple to create

Karl Craig-West says:

2011/12/12 at 3:06 pm

Have to admit that my company FB page is doing OK. A slow start but now a steady trickle of interest.

So this article is a very timely reminder to give it a little more oomph.

Stephen M. says:

2011/12/12 at 4:02 pm

Thanks for this update, I agree that Google has taking a keener interest in social media sites. Great to see how it helps us out.
Stephen

Daniel says:

2011/12/12 at 4:44 pm

Hi guys, glad you like the article and is hopefully the first of many to come.
@ Alan – will try and do an article about Twitter too and give some insight into how to rapidly gain followers without compromising quality
@ Bryan and Karl – don’t give up. Try and look for similar companies like yourself who have facebook pages and offer to ‘like’ theirs if they like yours. Sounds silly I know – but it’s a great way to get free publicity (there’s even a group dedicated to asking people to like your pages!)
@ Vince, Chitra and Stephen – good on you all and keep up the good work

roger says:

2011/12/12 at 5:59 pm

Yes, one of the brilliant ideas coming. Always searching gathering collective ideas for the betterment for everybody.Never stop doing all the advantages favor in your sides.
Thanks

Sea Buckthorn says:

2011/12/12 at 8:29 pm

Facebook likes do seem to be worth quite a bit but!.. what about outsourcing likes ?

Yang says:

2011/12/12 at 9:44 pm

thanks for your share. I think the social media will be more powerful day by day!

sol says:

2011/12/13 at 12:51 am

Facebook will soon become another search engine tool that may even surpass Google and other search engines. With more users than any other social network site It has become and important tool in marketing.

Jyoti Kothari says:

2011/12/14 at 4:52 pm

Face book is growing, growing and growing. And a link in face book is worth. I have been using facebook for my SEO and getting good results since long time.

Barbara says:

2012/01/08 at 4:38 pm

Great advice about why Facebook is important to visibility. Keeping up with Internet trends saves time and gets you (and your clients) a better chance at being seen by prospects. Must consistently feed your Facebook page with delicious posts for your ideal audience.