Those who kept up with the goings on at the SMX Advanced conference this year will be aware of a bit of controversy that occurred earlier last week….well, it’s a bit of a saga, so I’ll bring you up to date. seoMoz released the findings of a survey they have been conducting that found a correlation between Facebook shares and ranking well in the SERPs. However, Matt Cutts, when speaking at the SMX Advanced conference stated that Google cannot see any Facebook Share data at all. However, while these may seem to be contradictory statements that could only lead to an all-out War…they actually agree with each other.
Correlation and Causation
I have written a previous post about the seoMoz Facebook Share correlation. I tried to make it clear in that article that there was a difference between correlation and causation. I’ll try and repeat the sentiment with a useful analogy.
Imagine you are watching a game of cricket on the television. Every time you leave the room to go and get a cup of tea, the team batting lose a wicket. To a mutual observer, it would appear that there is a correlation between you leaving the room and a wicket being taken at the cricket match. However, that is not to say that you leaving the room is the causing the wickets to fall, it is not causation.
This reflects what was found in the seoMoz survey. There was a correlation between the quantity of Facebook Shares and Google Rankings, but that does not mean that large amounts of Facebook Shares will make a webpage rank highly.
Is Google Using Facebook Shares as a Ranking Signal?
Anyway, when Matt Cutts was speaking at the SMX conference, he made it clear that Google can’t use Facebook share data, as mentioned above. This was interpreted as contradicting the findings of seoMoz, but if the subject is examined in a little more detail, it will be revealed that this is an erroneous interpretation.
It seems there is a general consensus that Facebook blocks Google from crawling entirely. This isn’t true, however. Google cannot crawl personal Facebook profiles (and if it can it can’t see shared links), but it can crawl Fan pages.
There is quite an easy test to account for this. Go to Google and search:
site:www.facebook.com “Your Name”
Your personal Facebook profile should be easy to find. Once located, click on the ‘cached’ option in the listings. You will probably see a very stripped down version of your profile, and almost certainly no content that you have Liked or Shared.
Alternatively, search on Google using this phrase:
site:www.facebook.com “Fan Page Site”
Again, click on the ‘cached’ listings. Hopefully you’ll see something like the image I’ve posted above of a Fan page I ‘Like’. You will see a more complete version of the page complete with all the links shared (although they appear to be NoFollwed) and how many people have Liked certain links. So, while this shows us that Google can access and crawl certain Facebook pages, it doesn’t tell us what information it takes away from them.
The reason why the more complete versions of fan pages are available for Google to crawl is because all information shared on Fan Pages is considered to be public, so all the search engines are able to view all links and shared content. All the evidence seems to indicate that Google can use Facebook fan page data and shares included on fan pages, but not personal pages.
Also, at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, suggested the possibility of them and Google working together. However, in order to allow Google access to all Facebook data, they wanted something in exchange, and currently this is something that Google object to. Unfortunately, there is a lot of speculation about what Facebook want, and why Google are objecting to it.
So, if this is the case…
Why is the correlation important?
One reason that might account for the correlation between Facebook Shares and Google Rankings is that that if a piece of content gets lots of Shares, then more often than not, it is a valuable piece of content. As everyone working in search engine optimisation knows, the search engines love high quality content. So, if a piece of content is shared a lot on Facebook, then that could be interpreted as a precursor for the content also being shared on blogs, forums and directly on other sites, these are places that Google have access to.
Perhaps then, the reason that there is a correlation in the seoMoz survey is no more than a reflection of good quality content ranking well on the search engines. The Facebook Shares might in fact have nothing to do with the rankings at all; they are simply indicating when a piece of high quality piece of content is picked up by the community of a given industry and shared.
Again, this comes down to clearly distinguishing between causation and correlation. It is easy to spot a correlation, but finding substantial and provable evidence to show that a pattern is having a direct influence on an event is not.
What does this mean for ?
As is often the case, we find our industry reliant on speculation. While it does seem very likely that search engines will increase the impetus they place on social-media activity as a ranking signal, until a senior member from one of said search engines comes forward and says so, there can be no certainty.
Still, having a social-media presence is almost a necessity for online success in this modern business environment, hence why social-media optimisation is now such a valuable part of digital marketing. It is such a powerful marketing tool; with a good social-media presence companies can spread information about new products, competitions and even just build a reputation, quickly and effectively. Now it also seems that Facebook (or indeed Twitter), can be used to judge how successful a piece of content will go on to be. I guess it’s just another point that goes to prove one of the golden rules of : If it’s good for the users, it’s good for the search engines.
Those who kept up with the goings on at the SMX Advanced conference this year will be aware of a bit of controversy that occurred earlier last week….well, it’s a bit of a saga, so I’ll bring you up to date. seoMoz released the findings of a survey they have been conducting that found a correlation between Facebook shares and ranking well in the SERPs. However, Matt Cutts, when speaking at the SMX Advanced conference stated that Google cannot see any Facebook Share data at all. However, while this may seem to be contradictory statements that could only lead to an all-out War…they actually agree with each other.
Correlation and Causation
I have written a previous post about the seoMoz Facebook Share correlation. I tried to make it clear in that article that there was a difference between correlation and causation. I’ll try and repeat the sentiment with a useful analogy.
Imagine you are watching a game of cricket on the television. Every time you leave the room to go and get a cup of tea, the team batting lose a wicket. To a mutual observer, it would appear that there is a correlation between you leaving the room and a wicket being taken at the cricket match. However, that is not to say that you leaving the room is the causing the wickets to fall, it is not causation.
This reflects what was found in the seoMoz survey. There was a correlation between the quantity of Facebook Shares and Google Rankings, but that does not mean that large amounts of Facebook Shares will make a webpage rank highly.
Is Google Using Facebook Shares as a Ranking Signal?
Anyway, when Matt Cutts was speaking at the SMX conference, he made it clear that Google can’t use Facebook share data, as mentioned above. This was interpreted as contradicting the findings of seoMoz, but if the subject is examined in a little more detail, it will be revealed that this is an erroneous interpretation.
It seems there is a general consensus that Facebook blocks Google from crawling entirely. This isn’t true, however. Google cannot crawl personal Facebook profiles (and if it can it can’t see shared links), but it can crawl Fan pages.
There is quite an easy test to account for this. Go to Google and search:
site:www.facebook.com “Your Name“
Your personal Facebook profile should be easy to find. Once located, click on the ‘cached’ option in the listings. You will probably see a very stripped down version of your profile, and almost certainly no content that you have Liked or Shared.
Alternatively, search on Google using this phrase:
site:www.facebook.com “Fan Page Site“
Again, click on the ‘cached’ listings. Hopefully you’ll see something like the image I’ve posted above of a Fan page I ‘Like’. You will see a more complete version of the page complete with all the links shared (although they appear to be NoFollwed) and how many people have Liked certain links. So, while this shows us that Google can access and crawl certain Facebook pages, it doesn’t tell us what information it takes away from them.
The reason why the more complete versions of fan pages are available for Google to crawl is because all information shared on Fan Pages is considered to be public, so all the search engines are able to view all links and shared content. All the evidence seems to indicate that Google can use Facebook fan page data and shares included on fan pages, but not personal pages.
Also, at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, suggested the possibility of them and Google working together. However, in order to allow Google access to all Facebook data, they wanted something in exchange, and currently this is something that Google object to. Unfortunately, there is a lot of speculation about what Facebook want, and why Google are objecting to it.
So, if this is the case…
Why is the correlation important?
One reason that might account for the correlation between Facebook Shares and Google Rankings is that that if a piece of content gets lots of Shares, then more often than not, it is a valuable piece of content. As everyone working in search optimisation knows, the search engines love high quality content. So, if a piece of content is shared a lot on Facebook, then that could be interpreted as a precursor for the content also being shared on blogs, forums and directly on other sites, these are places that Google have access to.
Perhaps then, the reason that there is a correlation in the seoMoz survey is no more than a reflection of good quality content ranking well on the search engines. The Facebook Shares might in fact have nothing to do with the rankings at all; they are simply indicating when a piece of high quality piece of content is picked up by the community of a given industry and shared.
Again, this comes down to clearly distinguishing between causation and correlation. It is easy to spot a correlation, but finding substantial and provable evidence to show that a pattern is having a direct influence on an event is not.
Those who kept up with the goings on at the SMX Advanced conference this year will be aware of a bit of controversy that occurred earlier last week….well, it’s a bit of a saga, so I’ll bring you up to date. seoMoz released the findings of a survey they have been conducting that found a correlation between Facebook shares and ranking well in the SERPs. However, Matt Cutts, when speaking at the SMX Advanced conference stated that Google cannot see any Facebook Share data at all. However, while this may seem to be contradictory statements that could only lead to an all-out War…they actually agree with each other.
Correlation and Causation
I have written a previous post about the seoMoz Facebook Share correlation. I tried to make it clear in that article that there was a difference between correlation and causation. I’ll try and repeat the sentiment with a useful analogy.
Imagine you are watching a game of cricket on the television. Every time you leave the room to go and get a cup of tea, the team batting lose a wicket. To a mutual observer, it would appear that there is a correlation between you leaving the room and a wicket being taken at the cricket match. However, that is not to say that you leaving the room is the causing the wickets to fall, it is not causation.
This reflects what was found in the seoMoz survey. There was a correlation between the quantity of Facebook Shares and Google Rankings, but that does not mean that large amounts of Facebook Shares will make a webpage rank highly.
Is Google Using Facebook Shares as a Ranking Signal?
Anyway, when Matt Cutts was speaking at the SMX conference, he made it clear that Google can’t use Facebook share data, as mentioned above. This was interpreted as contradicting the findings of seoMoz, but if the subject is examined in a little more detail, it will be revealed that this is an erroneous interpretation.
It seems there is a general consensus that Facebook blocks Google from crawling entirely. This isn’t true, however. Google cannot crawl personal Facebook profiles (and if it can it can’t see shared links), but it can crawl Fan pages.
There is quite an easy test to account for this. Go to Google and search:
site:www.facebook.com “Your Name”
Your personal Facebook profile should be easy to find. Once located, click on the ‘cached’ option in the listings. You will probably see a very stripped down version of your profile, and almost certainly no content that you have Liked or Shared.
Alternatively, search on Google using this phrase:
site:www.facebook.com “Fan Page Site”
Again, click on the ‘cached’ listings. Hopefully you’ll see something like the image I’ve posted above of a Fan page I ‘Like’. You will see a more complete version of the page complete with all the links shared (although they appear to be NoFollwed) and how many people have Liked certain links. So, while this shows us that Google can access and crawl certain Facebook pages, it doesn’t tell us what information it takes away from them.
The reason why the more complete versions of fan pages are available for Google to crawl is because all information shared on Fan Pages is considered to be public, so all the search engines are able to view all links and shared content. All the evidence seems to indicate that Google can use Facebook fan page data and shares included on fan pages, but not personal pages.
Also, at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, suggested the possibility of them and Google working together. However, in order to allow Google access to all Facebook data, they wanted something in exchange, and currently this is something that Google object to. Unfortunately, there is a lot of speculation about what Facebook want, and why Google are objecting to it.
So, if this is the case…
Why is the correlation important?
One reason that might account for the correlation between Facebook Shares and Google Rankings is that that if a piece of content gets lots of Shares, then more often than not, it is a valuable piece of content. As everyone working in search optimisation knows, the search engines love high quality content. So, if a piece of content is shared a lot on Facebook, then that could be interpreted as a precursor for the content also being shared on blogs, forums and directly on other sites, these are places that Google have access to.
Perhaps then, the reason that there is a correlation in the seoMoz survey is no more than a reflection of good quality content ranking well on the search engines. The Facebook Shares might in fact have nothing to do with the rankings at all; they are simply indicating when a piece of high quality piece of content is picked up by the community of a given industry and shared.
Again, this comes down to clearly distinguishing between causation and correlation. It is easy to spot a correlation, but finding substantial and provable evidence to show that a pattern is having a direct influence on an event is not.
What does this mean for ?
As is often the case, we find our industry reliant on speculation. While it does seem very likely that search engines will increase the impetus they place on social-media activity as a ranking signal, until a senior member from one of said search engines comes forward and says so, there can be no certainty.
Still, having a social-media presence is almost a necessity for online success in this modern business environment. It is such a powerful marketing tool; with a good social-media presence companies can spread information about new products, competitions and even just build a reputation, quickly and effectively. Now it also seems that Facebook (or indeed Twitter), can be used to judge how successful a piece of content will go on to be. I guess it’s just another point that goes to prove one of the golden rules of : If it’s good for the users, it’s good for the search engines.
What does this mean for ?
As is often the case, we find our industry reliant on speculation. While it does seem very likely that search engines will increase the impetus they place on social-media activity as a ranking signal, until a senior member from one of said search engines comes forward and says so, there can be no certainty.
Still, having a social-media presence is almost a necessity for online success in this modern business environment. It is such a powerful marketing tool; with a good social-media presence companies can spread information about new products, competitions and even just build a reputation, quickly and effectively. Now it also seems that Facebook (or indeed Twitter), can be used to judge how successful a piece of content will go on to be. I guess it’s just another point that goes to prove one of the golden rules of : If it’s good for the users, it’s good for the search engines.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
