Social Signals and SEO

[chris.green]

What is more beneficial in regards to SEO and Social Signals.  A like button that "Likes" your web site or your associated Facebook page?

[eatyourveggies]

I'm actually not entirely sure how much access Google has to this kind of information. Over the last few years my opinion is there's been ongoing debate about exactly what Google can see in terms of Facebook data but it's clear that Facebook (social) signals do seem to have a correlation to rankings.

Just to clarify, people can't "like" a website (well, they can like the home page, but that's just the home PAGE, not the web SITE), so you have can have a "like" button on every page of your website.

You can also encourage people to like your facebook page.

And as a side, "like" and "recommend" are the same thing. "Share" takes a little more effort from the user and I don't think many people use "share" any more, not too sure.

But why not have both buttons? - a like button on all key pages of your website and also encourage people to like your facebook page.

Someone liking your web page means it'll appear in their news feed, their friends will see it, and then that's it. Liking a facebook page means you have that person seeing all activity on your facebook page.

I know you're asking about SEO / Google / Social Signals but I thought it was worth clarifying the above as I'm sure while you want better rankings, you also want more traffic to both your site and your facebook page.

You can associate your website with your facebook page and using Open Graph, post updates to that page and they'll appear on the feeds of anyone who has liked your facebook page.

As for which is better? I'd like to see if someone actually has an answer to that. I haven't been able to find specific information on exactly what Google sees, what it indexes, and what social signals it takes into account.

Adam