Facebook Likes not counted
-
So many of my clients are (very) small businesses and have added a like button to their website home pages that actually has the person liking their Facebook page rather than the website. Without debating the pros and cons of this approach, it would seem that Facebook has changed it so that if someone clicks a like button that is for a page they have not actually visited the like does not show up in the like count for that page? Is that correct?
-
We discovered this as well. What implications do you think this makes for lead generation and web marketing as whole?
A high number of sites use social like/share buttons directly under or around the content piece in an effort to share or like a piece of content. If that schema does not translate or correlate into likes for a specific piece of content while a user is browsing on the website and only if they actually visit the facebook page, is there a point to even having these icons in the first place any more?
Shouldn't the freed space be better utilize if there are no benefits for the likes in this manner?
PS. Sorry for responding to such an old Q&A!
-
Thanks for this Matt! Great answer and I owe ya.
Jason
-
Hi Jason,
You are correct on all counts. There are a number of advantages to having the "like" button on your website be for your website as opposed to your facebook page. The top advantages are:
1. Google doesn't care if the count is shown on your website if it is for your facebook page. Any boost received would go to your facebook page
2. The send button only works properly if the like button points to the website and not the facebook page.
3. What I just discovered, if someone "likes" your facebook page from a like button on your website, they don't count the like unless the person also goes to your facebook page. So really the button is useless.
The only reason I was just putting a like button for their facebook business page on my clients' websites is because most of my clients are so small that if they get more than 100 likes they are doing well. So, since most people won't "like" both a website and the same company's facebook page it helped make their like count look better to have all their eggs in one basket so to speak. Unfortunately with these latest changes I am going to need to go back and change this for my clients.
Good luck!
-
Hi guys,
Just to clarify, because I've been wondering this same thing: Google considers "Likes" of your webpage to be different from "likes" of your business Facebook page which is LINKED to your webpage...correct?
And from what I am seeing, Google values webpage likes more than Facebook page likes as far as social signal rankings are concerned. Right?
Sorry if this is confusing. I may need to change our Facebook button on our webpage. It's currently going to our brand page on Facebook instead of "liking" the webpage itself.
Thanks,
Jason
-
Thanks Joel. That is most helpful and confirms my suspicions. Funny that there does not seem to be much about this out there to be found on google search.
-
Facebook is looking to optimize its site for its advertising section. If a person likes the Facebook Page via their main site then the benefit doesn't transfer to the website but only the page. If the person has a like button for the website then this is beneficial for the site and not the facebook page. I would suggest you have a like button for the site and a second button that takes them to the Facebook page and from there request another like. A lot of sites implement this strategy. Facebook vs Google, the Adwords Wars. Site owners can get caught in the crossfires by confusion. I hope this helps. Good luck.
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 adds a trailing slash to urls?
Hey Guys, we are facing a problem in our www.batuta.com with Facebook shares. Seems like because we choose to set our preferred canonical version urls to end with a trailing slash ( / ), like this one e.g.: www.batuta.com/الوجهات/إسبانيا/ Facebook adds automatically another ( / ) when trying to read the url on first share before its ever indexed in FB. Which makes Facebook think its a bad request! cause then the URL has two // at the end of it. hope this was clear. anyway, so first question: did anybody face this issue before? any solutions? Second, and might be more important: I might be forced to face the option of changing the canonical tags to be a url without a ( / ) if I will have to do this I will enforce a redirect on every url request with an ending trailing slash ( / ) to be redirected to the new canonical version without. will this be enough? how big am I supposed to suffer here? am I facing a long time with double indexed urls? wonder if anybody faced this problem before! Best Regards
Social Media | | Muhammad_Jabali0 -
Can Hootsuite Really Monitor Competition Activity Across the Facebook, Linked & Twitter?
I'm going round and round in circles with this one as everytime I ask Hootsuite they tell me the same thing and it does not work so here we go... I want to monitor another competitors social media activity. Specifically i want to see if they are active in Facebook, Twitter & Linked in. But am i right in saying you can only monitor social activity of a competitor if you can connect Hootsuite to there social media account via a stream. Put another way imagine Lacoste say - "Right give me a report on what Nike is doing on facebook". Is Hootsuite useless unless you can connect it to Nikes Favebook business page? My misery is best explained by this url - http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/tracking-via-hootsuite-3jpg_zps2fa47469.jpg If Hootsuite has this limitation then whats the point in Hootsuite promoting itself as a socail listening tool when as soon as you want to monitor a competitor you hit the proverbial brick wall. Maybe I'm using the wrong tool & hootsuite is limited or I'm a bit thick & it can be done. Any help welcome, I'm likely to be see jumping out of an office window in a town near you very very soon 😉
Social Media | | Nightwing0 -
Facebook Spam - Suggestions?
We put a blog post up on our Facebook page earlier today. Within an hour, there were 560 likes and over 4,000 comments. While that sounds great, that is nowhere in the universe of normal. Almost all of that was spam (there were no services that we engaged in to bring likes/comments). So, has anyone else here been hit by rapid-fire Facebook spam? Any thoughts on what to do - leave it alone, delete the post, filters, etc.? Would love the advice of the Moz community. Thanks guys!
Social Media | | DeliaAssociates0 -
Tools for Automating Facebook Posts?
Hey Mozzers, We're revamping our social media campaign, and I'm looking for a tool that will allow me to schedules social media posts (Facebook specifically) in advance, so I'll only have to knock them out once a week. A cursory Google search has provided me with some options (HootSuite, etc) but I'd love to hear from people who actually use these services. What's your social media automation tool of choice, and how has it worked out for you? Thanks!
Social Media | | ClarityVentures0 -
Facebook Account Architectures (Pages, Groups, etc)
I'm looking for help with how to setup/manage a community on Facebook. Here is the scenario: You have a bike store owner. Out of the store he also organizes different biking training groups, for people who want to be able to meet certain personal goals. These groups like to interact with the other members inside their groups, but not across groups. Does the following architecture make sense? The business would have 1 Company Page. Then for for various different training groups, the company admin would create Facebook 'Groups' which allow for interaction amongst members that way. Does that make sense? Or is there a smarter way to do this? It seems like this isn't very unified, because there could be a bunch of different groups. Is there a way to set this up inside the business' page itself? Any other thoughts?
Social Media | | brianspatterson0 -
Facebook Reach from 1,200 to less than 20 in 24 hours?
I created ad #1 in facebook ran it for a marked time frame. Target audience 1200. Reached 248. Created ad #2. Wanted to test it against ad #1 for same audience, but now Facebook says the target audience is less than 20 people. Huh? Facebook can't be loosing people that fast. Why would this happen? Is it simply a glitch?
Social Media | | Thos0030 -
Experiment: Facebook Page vs Branded Domain
This is a followup to a Q&A posted by fideaux64 taking it from speculative to practical level. Question: Can a popular social profile page outrank an exact match branded domain. Domain: http://erasethethought.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Erase-The-Thought/111096868913182 Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/erase_the_thought Results: http://www.google.com.au/search?q=erase%20the%20thought This experiment is currently in progress. You're welcome to comment and participate. Note: Please do not link to the main domain - only Facebook or Myspace.
Social Media | | Dan-Petrovic1
