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Is there any SEO benefit to hosting your Facebook photos on your own site?
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I will often post photos that I have taken to my Facebook page (either personal or my fan page). Sometimes these can get lots of likes.
I got thinking that perhaps I host these photos on my site (i.e. www.example.com/images/photo1.jpg) and then share that "page" on Facebook. That way any of the likes would be counted towards my site.
What do you guys think?
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There are a few different thought processes here...
If I understand it correctly social signals are not really at the domain level, they are at the page level. Social signals are to signify trending or popular items. So by doing this you are trending a page on your site with little to no content (or purpose) other than a photo to gain likes. This MAY give the overall domain credence, in the Social World, but not sure it actually will affect the process of SEO to much.
Also the photos are smaller and worse quality when they are attached as a web link instead of uploaded to your wall directly so you may get less likes, not to forget that the CTR of links on FB is VERY LOW!
Of course you want positive social signals to your website, but is this really the way to achieve it organically and with overall user experience in mind?
Keep in mind as well that SEO/SEM are more and more everyday becoming online about brand building and Sharing the item that gets alot of likes on your Branded Facebook page can increase your brand power online.
In my opinion this strategy has merit, but employing under the idea of just gaining rankings is not really a strategy it is just another "SEO trick" that will get picked up and devalued as a webpage with little to no content so the Social Gain you made will proabably be devalued in the end, so you might as well retain the power in your Social branding.
w00t!
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Defiantly, I would definitely host on your own site. I just recommended a great tattoo artist. A smart I dea would be to entice the user with a image and saying see more on my website. Cause Facebook, and Twitter wont be around forever. ; )
Hope this helps
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