What Kind of Articles do People Naturally Recommend on Facebook?

The short term answer: The same thing you find yourself naturally linking to!

That however isn’t really very accurate – only the concept is. Facebook has ~550 million users (It’s hard to keep up these days) in the U.S.A. and more growing every day. The number of webmasters out there is – well let’s just say a very small percentage of that. And the things that you and I are linking to, really isn’t what average people are going to be posting on their Facebook feeds.

The concept is the same however, as it is when you naturally link to something during link building or writing a post. People on Facebook recommend stuff that they like. Here is one great example (for all you sports fans out there) of an article called The Lessons of Nathaniel Jones.

I put this as an example because I found myself, without even thinking about it, recommending it on Facebook (plus it’s just an amazing article). No wonder, more than 9000 people have shared it on Facebook alone.

This is important because Google is leaning on social media now more than ever, and probably will do so more and more in the future. The reasons are simple. People want to read what their friends read.

Why else is this important?

Let’s take a look at the latest Google algorithm update: the Panda update (or farmers update).

This update was aimed at websites that were considered “content mills” and that’s characteristics included, but were not limited to, the following criteria:

• Low % of users returning to a site.
• Low visit times on page or site
• High bounce rate on page or site
• A low amount of original content on a page or site
• and finally Low or no mentions or links to a page or site in social media and from other sites.

As compared to the characteristics of your slightly below average “Guest Post:”

• One or Two links to the same web site
• No other links that increase the value of the article
• Below average, rehashed content
• ~ 400-600 words
• More often than not a BIO with keywords like “Guest Post” or “Guest Author” that more often than not contain a link
• No or very little conversation taking place
• and finally Low or no mentions or links to a page or site in social media and from other sites.

Basically, the below average guest posts that are used to manipulate Google’s search engine look like a potential victim to a Google Algorithm update as they have a set of defined criteria. It is only a matter of time before Google can legitimately separate the characteristics of a good guest post and a bad one and apply it in the SERPs.

This will however be hard to do, especially since good guest posts provide a lot of value on the Internet, and therefore should not be guilty by association with the guest posts that are merely aimed at link building.

That’s where social media comes in. Social media will make it easier for Google to apply Link related algo updates, because where links fail to rank correctly, social media – and the natural spread of quality content will not lie.

Did you notice something about the post I said I recommended to my Facebook friends? It had nothing to do with SEO. And unless you have about 500 friends on Facebook that all want to recommend your SEO article – you aren’t going to be doing too well in that category.

When it comes to SEO, if you want to make a good post that people will naturally recommend, you have to make it relevant to them. This can be very hard, as SEO to the average Joe is like Rocket Science. People will only recommend SEO articles naturally if:

• It directly affects them
• It is something they can relate to
• It is controversial
• It strikes emotions
• It gets them excited
• It shows them Why they should know about SEO

The urge to want to share something with your friends is something we all experience, and it is something that should be put into writing efforts.Whenever you are providing true value, you can be sure you will be safe from algo updates – and true value will soon be measured by social media.

This was a guest post by Philip Rudy. Philip helps to run and maintain www.inetzeal.com, which is a Internet marketing company that helps provides businesses with all of their SEO needs.