What happened?
In an effort to make the HubSpot Facebook Page more interesting, engaging, and, yes, lead generating, I finally decided to custom code some marketing offers for our Page.
Some time ago , Facebook added the functionality to allow Pages to add custom content via applications that essentially serve as a blank canvas you can code with HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language).
While updating the custom code for our Page, I discovered that the links I added were passing SEO ( search engine optimization ) credit to our website!
What does this mean?
For any of you SEO newbies , the quantity and quality of links into your website are a major determinant of how well your website ranks in search engines. And a link from Facebook - a domain with great reputation and lots of SEO juice - is an incredibly high quality link. Review the basics of search engine optimization to learn more about the value of link love .
So what?
This is the first case of Facebook providing SEO credit to links from within Facebook, and very likely a loophole that Facebook didn't catch. Allowing follow links in a powerful site like Facebook could encourage some black-hat SEO folks to start spam link-building. To avoid that, most links in Facebook are either:
(1) "No Follow" Links - The link is tagged in such a way to tell search engines not to pass any link love to the linked-to site.
(2) Redirects - Facebook first takes you to a page that warns the user that they are about to leave Facebook.
How do I get a link from Facebook?
Anyone with a Page on Facebook can code a link to their website. All you need to do is add one of the FBML applications to your Page (search for FBML in the Facebook search box to find one of the applications) and edit the application box to add your code (you'll need to know basic HTML).
The FBML application is actually quite powerful - beyond just adding links to your website - this functionality allows you to hard code a custom box or tab to further engage fans on your Page. If you feel limited by the third party applications and current Facebook Page functionality, the custom FBML application gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of the content and features you can add to your Page.
All this said, Facebook is pretty darn smart and will very possibly correct this loophole.
UPDATE : Facebook now has made links from FBML boxes "no follow" links. While FBML applications no longer give SEO credit, they are still great opportunities to create custom interesting content for your fans!
Photo credit: marxalot
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Doug 7:26 AM on March 25, 2009
So is this in the boxes section of your facebook page that shows the free trial graphic and links to the different webinars and tools?
Ellie Mirman 7:55 AM on March 25, 2009
Yes, Doug, that's the box - you can custom code the content as well as the title of the box. You can also make it a separate tab or move the box to the main Wall tab.
Corey 9:12 AM on March 25, 2009
Can you be more specific as to which FBML apps pass the link? I tried a couple and I'm not seeing them with the ability to pass any credit.
Amir 10:32 AM on March 25, 2009
but isn't these pages are protected by user|pass, preventing from google to index them?
Ellie Mirman 11:53 AM on March 25, 2009
@Corey - I've been using the Static FBML application, which lets you put in any HTML code.
@Amir - Facebook Pages are public and indexed by Google - so those are public, crawlable links!
Ian 12:22 PM on March 25, 2009
Not to be a party pooper, but now that this is public knowledge, it'll get abused to death and Facebook will nofollow the links. Time to find a new strategy...
Duh! 12:30 PM on March 25, 2009
You are an idiot! Why are you posting this in the wide open? Because you need to engorge your insufferably miniscule ego?
Now Google and Facebook will shut this down. Thanks for nothing.
Here's a free lesson in savviness. The ONLY time you out something like this is after you 1) discover it yourself and 2) exploit the hell out of it and 3) are so far ahead of the game that you now want to shut it down so your competitors cannot use it. Otherwise, shut the frack up you pea brain moron!
Angela 12:59 PM on March 25, 2009
Interesting; I knew pages were SEO indexed but the link love is new to me; maybe it was intentional by Facebook, since the new design totally screwed anyone who built a lot of customization into their pages? You now have to hope "fans" take the time to surf around to the boxes to find the custom work (it used to be fun to trick out the landing page, but last weeks "upgrade" basically wasted all the coding by burying it). Thanks for the scoop.
Wayne Altman 1:04 PM on March 25, 2009
Doing anything other than providing quality information and great content, can and should be stopped.
You did everyone a service by reporting this (you are not the only one) and hopefully the problem gets fixed quickly, so we can go back to competing on merit not cheap tricks..
scott hossack 1:48 PM on March 25, 2009
I am looking forward to this new tool !
Thanx
seoco 4:52 PM on March 25, 2009
Very interesting but I would spend my time building legit links and not trying to build spam links or trick SE's.
Bold Endeavours 7:18 AM on March 26, 2009
thank you for the tip, i am doing the facebook campaign and it was really helpful
Guy Walker 9:23 AM on March 26, 2009
hey thanks. I just created a Facebook page for my business.
Kimberly 12:36 PM on March 26, 2009
I am curious: Has anyone used this successfully? Anyone had their FB account shut down as a result?
I an interested to see how this plays out...
albert perreard 11:07 PM on March 27, 2009
If I added 1,000 employees to a retailers Facebook and had their url embedded in the employer section of the Facebook would this help on the Google ranking? Would other social pagees like Linkedin and Twitter help as well? I've aready optimized there page and maxed out thier links. Building great blogs for them, now what?
Simon 5:42 PM on April 01, 2009
This isn't new. Some people have been doing it by adding an RSS application/feeds on Facebook for some time. The RSS apps also do not use nofollow.
facebook applications 8:27 AM on May 11, 2009
I just recently discovered your site and appreciate you sharing your bout with facebook application development with the world.but this site also search best knowledge facebook application development.
Justin 5:46 PM on June 09, 2009
Thanks for sharing this Facebook SEO information. Definitely going to look into this.
Richard 11:53 PM on July 31, 2009
Thanks for sharing your research and knowledge in discovering and figuering all this stuff out. I will definitely be utilizing the information you have provided to enhance my marketing abilities with my website and additional social media sites I have created.