Why does someone's FB page rank so highly?
-
Hi Everyone,
i recently ran a non-personalized search and saw that this facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tampapersonalinjurylawyers ranked very highly for both "personal injury attorney" and "tampa personal injury attorney." The page has very few likes, and they don't even post that often. From my limited knowledge, that leaves me guessing it's because its a quasi-exact match facebook page, but that can't be right...can it?
(Ranking screenshot is attached)
Thanks,
Ruben
-
This, in my opinion, is the BIGGEST flaw with Google's algorithm right now. In order to beat back spam, Google gives heavy preference to high authority domains. That's why you see the SERPs dominated by brands right now. If you Google "brown boots", you'll notice each of the top results has little to NO links pointing to that page, but a HUGE overall domain authority.
SEOs are taking advantage of this loophole right now. Because properties like Facebook, Yelp, YouTube, SlideShare, etc have so much trust and equity built up with Google, you can spam the HELL out of them and not get penalized. And even if you do get penalized, it's really no skin off your back because it's just a social profile. No one was finding it through Google before so it doesn't matter if they can't find it in the future.
I rank a ton of YouTube videos and SlideShare documents with really crappy gigs on Fiverr. Low quality social bookmarks, cheap web 2.0s and old school spam link wheels work really well. All the garbage is essentially filtered out by the high authority of the domain.
P.S. You can't find the links with OSE because the link index is only updated once a month, and even at that, OSE's link indexer is pretty sub par.
This response was written by Ryan Stewart.
-
Actually, I just ran it through the free version of seo majestic and found a bunch. So, I guess I should be using more than one backlink checker from now on!
Thanks guys,
Ruben
-
Hey Dennis,
What did you use to find those links? I ran it through OSE, and I got nothing.
Thanks,
Ruben
-
Hi Ruben
For one, he built a lot of links to it
http://www.reflectivepractice.ca/program.htm
http://www.mymakhzenandme.com/the-director.html
http://www.sourceabc.com/alpha/T/
http://theislandpartypei.ca/news.html
http://www.besthotpick.com/alpha/T/
all from sites he probably controls.
If you are going to ask why it's not penalised, that's another long story which is probably already answered here in the QA area somewhere.
-
I would a keyword difficulty analysis on that keyword and check the scores of the other pages ranking there. Remember that the root domain authority still holds a ton of value in rankings (facebook's being 100). And you're right, it's also grabbing some exact match text in the h2, url and body.
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
-
2 Facebook Company Pages - Best way to merge
Hi I am about to set up a Facebook company page under our current brand name Key - however in March we'll be re-branding to Manutan UK. I didn't want to wait until March to start using Facebook (we're so behind!) but when we re-brand what are the best steps to take. Here are my options - I'd love some help! 1. Set up a Key company to actively use now & a separate Manutan page just to secure the page - only using Key until March then merge the business pages (I did read however Facebook won't allow it if the names are different?) 2. Set up a Key page now & in March request a name change of the page & vanity URL We obviously don't want to lose any likes/followers we've gained between now & March Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? Thank you
Social Media | | BeckyKey1 -
Can we create regional pages on Facebook?
Hi, Our business spans across many countries and in order to maintain brand consistency, we were contemplating to create regional fan pages on Facebook. The structure would be like parent-child relation i.e. one main page and other regional pages. Is it possible? We searched for it but could't find something concrete except that in 2012 Facebook was testing similar concept. Regards
Social Media | | IM_Learner1 -
Question about understanding Google Ranking System
Hi, I have too many question that I need answer to understand Google ranking system. I have been analyzing different website in different niche, but puzzling to understand how Google rank actually. Some websites have good number of backlinks with good SEO metrics, but some low SEO profiled websiites outrank good sites. I am here with my first question. I am working for one client website who sell sex toys online. So we are optimizing keywords like sex toys, buy sex toys, sex shop, sex toy store and too many keywords to rank on google.ca. My client website is cupidboutique.com. We have some competitors that I want to mention below: 1. PinkCherry: This is one of our big competitor. They have 2 domain one is for US and one is for Canada. Both websites ranking well for different keywords. Basically .ca domain is more successful than .com domain. But I am surprise why Google consider the websites for rank. If you see, both websites are identical, that means both website have same product, same category structure, and the most important all products description are duplicate on each domain. On google webmaster guideline, google mention that if 2 domain have identical content, then Google ignore the duplicate one in ranking. But still both websites ranking for different search term. I compare the SEO metrics of our domain and their .ca domain, there is not big difference. Our websites also have good number of links, good PA/DA, even more good number of social sharing than them. But our rankings are not even comparable with them. They are ranking within 20-30th on Google for different product category keywords, but not our. 2. Hushcanada: This is another website ranking well, but I a surprise how? This website is ranking on very high competitive keyword with very fewer number of backlinks. Their PA/DA, number of backlinks, social sharing all metrics are very few. Their business also established recently that is 2013, which I found through archive.org, whereas our client business has been running since 2003-2004. As a Ecommerce business website their homepage is not showing any product , their catalog can be found under "shop online" page only. There are even some more websites ranking well with very low SEO metrics in this niche. If Google is not looking for these SEO staff, then what other staff Google looks to rank website? Hope I will get some favorable answer of my question.
Social Media | | moonheart0 -
Facebook Businees page or personal account?
Buon giorno 🙂 With more & more clients creating facebook pages theyve no idea wether they should create a personal account or a business page and neither do i. One question: Is this https://www.facebook.com/Natureflex a business facebook page or a personal account & how can you tell? Grazie,
Social Media | | Nightwing
David1 -
Ranking without links but through Social Media popularity
Does anyone have an example of a web page that is ranking soley through social media popularity and does not have any inbound (website to website) links? I am creating a presentation on SEO and Social Media and it would be great to have an example. Thanks Carla
Social Media | | Carla_Dawson1 -
Difference between Google+ Followers and Website +1's?
Very sorry if this has been covered multiple times already… I can't find the answer anywhere… This is a basic question: Is there a difference between someone giving my website a +1 and being counted as a follower on my Google+ page? I run a website and a Google+ page for my brand, and these two things are linked. When someone clicks on the +1 button on my site, does that show up in the count that someone sees in the red box in the upper right corner of my Google+ page? And, when someone comes to my Google+ page and adds me to a circle, is that the same as them clicking the +1 button on my site? Or are these two entirely different things? I feel like the terms are used interchangeably, but I'm not sure if it's because they really are two different things, or if they're really the same.I ask because, when I look at my company's Google+ page, it says "+300" in the upper right, but when I see my website come up in an AdWords ad, it says "[Company Name] has 240 followers on Google+"... Why are these numbers not the same?Thank you!Scott
Social Media | | ScottShrum0 -
Social Media valuable for organic rankings?
Is there a link between ranking higher in organic search rankings and having a good social media presence. I think there is, the more likes and followers you have the better. The real question is how to you utilise it, do you regulary share content, put keywords in the share info for the ones you want to rank, how best can you utilise social media to help in organic search? I suspect social noise is used towards some kind of overall quality score in the search engines.
Social Media | | pauledwards1 -
Are you doing SEO on Twiiter and Facebook pages?
Seems to be a thought process emerging (CALL THE MEDIA!) that twiiter and facebook are having through various different paths a real ranking effect. Is anyone now doing SEO on a clients Social media page because of this. I know they are no follow. I am not sure they don't pass juice.
Social Media | | MBayes0