Does Facebook Messages count as a social signal factor?
-
Hi,
We know that social signals are usually referred to as a webpage's collective likes, comments or shares. But what about the Facebook messages generated from the messenger plugin on a web page?
Especially on a business page, if one business page receives hundreds of Facebook messages through a landing page or blog page, does that count as social shares?
And how effective is social signals are for a website in 2020? Although social engagement is always good for any website, my question is, how logical is it to purchase "social signal gigs" from konker or Fiverr or other gig markets?
We run a social media marketing company in Australia, our website: https://www.playchat.com.au and we get a lot of messages every day through the messenger add on from our home page. Will that make any difference whatsoever?
Looking forward to hearing from you. I appreciate any help you can provide.
-
As a digital marketing strategist in Malappuram| Kerala, I can say that it's a No, Facebook messages themselves do not count as a social signal for SEO. However, overall engagement on Facebook, such as shares, likes, and comments on public posts, can indirectly influence SEO by driving traffic to your website and increasing visibility. Social signals can enhance your brand’s online presence, but they are not direct ranking factors in search engine algorithms.
-
Facebook Messages—referring to private communications sent via Facebook Messenger—do not count as social signal factors in the context of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or social media engagement metrics. Here's why:
Understanding Social Signals
Social signals are public interactions on social media platforms that can influence the visibility and reputation of content or brands online. Common social signals include:
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Retweets
- Mentions
- Public Posts and Interactions
These signals are typically visible to anyone viewing the content and can contribute to how content is perceived both by users and search engines.
Why Facebook Messages Aren't Considered Social Signals
Privacy: Facebook Messages are private conversations between users. Since they are not publicly visible, they don't contribute to the public metrics that social signals represent.
Lack of Visibility: Social signals rely on publicly accessible interactions. Private messages don't influence how content is shared or perceived on a public scale.
No Direct Impact on SEO: Search engines primarily consider public content and interactions when evaluating social signals. Private messages have no direct bearing on search rankings or online visibility.
-
Facebook Messages, typically referring to private messages exchanged between users, do not count as a direct social signal factor for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes. Social signals generally refer to public interactions on social media platforms, such as likes, shares, comments, and the overall engagement a piece of content receives. These signals can influence search engine rankings by indicating the popularity and relevance of content.
While Facebook Messages might contribute to user engagement and content sharing indirectly, they are private and not easily measurable by search engines. Therefore, they do not directly impact SEO in the same way public social media interactions do.
-
Totally agree with Kate, Google doesn't have access to this information, an uptick in messages is a good thing if you can tie that back to your business being more popular but I definitely wouldn't pay to have bots send messages for the sake of SEO.
-
My guess is no. It might correlate someday, the number of messages and how generally popular you become, but messages are not public data. Google and Bing can't crawl that data, so they can't use it. Social signals like likes, replies, reviews, etc are available metrics, so they can at least be taken into account. However, it was and still remains not a direct signal, more of a correlation.
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 to rip benefits of Facebook Group likes and shares?
Hi guys. So, here is the question/task I'm battling for several days: As you know, you can't share as a company page in facebook groups. However, you can on other pages. If I share on other page, and people like my post, I can invite those people to like my page, no problem there. However, if I want to share a post in FB group, I can only share as myself, and whenever people like that post, they like a post of me as a person, therefore I can't invite them to like my page, unless I add them as a friend (which is not the best scenario really). The same question goes towards when someone shares a post. So, what is the best way to get some benefits from people I can't invite to like a page directly? Thanks!
Social Media | | DmitriiK0 -
What is the value of having a social media feed displayed on your website?
This is something I asked myself this evening. You see a lot of sites with a Facebook or Twitter feed displayed, but I struggle to understand their value. OK, it shows that you are active on this or that social media channel, but unless you are posting great content consistently on the social media displayed, the impact of your feed could detract from the web page it is displayed on. It could also cause a visitor to that page on your site to click away from your site into the noise and distraction of that social media channel. I don't have an issue with using social media icons to link to your channels, but they are more discreet and the sort of thing people will look for if they are interested enough in your web pages to want to connect with you. Also, social sharing icons are good, but I do not see the value in social media feeds. Do you agree or disagree? I am more than will to be persuaded otherwise. Thanks in advance,
Social Media | | crackingmedia
Peter0 -
Looking for A Social media sentiment tracking solution
Greetings from OS grid reference SE404481 🙂 I really like the graph on slide 16 of this presentation:http://www.slideshare.net/stevelatham/social-media-strategy-spur-interactive I would like to replicate this but I would like to know if any SEOMOZ member could recommend a tool that can monistor sentiments eg positive & negative commments about a brand across different social media platforms. I also wonder how these packages measure negativity, do they just scan word negative words? Thanks in advance, David
Social Media | | Nightwing0 -
Social Media Signals with AddThis?
Good day guys, Just a quick question. By having the AddThis sharing tool to share content such as blogs, does it still send the same social signals to Google as you would get by having the official Facebook/Twitter plug-ins? Regards
Social Media | | Michael-Goode0 -
Facebook Admins
Hello, Can you give admin status to a user, that doesn't give them the ability to remove other admins. This would be editor or contributor in wordpress. The concern here is that an admin can delete the other admins. IF ATT gave admin to a disgruntled employee, they could lose a page for some time. Thanks
Social Media | | tylerfraser0 -
Linkbuilding vs. Social -- Allocating scarce resources.
I just watched Rand's latest webinar on the end of search without social. It was very timely for me because I've been putting a lot of thought into how allocate my available person-hours. It is clear that SEO these days necessitates both linkbuilding and social. But how much of each? (50%/50%?, 80%/20%?, etc.) -For the DIY small business owner (<10 hours per week available for SEO) -For SEO savvy web business (~20 hours per week available of SEO) -For in-house or other full time SEO's (30+ hours available) Clearly it depends on a lot of other factors, I'm just looking for a good rule of thumb that can be adjusted according to the business.
Social Media | | JesseCWalker0 -
Facebook code used in Huffington Post
I like the call-to-action button that HuffPo uses on its FB button, where with one click, a user on their site can 'Like' their main page on Facebook without actually having to go there (assuming that they're logged in, of course). I'd love to use it on my site but... I'm trying to understand how this works. It seems like it's a custom wrapper, as i'm not seeing the toolset in dev tools (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/ etc) Anyone know about this?
Social Media | | EricPacifico0 -
Social Media and Reporting
Hello All, I am looking for some opinions regarding social media plans. We are looking to provide plans as follows: plan a Facebook/Twitter setup 1 hour training Google Local set up Slideshare 4 facebook posts/mo 4 tweets/mo (original, not syndicated) content brief 2 downloadable objects (slideshows, pdfs, brochures ect) and submitted to slideshare 2 press releases and submitted to pr outlets Plan b Acct set up 1 groupon or living social deal squidoo scribd. flickr setup 2 hour training on tools 8 facebook posts/mo 8 tweets/mo google local 3 press releases 2 downloadable pieces submission to slideshare (with lead generation) content brief Plan C Acct set up 1 groupon or living social deal squidoo hubpages scribd. flickr setup 2 hour training on tools 12 facebook posts/mo 12 tweets/mo google local yahoo local 4 press releases 2 downloadable pieces submission to slideshare (with lead generation) content brief Plan D Choose your own adventure this will be where a client can choose up to 4 of the aforementioned services with a 2 hour training session and the price will be custom. I really appreciate your assistance and look forward to your wise responses!!
Social Media | | imageworks-2612900