Facebook’s Influence on Organic Search Engine Rankings

In terms of generating traffic and interest in a particular website, product or service, Facebook is an essential component. However, SEO and other methods of Internet marketing are still essential, and those who ignore these other components will fail to capitalize on what they can offer. However, these different fields often interact with each other, and success in one area of Internet marketing can lead to success in others. One of the biggest advantages of using Facebook is that it can help provide organic SEO improvements. Here are a few the ways that Facebook and SEO interact.

Do Facebook Likes Influence Rankings

In short, yes. After the latest round of Google updates and Google Panda® revisions in Q1 2013, strong social signals are more important than ever, as Google has placed heavier weight on the importance of Facebook Likes, Twitter followers, and other social signals.

Many SEOs are beginning to think that social signals will soon overtake backlinks in importance; Pete Cashmore at CNN even wrote an article that likes are soon to replace links. I’ll bet this is making Google Nervous; Pete even boldly titled his article “Google’s Nightmare”.

Bottom line, having more Facebook likes can help increase organic search engine rankings.

Generating Organic Links

The key to organic SEO growth is links, and more people are using Facebook to find high-quality links than ever before. By building a large base of followers and posting great information, you can encourage people who run websites, blogs and other Internet properties to link to your Internet properties. It should be noted that people often prefer to link to websites instead of Facebook properties, so most successful Internet marketers use Facebook as a means of directing traffic toward standalone websites.

It can also help to direct users toward especially useful, informative or entertaining information. A how-to guide or a glossary of terms related to a particular industry, for example, will be more likely to generate organic links than single images or short tips. Comprehensive information is still the best means of generating links organically.

Helping Support Sites

While sites designed to improve the search engine rankings of a main site may not be strictly organic, organic growth on these sites can help lead to better results. Again, Facebook is a valuable platform for generating incoming links to these websites. In addition, this strategy can allow you to employ multiple strategies in terms of attracting followers.

While Facebook encourages users to avoid opening too many accounts, sites designed to support a main website that vary significantly are appropriate. This technique can allow you to avoid investing too much into one particular website. Growth on Facebook is difficult to predict, so using a variety of sites can help tremendously.

Build Your Reputation

Whether you marketing yourself, another person or a website, reputation matters, and Facebook provides a great platform on which you can build a strong reputation. Because it is designed to facilitate communication, Facebook makes it easy for you to offer tips and advice to others. Over time, this can help build a great reputation.

When people link to other websites, they often consider the reputation of the individual or the website in the process. Having a stellar reputation can encourage others to link to your Internet properties, which will fuel organic growth. It should be noted, however, that it is easy to lose a good reputation, and those who provide inconsistent support or faulty information risk losing the credibility they have worked hard for. Be cautious when using Facebook to build a reputation, but do not ignore this potentially powerful technique that can help your main website climb in the search engine rankings.