Paid likes?
-
Has anyone used paid likes for Google +, Facebook, etc. for liking articles, videos, etc. on your own sites?
Is this a safe, SEO practice?
-
I bought a few facebook likes and it was a waste of money. Users who "liked" my page were fake... I wasn't expecting much from these likes and I did it because I wanted to make my brand new fb page more likeable. You need to start somewhere, right? No one wants to be the first person to "like".
-
Argumentum ad populum - Latin for "appeal to the people". It is a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or most people believe it.
"Brand X vacuum cleaners are the country's leading brand; so buy Brand X vacuum cleaners."
-
The only benefit I can see is to make a Facebook page (Google+, etc.) look more popular than it is. If I see a business whose Facebook page has only 45 likes then I'm not as likely to like them. But if they've got several thousand then I subconsciously think, "Hmmm...if this many people like them then they must put good stuff on their facebook page."
Just for fun I bought a thing on fiverr where someone promised to give me more likes by posting my page on their facebook fan page. They claimed to belong to a popular band with tens of thousands of fans. Well, the next day I got 16 extra likes all from people's whose names I couldn't pronounce. When I checked out those fans they were obviously fake accounts that were created just to boost like numbers.
Does it help SEO? No. I do believe that likes on a post can influence your seo. But Google is not dumb. If they see that I wrote a post that is getting hundreds of likes from around the world then they likely will promote my post a little more. But, I think they can tell if I'm getting hundreds of likes from paid sources. If I could look at the Facebook likes I got and automatically tell that they were spam accounts, I'm sure the algo can figure that out as well.
I personally don't think that having extra likes to your Facebook page is going to do anything for your SEO. But, if you have likes that are earned, then this indirectly helps. For example, when I publish an article on my site, I post it to my facebook page. If I have thousands of fans then that is a lot of people who can spread the word about my article.
-
Excellent answers, you both touched on great points which I have always believed in.
If you have something worth Liking / +1 'ing / Re-tweeting, people will do it for you. Your focus should be to deliver the best possible content, features, products, service and let your customers / readers do the rest. Trying to manipulate the system buy throwing money at it won't be good in the long run.
-
You may be missing the point of online recomendations. It's to increase referral traffic. Buying likes and +1's will most likely be done by a spam farm and nobody hears their screams.
Also, Google+ is a Google product, and you can bet they'll be able to spot the 'user farms' that may spring up due to the popularity of '+1 buying'.
If content is worth sharing, then users will share. If not, then might be worth trying to figure out what sort of content users will share.
In my opinion, this is not a safe, nor reliable, SEO practice.
-
Never done it, but I would say no.
The benefits of Social, in my opinion do not come from a one time like or one time + It is the continuation of creating a genuine following that is niche related and active in your community.
Of course like most things in Search Engine Land, it could greatly help you until Google or Facebook picks up on the footprint. So I guess it is a gamble really. One that I personally would never take cause what benefits are you going to get from a bunch of irrelevant one time likes in the social sphere from accounts that are probably loners, or already on the spam radar?
I guess if you use it as a "starter" for a really great infographic, video or piece of content, it might help with initial exposure, then the REAL signals may carry you but still in my opinion it is a gamble and probably a waste of money that could be put into a real strategy instead of a shortcut.
w00t!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Facebook Likes count and site migration to HTTPS
Hi everyone, We are currently migrating our website to HTTPS and, in the process, have read lots of different things about what happens to the social share counts afterward. My primary question is about the Facebook "Likes" count that is displayed on a website's Facebook page - does anything happen to that data when a website switches to HTTPS? My hope is that this data would not suffer at all, but I wanted to pose the question, because i can't seem to find info about that. Thank you in advance for your help! Eric
Social Media | | Eric_R0 -
How do I remove 11,000 spam facebook page likes received overnight complete with negative ratings/reviews?
My page has 11,000 spammed page likes. Only 250 are legitimate. These spammers are leaving 1 star ratings. Facebook is limiting the number of likes I can delete. I can report some fake ratings as spam but, again, facebook is limiting what I see. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Update: I found a work around for the negative ratings/reviews. I can change the category of my page to "other community" to remove the rating system from the page https://www.facebook.com/changeratings/posts/445471405558046. That still leaves me with 11,000 illegitimate likes that are stealing away from my 250 legitimate fans from seeing our posts. Should I start over?
Social Media | | jstallings0 -
Facebook Likes When Sharing
Company A Someone shares a post from Company B on their Facebook page. The post generated 1000 likes and 300 shares. Only a small percentage of likes show up for Company B's page. Why does Company B's page not receive all the likes or at least a higher percentage for that post?
Social Media | | Pinlaser0 -
Friends who like same Facebook page not showing correctly
I have a strange thing going on with my Facebook pages. The "friends who also like this page" is showing wrong numbers, just 1 respectively 5. In reality this number must be much higher. When I saw a profile of someone who coincidentally liked both pages, the numbers of friends who also liked those pages said 30 respectively 48. I remembered that a while ago I changed categories of at least one of those pages. So now I just checked that theory and changed the category of one of those pages back: The 1 went up to 26. When going back to the category I have right now, it's back to 1. Does anyone have an idea of how to fix this, kind of merge those numbers?
Social Media | | codebalancer0 -
Facebook Like Button or Like Box
Hi, A client has a FB like button on their website but is frustrated that those "likes" are disconnected from their company FB page. It is possible that they could change their website like button, to a like box, which will then mean people are liking their FB page and give them a greater opportunity for on-going engagement through FB. However, from an SEO perspective is it better for them to attract likes & potential sharing of their website content rather than their FB content? Thanks.
Social Media | | bjalc20110 -
Facebook likes - how can I tell how many likes a product page has?
Without actually going to each product page and looking at the number next to the 'Like' button, is there any way of finding a list of all your pages and the number of Facebook likes on each?
Social Media | | seanmccauley0 -
Focus Facebook Likes and +1 to URL or Page?
We are considering adding the +1 and facebook like widget to the footer of all our pages, but we can't decide whether to point them to our URL or to our respective Google Plus / Facebook Page. Ideally, we would prefer poiting them to our pages instead of our site URL, but I'm not so sure if we would get as much SEO advantage that way. I was looking for feedback towards the SEO advantages / disadvantages of this at what strategy you guys use. For example: Having +1 our URL would be shown to their friends at the organic results. Having +1 our page would grow our profile, allowing us to communicate with them and would also enable people search +Duplika at Google (like it happens with big brands). What do you suggest?
Social Media | | Juanzo0 -
Where is the best place to put your FB 'like' and G+1 buttons??
Do you guys think there is a more strategic place to place these buttons? below the fold, above, in the top nav menus...?? I would love to hear your thoughts..
Social Media | | robertrRSwalters0