10 SEO Reasons Why Facebook Should be Part of Your SEO Strategy

Facebook SEO, Google SEO, Niagara SEO, SEO 101, Social SEO

A year ago now, both Google and Bing announced that they factor social signals from social media into their organic search algorithms. As the lines between social media and SEO continue to thin, social media will gain importance for SEO. As Google described it, social media is about relationships and relationships prove relevance and relevance is at the core of organic search.

It’s well known that Facebook has 800 million active users and 50% log in every day. These numbers are astounding! I guarantee you that your customers and prospects are included in those numbers. They are on Facebook and they are likely trying to engage with your brand. If you don’t yet have a Facebook Page for your organization you really ought to consider optimizing your web presence to include one.

Here are 10 SEO reasons why your organization needs a Facebook presence:

  1. Google and Bing crawl and index Facebook Pages because they are publicly available. As a result, Facebook Pages do indeed come up in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
  2. Google announced in early November 2011 that they now crawl and index Facebook Comments.
  3. People are starting their searches at the Facebook search box. Test to see if your brand comes up when you search for it in Facebook.
  4. SEO is now about web presence optimization (WPO) and Facebook is a must for any web presence.
  5. Your target audience (unless you think they are not included in the 800 million Facebook users) is hanging out there.
  6. The “Like” button is the new “backlink”.
  7. The “Liker” (the Facebook User who did the “Liking”) is the new “lead” or “contact”.
  8. Your Facebook presence adds quality backlinks to your website.
  9. Facebook is easily accessible on mobile devices giving your prospects and clients easy access to your content and brand.
  10. Your competitors most likely have a Facebook presence.

SEO as a digital marketing tactic continues to evolve because our friends, at places such as Google, keep adjusting their organic search algorithms. In fact, it is estimated that in the past 12 months Google made 500 adjustments to their algorithm. As the lines between SEO and social media continue to fade, we can count on one thing – that Google will continue to tweak their algorithm to include more emphasis on social signals coming from not just Facebook, but also Twitter and Google +1.