This video (embedded) is extremely important and helpful to know and is definitely something to keep in mind when considering the relative benefits of Facebook and Twitter for Page Rank and SEO.
I could have guessed that there were no-follows and agree that it’s a good thing that it is.
A strategy then for us to consider is how to convert traffic from those sites into links from do-follow sites. That, my friend, is the yummy cookie to consider this weekend.
(I just made that up, btw. You probably could have guessed that though. “Yummy Cookie”…? Wah…)
Tom says
First off, the whole cookie thing isn't random. We're talking about the web here. Cookies are a *totally* working analogy. Or pun. Or something.
Secondly, so that's kind of interesting regarding links being treated all the same (though I think I'd read that somewhere before); however, here's my thing: I keep my Facebook profile unindexed by search engines and I lock down my information.
It's not because I have anything to hide, but it's because I don't really use Facebook all that much and don't wanna worry too much with maintaining it. But if I wanted to boost page rank by linking to my own site from Facebook, I could technically attempt to do so (obviously, if even a miniscule amount) by opening my profile to public and linking to the site.
So I have the ability to help increase my own page rank but it comes at the expense of opening my profile for the public. Decisions, decisions. Or maybe it's not a big deal to me. Dunno yet. Heh.
Have you leveraged this technique as a strategy? Seen it work at all?
human3rror says
Tom,
I was going to go into detail about mine but I thought not. I have nearly the exact same “strategy” with facebook: i keep it closed because I give the world a big “noooooooooooooooo” when it comes to my privacy. I used to have a lot of pictures in there but i killed all of those, and i'm not interested in boosting my page rank from facebook since I really don't use it much.
word. you are crazy cool.
bman says
You might not be able to get increased ranking from follow-through links, but linking through Facebook and Twitter DO drive traffic to your site and increase your visibility. That seems (to me) to be the main purpose of social media marketing. Not to increase your SEO, but to increase traffic and brand recognition.
Rob Lombardi says
I use bit.ly to create links that I place on Facebook and Twitter. Then bit.ly tracks the popularity of the link. So whether someone clicks on it from Facebook or Twitter, I can see exactly how many people clicked on it. If Google ties into bit.ly links, then there's the missing link (no pun intended).