Facebook & SEO & Google ranking...

[LiteMyFuseJewels]

Okay, first let me state that SEO and Google page ranking, etc., are topics that make my head spin. My understanding of these is basic at best.

My question is whether or not having a business page on FB is helpful to SEO & ranking of my shop on Google? If it's not helpful, I'm thinking of closing my FB account because most people I know are leaving FB due to the privacy issues that keep coming up. Plus, most of my family & friends have been on it for quite a while and the "newness" and frenzied fun that it was when we first joined has now worn off.

What are your thoughts? And should I just keep my account open because it helps SEO and Google ranking? I do have a decent number of fans, but they all know my shop address so I know they'd still be able to find me if I closed my FB account.

BTW, I don't Twitter or have a blog. Just the FB business page.

[LiteMyFuseJewels]

I gotta go mop floors so I'll check back later to see if anyone responded. Thanks!

[LiteMyFuseJewels]

Hmmmm, I only got 2 responses on the main forums. Anyone know if FB business page is helpful to our Google ranking? Or if it helps with SEO? If not, I want to cancel my FB. I keep my business page updated, but the personal page not so much. And I know if I cancel the personal page it will also cancel my business page.

What to do, what to do....

[LaceyClaireDesigns]

Well, I had a customer tell me yesterday she found me through FB, if that helps any . . . from what I understand about SEO and the way it works is that the more clickthroughs and viable links you have to your Etsy shop, the more it helps you to get to the top of the google pages. Now, I've only been selling on Etsy since September 2010, so my shop still doesn't come up in google search (even though I'm syndicated) but if you search my shop name, FB is one of the links that comes up first. I don't think you should cancel it - it's free advertising.

[LiteMyFuseJewels]

Thanks, Lacey for responding. I too have had people find me through FB, although not a huge amount. But if it helps with SEO then I think I'll keep it up. Maybe the solution for me is to just keep posting on my business page, but ignore my personal page since most of the people I know are leaving FB.

[LazyTcrochet]

It makes my head spin too. The Handmadeology Team has a lot of great info. and threads. Maybe you could find help there?
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7316/handmadeology

[secondarycreations]

In general, as far as SEO, any incoming links are Very Good Things. I've heard that Facebook puts a "no follow" on the links there, though, which would make them less useful. I don't do Facebook, so I don't have any way to see if that's true or not.

[fineheart]

Links which are 'no follow links' on Google can still help with other search engines like Yahoo, MSN, So I would keep the FB page. If you are thinking of taking FB down and switching to a blog, the blog link would have more relative linking value for SEO.

[LaceyClaireDesigns]

Glad to see you are keeping it LMF - I found FB can be useful as long as you arne't spamming with your products constantly. I try to talk about team-mates stuff, freebies I know about, or interesting articles I find (half I find through following a bunch of people on twitter). I do want to start a blog as I know that helps big time with SEO as fineart says, but for now FB is a good little blog that doens't require that much time or effort.

The more cross promotion you can build up, the more it may help with your sales??