Are Facebook posts indexed?

[theLotter]

Can using keywords and target phrases in posts on my Facebook fanpage help my SEO strategy, or does Google not crawl those pages so it doesn't matter in terms of SEO?

If it can help, can you please provide an example?

Thanks!

[jennita]

No, Facebook content doesn't get indexed. Take a look at the SEOmoz Facebook page's cached, text version from google: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:chzSCnphy10J:www.facebook.com/SEOmoz&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1. The only content from the whole page is this:

SEOmoz
is on Facebook.To connect with SEOmoz, sign up for Facebook today.32,806 likes · 1,117 talking about thisSEO Software, tools and tutorials. Learn more about SEOmoz PRO: http://www.seomoz.org/featuresI would focus on using Facebook for your brand name. Hope that helps!

[theLotter]

I was asking more about content on Facebook, not necessarily link building.  For example - if "purple flower pots" is one of my main keywords it is beneficial to start Facebook posts with "purple flower pots".

[activitysuper]

Check out these questions search engine land fired at Google & Bing.

http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389

Basically in a nut shell, social signals do effect rankings.

[Naghirniac]

If all the links for your website is followed, this should also be a problem. Its not so normal, and in my opinion this should affect google.

But some social medias have also followed links. In my website i have a followed link from formspring. I also read in the Q&A that Delicious make followed links for websites with more users sharing it.

Another tip: did you tried the SEO directories? You can find a list here: http://www.seomoz.org/directories. I was new here triyng to find links, and I was afraid from the directiories. I tried and it was perfect. For sites that have not so much links, its a perfect solution.

Good luck for you in the "link wars". I'm there and suffering a lot...

[Highland]

All social media uses nofollow so no PR is passed. Nobody sees social media as part of a valid link building strategy.

Social media is NOT ignored, however. There's still debate about how it affects results (there's a correlation vs causation debate there) but it is known that Google does follow what goes on socially. Obviously, Google's own social media (+1) has a much more direct affect but getting someone to follow you or link your site on their social page (any network) seems to give you some benefit.

Some food for thought
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/do-social-signals-drive-traffic
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/gaming-social-media-signals-for-fun-and-profit-14368
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings