To many SEO companies it seems like an easy formula.
Increasing your social media interactions increases the user interactions which increases your Google rankings. So, start at the beginning and increase your social media interactions to increase your Google rankings. Voila! It’s done.
No. Be cautious of SEO companies which tell you they can increase your Facebook likes to 1,000 by the weekend. This may sound like a great perk, I couldn’t get 1,000 likes by this weekend or 3 months for that matter, but fake likes don’t increase your value.
If you haven’t, read my post on: Fake Social Media Fans or Google Reviews
Facebook Cracking Down on Fake Likes
The main goal of cracking down on fake likes is to stop programs which generate fake “likes” for a business. Although this is said to possibly influence only a handful of likes, Facebook wants to act now to take a stand against poor business practices. My theory is that they know that social media plays a role with Google, and by taking action to have integrity in their metrics they will continue to be included. I can understand this, if they begin to lose integrity for being a true source of reviews, they will become mis-leading and less used.
In all honesty, I would not say many users go onto their Facebook pages and view a business and determine if that business has 100 likes they must be great! There is not a cap on the amount of likes a page can have, whereas a true rating system is on a fixed scale. More or less I have found it true that many Facebook users like a business page as more of a way to “subscribe” to the business’s news feed. I personally liked SEOmoz on Faceboook so that I could see their news feed in the mix with all my friends post updates. Not because I wanted to check them out on Facebook and evaluate how many likes they had to determine if I was willing to visit their website. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the legitimacy of Facebook acting on this issue.
If not that, then this?
Here is my possible speculation on what is really going on. Some articles have quoted that with the improved elimination of fake likes it will only affect 1% or less likes on any given page. That seems like a very small amount to make a big deal about.
My theory is we should be expecting a rating system similar to Yelp and Google Local Pages. Since people are checking in quite often through Facebook pages linking reviews seems to be the next logical step. What do you think?
Oh… speaking about Fake “likes” you should like our page on Facebook >> Like Here