A client asked me to tell him if he should go with a vanity URL on Facebook. He is worried it will hurt his ranking of the fan page in Google.
The thinking is that his fanpage is separated by dashes like this facebook.com/fan-page/1234.
Whereas a vanity url can only be this facebook.com/fanpage/ or facebook.com/fan.page/
I give my opinion on this video. I use my own personal profile and my Fan Pages as examples in this video.
- http://www.facebook.com/tim.okeefe
- http://www.facebook.com/spider.juice.technologies
And as of this moment it seems Google cached my new url structure on Feb. 17th.
And the ranking has actually stayed in the same position since the video. Now to be completely intellectually honest we have to realize that my clients phrase and name of his fan page has more competitors than a brand name like mine. So we have to consider that fact. However, I do believe it will stay the same if all else is equal withing Facebook. (relatively same friends counts (links) and same inbound links from outside Facebook to the Fan page)
I was really interested in seeing if a fanpage can rank, and I see they do, from your video. However, do you think a fan page would rank better than a squidoo page, or hubpage?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Alex
http://www.blingcovers.com
Posted by: Account Deleted | April 7, 2011 at 11:02 AM
Alex yes I think it would although I have not tested it.
One reason is that the content tends by nature to be more useful and active so I would assume Google would give it more weight. But that is just a guess on my part.
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | April 7, 2011 at 11:13 AM
Yeah, that's what I "assume" too, but I've never seen a facebook ranking in my searches... that's why I was asking about it. There're fanpages about generic niches (such as bir watching and whatnot) and I don't see them ranking... Now I was curious if there was some sort of testing done on a more targeted keyword and see how the fanpage would rank.
Thanks,
Alex
Posted by: Account Deleted | April 7, 2011 at 11:19 AM
I dont see hub or sqidoos either. Except for long tailey keywords.
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | April 7, 2011 at 11:23 AM
That's true in most cases, altho I've seen a few ranking for pretty good keywords. Now, I just home facebook will help us improve on on site SEO for the fanpages.
By the way: have you tried any off site SEO for fanpages (linkbuilding, etc)?
Posted by: Account Deleted | April 7, 2011 at 11:25 AM
I wouldn't spend lots of money on "real estate" that I don't control like Facebook. Might as well build up your own site. At best these things are long tail plays. Major link muscle needs to go into your site. The reason these things do get found and we like to use them is their natural linking that happens on their own. Sometimes you might give it a little help. But FB ranks because of its own internal linking (friends).
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | April 7, 2011 at 11:34 AM
It's an interesting experiment that you've demonstrated, but it seems like a safer bet to pursue our own web media to have greater control over as you say.
Posted by: Milan Cole | April 13, 2011 at 07:34 PM