SEO: How to Rank Facebook Notes on the First Page of Google

Do you shop on Black Friday or Boxing Day? I don’t like going out on busy shopping days, especially Black Friday or Boxing Day (Canada). There’s too much to handle, especially when you think of all the news about people fighting over boxes and even spraying mace in eachother’s eyes – yikes! And although I’m one to go elbow to elbow with crazy shoppers, that didn’t stop me from shopping online! So this past Black Friday, I was price shopping online for a set of Knives; The Bay and Canadian Tire had almost identical sets of Cuisinart knives on sale and wanted to see if they were a good deal or not. And to my surprise, I found a Facebook note ranked 9th in my Google results page for, “Black Friday Cuisinart Knives”:

how-to-rank-facebook-notes-seo-cuisinart-knives

If you noticed in the first screenshot above, the post was published on November 25, 2011. So that means it only took that note 15 or less days to achieve it’s Google position. It should be no secret by now that Google factors in content freshness and social media a considerable amount, so seeing this post rank quickly is no surprise to me. In fact, my blog posts usually only take about 3 to 5 minutes to rank within the top 3 positions for the keywords I optimized it for.

Facebook Notes Ranking on the First Page of Google

I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed this, but I’m probably one of few that are actually going to test this out right now so I’m pumped to do this test and show you how I ranked one of my Facebook Notes on the first page of Google SERP.

How to Rank Your Facebook Notes on the First Page of Google

Here’s what I’m going to do:

  1. Pick a Long Tail Keyword to Rank for. The Cuisinart note was optimized for “Cuisinart 14-piece cutlery set”.
  2. Create a Facebook note on the company’s Facebook page and optimize for the keyword.
  3. Write a blog post about the same thing and reference the Facebook note and link to it.
  4. Wait and observe results.
  5. Update this post at each step

1. Long Tail Keyword

“Buy FLIR Infrared Cameras in Canada”

Although some of you might think that this is one hell of a long tail keyword, one thing to point out is that it’s a unique long tail keyword but one that serves its purpose for targeted buyers looking to purchase a branded product in Canada where availability is limited compared to most parts of the US. My Google Analytics keyword source report & Google Adwords keyword trigger report both shows people do search for this keyword. I actually have “buy flir” as one of my phrase-match keywords in Adwords.

2. Create Facebook Note (December 9, 2011 Update)

Created Facebook Note, “Buy FLIR Infrared Cameras in Canada”
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150404614296423

facebook-note-buy-flir-infrared-cameras-in-canada

3. Write a blog post about the same topic (December 14, 2011 Update)

Created a similar blog post on company blog, “Where Can I Buy FLIR Infrared Cameras in Canada” http://www.optimumenergy.com/where-can-i-buy-flir-infrared-cameras-in-canada/

blog-post-where-can-i-buy-flir-infrared-cameras-in-canada
If you look closely to the blog post, its practically identical content. One thing to note is that because the content is the same Google didn’t rank the blog post for the same search. This is because of the way Google handles duplicate content where in most cases it will choose the rank the first instance of the copy (whomever published it first) and will give less importance value to other iterations. Blogs are wicked for ranking, but only if you’ve got unique and valuable content, otherwise Google and everyone else is going to write better and ignore what you’ve got to say because its a regurgitation of what everyone else has said.

4. Results, 3 Months Later (Updated March 14 2012)

Yes, 3 months later; I’ve got a new job! I didn’t have time to check to see how this post was going until now. Nonetheless, I still had this experiment going; what good would it be if I didn’t check the results and finished this puppy? Well my friends, today I checked to see how the page I crafted on the company’s Facebook page ranked for our term, “Buy FLIR Infrared Cameras in Canada”. And to my surprise…

seo-tactics-how-to-rank-facebook-notes-first-page-in-google

Final Note

While it may be possible to rank well for a topic with another medium ie. Facebook notes, it’s difficult or even impossible to give true attribution because Facebook notes don’t actually allow you to put a link in the copy so a visitor would have to manually copy paste the URL in the address bar.

Based on a recent study by Slingshot SEO, on average consumers took 2.79 interactions before converting. Although the article focused more on the how SEO is undervalued, My experiments have shown me that tactics like these shouldn’t be ignored, but are almost impossible to measure and give proper attribution especially if you don’t have enterprise class web analytics solution.

Always Be Experimenting! Set Yourself Apart from other “SEO’s”

As an Internet Marketer, I observe search engine results differently than many people out there because I see things from the inside-out and if I can, I take time out of my busy day to figure out the “why”.

Like this post? Let me know in a comment below!

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6 responses to “SEO: How to Rank Facebook Notes on the First Page of Google”

  1. Davone Avatar
    Davone

    hey there i really like this post i was lookin everywhere about how to get my facebook notes ranked. …and a little update for is that you can get a link into the notes of facebook…using a good prograam that i sign up for….if you want i can give you a copy of the program inturn i just want you to give me a little advice….thank you.. you got my e mail.

  2. Joseph Chambers Avatar
    Joseph Chambers

    King! I see your first submitted article from inbound. NICE! Im glad you like it! Great article.

    1. King Rosales Avatar
      King Rosales

      Hey Joseph! thanks, its sometimes nice to share my experiment results. Thanks for introducing me to inbound, keep up the great work!

  3. Money Avatar
    Money

    Still this idea works ? please let me know, because i am facing some problems to getting index in google.

    Thanks

  4. Lee Juan Avatar

    Still working right now? (Sept 2016)

    1. King Rosales Avatar
      King Rosales

      Hi Lee, I havent checked haha! I’ve moved on from that company years ago, so I dont even know if that post still exists on their Facebook page because they were bought out. But just with any link, there’s always competition and freshness as well. Links play a big role of course, so as cool as this is, it may have only served us temporarily but still was a really cool experiment for me and I got results :)

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