Video transcription
Okay, we’re back to answer some questions on video and you might notice something a little different about me. We record a whole bunch of videos all at once and then we spool them out over the course of a few months. And so, this is the first set of videos we are recording with basically no hair on my head.
And so, now, people don’t have to wonder about, did I grow my hair really fast? Did it shave off? What happened? Let’s go ahead and dive in.
Mani, from Delhi, asks a question and says, “Links from relevant and important sites have always been a great way to get traffic and acceptance for a website. How do you rate links from new platforms like Twitter, and Facebook to a website?”
Okay, so, my standard answer, and I’m talking about web search rankings, has always been that Google basically treats links the same, you know. We use the fact that you have PageRank.
So, we know how reputable the site is, and so, you don’t just look at the number of links to a site. You look at how reputable those links are, and links don’t really matter whether they come from a .gov or an .edu. And then applies to Twitter or Facebook as well.
Now, one thing that’s kind of interesting that you have to bear in mind with Twitter and Facebook, let’s start with Facebook.
A lot of those profiles are not public. And Google can only assign PageRank on the outgoing links if we can fetch the page to see what the outgoing links are, and so, if you profile on Facebook it’s completely public where Google can crawl it.
Then those links might flow PageRank. If we can’t fetch them then they probably cannot.
Most links on Twitter tend to be no followed. And that leads to a first approximation that’s probably a good answer for Twitter not to have to worry quite so much about Spam and people trying to just like crowd them up with all kinds of links.
So while at least in our Web search, our organic rankings, we treat links the same from Twitter or Facebook, or you know, pick your favorite platform or website. Just like we treat links from WordPress or edus or gov like that.
It’s not like a link from an edu automatically carries more weight or a link from a gov automatically carries more weight. But the specific platforms might have issues, whether it’s not being crawled or whether it might be no follow that would keep those particular links from flowing into PageRank.
Quick Answer: Google treats all links the same