Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Does a link in facebook count as a backlink?
-
Q: Does a link in a facebook post count as a backlink?
Q: is it a 'do follow' or 'no follow' link?
Q: twitter uses short links, so when someone links to me, do i get the points/juice from the backlink?
-
Yeah i read the same.
Backlinks from social platforms doesn't per see do much favor.
Here is a some links too about link building for newbees too: [https://support.shorturl.gg/business-marketing-and-seo-forums/discussions/seo-talks/link-building-seo/](link url) and the one where they talk about that Google might consider link building as spam is very interesting I'd think in my opinion.In theory it might hurt you as they could consider non organic link building as a break of Google's TOS. Not sure how true it is but still its a bit interesting as it seems that they prefer that links are built only the organcic way and not through SEO practices.

-
A) Generally yes, but hard to say for certain. There are correlations suggesting that maybe some of them do pass influence in some way.
B) Probably, but again, likely based on engagement, i.e. if a social link gets very little engagement, it probably won't do much to influence search rankings, but if it gets a lot, it often seems to have at least some positive impact.
-
am I correct to assume that:
- a) Social, "nofollow"-links have no tangible value in terms of directly affecting rankings
- b) All social links indirectly affects rankings (time on page, increase in traffic, more direct traffic, and so forth ...)
-
It depends on the definition and intent of the word. In this case, I believe KevinBP wants to know whether those links will impact rankings in the same way that normal, followed links from other websites will/do. I believe we'd all agree that social media links with nofollow attributes do not contribute in those ways.
I'd also say, more broadly, that while many types of links will show up in Google's Webmaster Tools, this criteria alone does not indicate rank-boosting ability from those links or that Google is even counting them.
-
To shock all of you YES facebook links count as a backlink.... If you have not checked your webmaster tools lately you will notice that comment links on facebook post now show up in your back-links profile. However this may not be the best quality links they are similar to forum comment posting a very low level/quality of link building.
If they are showing up in your webmaster tools then they are do follow links and are considered back-links.
I would love to hear what everyone think of this logic?
-
Nope, they don't.
Good article here explaining it in more detail: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2325343/matt-cutts-facebook-twitter-social-signals-not-part-of-google-search-ranking-algorithms but basically any link from Facebook or twitter does not help your rankings.
Would be way to easy to manipulate to get rankings.
If your new to link building, then this is a great beginners guide to it: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links
Thanks
Andy
-
Links via social media are traditionally "no follow". Facebook and Twitter follow this convention.
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
-
How do I remove 11,000 spam facebook page likes received overnight complete with negative ratings/reviews?
My page has 11,000 spammed page likes. Only 250 are legitimate. These spammers are leaving 1 star ratings. Facebook is limiting the number of likes I can delete. I can report some fake ratings as spam but, again, facebook is limiting what I see. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Update: I found a work around for the negative ratings/reviews. I can change the category of my page to "other community" to remove the rating system from the page https://www.facebook.com/changeratings/posts/445471405558046. That still leaves me with 11,000 illegitimate likes that are stealing away from my 250 legitimate fans from seeing our posts. Should I start over?
Social Media | | jstallings0 -
Facebook Blocking Site
This is been a big annoyance for me. My site was on wordpress before and was infected with malware at one point. We were blocked by major AV, Google, and etc but we got the infection cleaned up quickly and got unblocked. Problem now is that Facebook, we are still blocked on. We try to post a link and says we are harmful. We got unblocked from facebook and we posted but than they blocked us again. We have submitted multiple requests on that form but got no answer. As a marketing agency, having our facebook page blocked to our site is bad. What can we do in this situation? We have no direct contact with anyone at facebook nor do they reply to our requests. I do own a .net to my domain, should we start using that instead of .com or what? We really need to find a way out of this. It is hurting our reputation.
Social Media | | Tech-Critic0 -
Facebook doesn't "read" pages: 206 responsecode: Could not retrieve data from URL
Hello, Since shortly, every page of our website ecoheating.be doesn't get "read" by Google. So when you paste a page in Facebook, he doesn't get the title, description, image... FB Debugger says there's a 206 Error code (check attachment). A lot of changes are done the last weeks on this site so perhaps something is misconfigured. But what could this be? I've already check the htaccess and nothing there... Thanks, 0cphxGt
Social Media | | conversal0 -
Shortcut Link and Referral domain in Google Analytics
Hello, One of my clients has a Facebook page for his company, and his social media manager posts some promotional and educational posts on daily basis. the social media manager uses affiliate ID's in the destination URL to track traffic and leads that come from the social media and to make it look nicer he uses shortcut links service - bitly. Now I have a few questions about this: I don't see traffic comes from bit.ly or bitly.com in Google Analytics, my question: is using 301 redirect makes Google Analytics understand that the last website which sent the traffic to my website is not the actual Referral website? Is using shortcut links in the social media damages the links value (even though they are <nofollow>links - but still considered as signals from social media</nofollow> Thanks. LorS1nd.jpg
Social Media | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Changing FaceBook Username / url - do you retain your likes/fans
hi just a quickie, anyone know off hand when you change your FB username/url do you retain or lose the likes/fans ? cheers dan
Social Media | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
How can I track on my facebook page shared links without using short url redirect service?
Hi, I wondering how can I track and analyze on all my shared links in my facebook business page without using short url redirect service like: “Tiny” url or “bitly”? Thanks in advance.
Social Media | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Are links between a subdomain and a root domain internal or external?
We have a microsite on a subdomain that is kind of a community site that has articles posted to it several times per week. The articles are often relevant to topics covered on the root domain, so links are often included. My question is, are links between the subdomain and root domain considered internal or external? Also, how much of a difference does the location of the links make? For example, if we have a related links menu with links to the root domain is that good enough, or is it that much better to have the links embedded in the article text (toward the beginning of the article)?
Social Media | | unitedairlines0 -
Anyone tried out facebook like services from Fiverr?
Fiverr offers services like 1000 likes for $5!!! (and they seem to deliver) Sounds great but what is the catch? Has anyone tried out these type of services and more importantly what are the potential penalties?
Social Media | | Wallander0