Does Facebook Messages count as a social signal factor?
-
Hi,
We know that social signals are usually referred to as a webpage's collective likes, comments or shares. But what about the Facebook messages generated from the messenger plugin on a web page?
Especially on a business page, if one business page receives hundreds of Facebook messages through a landing page or blog page, does that count as social shares?
And how effective is social signals are for a website in 2020? Although social engagement is always good for any website, my question is, how logical is it to purchase "social signal gigs" from konker or Fiverr or other gig markets?
We run a social media marketing company in Australia, our website: https://www.playchat.com.au and we get a lot of messages every day through the messenger add on from our home page. Will that make any difference whatsoever?
Looking forward to hearing from you. I appreciate any help you can provide.
-
Facebook Messages—referring to private communications sent via Facebook Messenger—do not count as social signal factors in the context of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or social media engagement metrics. Here's why:
Understanding Social Signals
Social signals are public interactions on social media platforms that can influence the visibility and reputation of content or brands online. Common social signals include:
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Retweets
- Mentions
- Public Posts and Interactions
These signals are typically visible to anyone viewing the content and can contribute to how content is perceived both by users and search engines.
Why Facebook Messages Aren't Considered Social Signals
Privacy: Facebook Messages are private conversations between users. Since they are not publicly visible, they don't contribute to the public metrics that social signals represent.
Lack of Visibility: Social signals rely on publicly accessible interactions. Private messages don't influence how content is shared or perceived on a public scale.
No Direct Impact on SEO: Search engines primarily consider public content and interactions when evaluating social signals. Private messages have no direct bearing on search rankings or online visibility.
-
Facebook Messages, typically referring to private messages exchanged between users, do not count as a direct social signal factor for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes. Social signals generally refer to public interactions on social media platforms, such as likes, shares, comments, and the overall engagement a piece of content receives. These signals can influence search engine rankings by indicating the popularity and relevance of content.
While Facebook Messages might contribute to user engagement and content sharing indirectly, they are private and not easily measurable by search engines. Therefore, they do not directly impact SEO in the same way public social media interactions do.
-
Totally agree with Kate, Google doesn't have access to this information, an uptick in messages is a good thing if you can tie that back to your business being more popular but I definitely wouldn't pay to have bots send messages for the sake of SEO.
-
My guess is no. It might correlate someday, the number of messages and how generally popular you become, but messages are not public data. Google and Bing can't crawl that data, so they can't use it. Social signals like likes, replies, reviews, etc are available metrics, so they can at least be taken into account. However, it was and still remains not a direct signal, more of a correlation.
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
-
Social Media / Articles
Hi Mozzers, I have a couple of questions regarding starting out into social media with an e-commerce website. Most of my experience lies in niche content where a social media following is more natural. Having completed most of the site audit (at least the planning). Its time to begin planning the next move into writing articles on the blog and heading out into social media to facilitate link building whilst i finish off creating the last of the updated website content. I have plenty of subjects I can think to write about and many keywords to target with articles on the website. But I could do with some advice linking this into social media. We have youtube, google+, facebook and twitter accounts but all of them are inactive bar profile information and have almost no following. We sell technical measurement equipment across a selection of niches. My plan is as follows so far, 1. Write 5-10 amazing new articles across the selection of products
Social Media | | ATP
2. Link to them all on each social media platform to begin populating each with content
3. Populate the website homepage with links to all our social media accounts to encourage following
3b. Include adverts stating discount codes etc can be obtained by following us on social media a little unsure where to progress from this point, I have no budget available at the moment, but may be able to obtain some if I can achieve some results without. As always thanks for your time.1 -
Will spammers hurt your Facebook?
HI, We have noticed as SEO person, whom we feel has become a spammer of sorts, has been liking all of our Facebook post to his Facebook. Will this effect our site and facebook page by him simply liking them all? Thanks
Social Media | | AkilarOffice0 -
Do you need legal rights to pictures in Facebook posts
When I add an image to a Facebook post (for a FanPage) does it need to be something I own or have credited, or can I use whatever images I like? Is this something that is at all monitored? Thanks!
Social Media | | theLotter0 -
Does Twitter and Facebook feeds help SEO
For a new site, I want to feed in Twitter updates and Facebook posts onto the page. I regularly update these feeds. I'm using PHP to directly integrate with the two sites API and grab the data. Is this a good idea? Will it help SEO as its fresh content? Is it a good or bad idea to have a social media feed page on the site that grabs content from these sites?
Social Media | | gazza101uk0 -
Are social signals passed with a 301 redirect
Hi all, A question came up today that I don't think I've seen answered before. We hear all the time how important social sharing metrics are becoming to SEO, but what happens to the social signals of a page when it is 301 redirected? Are the social signals forwarded on in the same manner as link juice? Has anyone ever seen any experiments carried out around this before? Thanks very much in advance for any information shared. Cheers.
Social Media | | searchysearchy1 -
Top 20 social bookmarking sites
2011, what are the best social bookmarking sites to use for getting backlinks and what are your strategies?
Social Media | | echo10 -
Social Media effects SEO
Looking for Tips on how to improve our Social Media. How to get more people to LIKE US on Facebook and or Share. My understanding is that Facebook Likes are starting to play a big role in Organic Search Results. Any Ideas on how to to receive more LIkes and Shares. Anyone know of any Facebook Tools? If we run a contest, how can we set it up on Facebook for people to Like us prior to entering the contest. Can we track who Liked Us When?
Social Media | | hfranz0 -
Building video content for social markers
Where is the best placement for FB, twitter, and G+ shares. This is a non=profit site.. trying to give some juice to event sponsors...and any other feedback.. Golf tournament [" target="_blank">>](<img src= "Hosted by imgur.com") [http://imgur.com/ADzSq.png](<a href= "Hosted by imgur.com")" target="_blank">a>
Social Media | | johnshearer0