Indeks
When a Facebook user shares or "likes" your business's website, you may check your Google or Bing Webmaster Tools account and find that the number of inbound links pointing to your website has not increased.
This is because Facebook redirects outbound links via a PHP script, which negates some of the link's potential search engine value. While a link from Facebook may not increase your website's PageRank, there are other reasons why you may still want to attract as many social media links as possible.
PageRank
Webmasters want to increase the number of inbound links to their websites because of PageRank, a Google algorithm that ranks the trustworthiness of a website according to the number of other websites linking to it. Because of PageRank, an older website with many inbound links may outrank newer websites for competitive search terms.
Redirect Script
It can be difficult for new websites to attract inbound links. Some webmasters take matters into their own hands by creating links on social media services in an attempt to influence search engine rankings. Because some people consider this a spam tactic, some social media services have taken steps to reduce the search engine value of user-created links as much as possible. Facebook sends outbound links through a redirect script called "l.php." The script notifies users that they are about to leave Facebook and prevents the link from being tracked as a backlink.
Social Media Signals
Google and Bing both use social media activity as a signal that can affect the search engine rankings of a page -- particularly if the people sharing the link have many followers. Because buzz can quickly build around recent news events, search engines pay particular attention to social media activity when ranking results for time-sensitive queries. Bing also uses Facebook activity to annotate search results when the user searches while logged in to Facebook. A result may be given priority if the user's friends have liked it.
Increasing Social Media Engagement
Because social media activity is valuable for your website's search engine performance in spite of the fact that the links do not influence PageRank, it is wise to encourage social media engagement as much as possible. Many webmasters do this by adding buttons that allow users to share posts with one click. Adding a Facebook Like button to each post can drastically increase the frequency with which users share your content on Facebook.
This is because Facebook redirects outbound links via a PHP script, which negates some of the link's potential search engine value. While a link from Facebook may not increase your website's PageRank, there are other reasons why you may still want to attract as many social media links as possible.
PageRank
Webmasters want to increase the number of inbound links to their websites because of PageRank, a Google algorithm that ranks the trustworthiness of a website according to the number of other websites linking to it. Because of PageRank, an older website with many inbound links may outrank newer websites for competitive search terms.
Redirect Script
It can be difficult for new websites to attract inbound links. Some webmasters take matters into their own hands by creating links on social media services in an attempt to influence search engine rankings. Because some people consider this a spam tactic, some social media services have taken steps to reduce the search engine value of user-created links as much as possible. Facebook sends outbound links through a redirect script called "l.php." The script notifies users that they are about to leave Facebook and prevents the link from being tracked as a backlink.
Social Media Signals
Google and Bing both use social media activity as a signal that can affect the search engine rankings of a page -- particularly if the people sharing the link have many followers. Because buzz can quickly build around recent news events, search engines pay particular attention to social media activity when ranking results for time-sensitive queries. Bing also uses Facebook activity to annotate search results when the user searches while logged in to Facebook. A result may be given priority if the user's friends have liked it.
Increasing Social Media Engagement
Because social media activity is valuable for your website's search engine performance in spite of the fact that the links do not influence PageRank, it is wise to encourage social media engagement as much as possible. Many webmasters do this by adding buttons that allow users to share posts with one click. Adding a Facebook Like button to each post can drastically increase the frequency with which users share your content on Facebook.
