Facebook Tests Show SEO May Be Possible With Open Graph

While Facebook has never been known for their powerful search functionality, the Open Graph may quickly be changing all of that. Thanks to integration with Facebook’s new Open Graph protocol, sites like TripAdvisor.com are now showing up in Facebook’s search results, with links back to their website, something Facebook previously never offered. We’ve been able to surface similar results, and our conclusion is that this could help Facebook expand their competition against Google.

Right now Facebook’s Open Graph has a relatively extensive list of types of objects that can be indexed. As described on the Open Graph protocol site, there are numerous objects that are broken down into the following categories: activities, businesses, groups, organizations, people, places, products and entertainment, and websites. Within each category is a number of specific object types.

In order to drive website administrators to adopt this open graph, Facebook will begin surfacing these objects within Facebook’s search results. Any publisher would love to show up in such results which is why this dynamic is so powerful. As Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized on numerous occasions, the future of Facebook is not on the site itself. Such a shift will not take place overnight however.

Right now, media companies appear to be the quickest to adopt Facebook’s new Open Graph standards, as online publications thrive on referral traffic. While we haven’t been able to find many examples of external objects showing up within search results, the screenshot below makes it pretty obvious what the future holds.

This also supports our argument that the like action is rapidly replacing the link. As Facebook focuses on reducing the friction on both the publisher end, as well as the users end for interacting with “Likes” around the web, the company is effectively creating the most structured search system on the internet. While the company invites others, like Google, to adopt the standard, Facebook is the only one who’s tracking the likes of each of those objects.

One strange aspect of the example posted below (which we’ve been able to duplicate), is that there is no Open Graph meta-tags included in the source code of the TripAdvisor page. We reached out to Facebook last night for clarification but haven’t heard back yet. We’ll be sure to update if we do. According to Brian Bagel of TIG Global, who tipped us off about this functionality, Yelp and a few other sites are also occasionally showing up in results.

Whatever the reason this information is being displayed, the possibility of SEO from Facebook in addition to traffic from sharing illustrates how Facebook could soon be competing with Google as publishers race to have their content indexed by the company.

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1518733 Comments2010-06-23+17%3A57%3A58Nick+O%27Neill »

Really great post and I can see how this will become increasingly important.

Comment by Adrian Eden — June 23, 2010 @ 1:56 pm
This is great news! It will be interesting to see the shift (and I think it will be a dramatic one) for SEO in the next couple of years especially with Facebook greatly impacting how people are discovering and consuming information on the web.

Comment by Helen Todd — June 24, 2010 @ 5:26 am
This is interesting and good to see they are taking this into consideration. My concern is the "internal search" for facebook when looking for a facebook page. It appears to have recently changed and alot of the facebook pages that we used to come up in facebook searches for, we no longer do. What changes have they made there and why??

Comment by Hannah — June 24, 2010 @ 7:28 am
Maybe it is about time Google sat up and took serious notice? It's certainly going to create new opportunities.

Game on methinks.

Comment by Philip Turpin — June 24, 2010 @ 11:36 am
Very interesting. You say Yelp shows up, too – this site cooperates with Facebook in the 'instant personalisation'-program. TripAdvisor can be considered an 'old buddy' of facebook, too, since their 'Cities I've visited'-app is one of the oldest and most popular Facebook-apps.

In conclusion I guess showing up in the search results is reserved for partners. How do you think about this? I'm eager to read more about this – please keep us posted

Comment by aharef — June 24, 2010 @ 11:33 pm
Link Building is all about finding quality back links and optimizing its usage for your businesses. Give your website the advantage of ranking on the top page of Google through Link Building. To get Visit Us at http://www.seorank.com/link-building-campaign.php

Comment by Anjali Sharma — June 25, 2010 @ 1:41 am
Wow! This is really game changing. I'm interested to know how Facebook is going to open up these results in a public way to compete on google's level.

Or are we perhaps seeing the continued emergence of Facebook as a portal or browser? If so they'll have to move away from Bing at some point and develop their own search technology. Having clear signals to help index (likes) should makes this far easier.

The mind boggles…

Comment by Joel — June 25, 2010 @ 5:03 am
This is great news and very provocative. Facebook should still try to increase the presence of its Fan Pages on Google search at the same time. Is that possible?

Peter

Comment by peter weiss — June 25, 2010 @ 9:59 am
Very interesting, going to open up a lot of opportunities for those who take advantage of this. Well, once the dust settles and it's more clear how it works.

Comment by Mike — June 25, 2010 @ 7:29 pm
Thanks for the great tip on what was going on. I can see how it will be a necessary tool in geo based marketing will be done. "Like" pages can be encumbersome at times when it comes to seo, but this will make a societal change in what is considered a complete package.

Enjoy the day,

James

Comment by James Stayton — June 25, 2010 @ 11:22 pm
So we have a bunch of Facebook marketers in the comments section.

Have you used the search on Facebook? Its a joke.

People don't go to Facebook to search.

Comment by Frank — June 27, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
great post! i find most anything to be possible for business when it comes to facebook, palo alto just published a really interesting white paper which discusses how to best maximize facebook http://bit.ly/brno0T

Comment by Kelly — June 29, 2010 @ 8:20 am
SEO is a great tool and has increasingly become popular day by day because of the customer satisfaction and a stronger customer support.

Comment by mirabel smith — July 2, 2010 @ 9:33 pm
Great post, I've incorporated the like button into as many of my sites as I can.

Comment by Bandon Sheley — July 5, 2010 @ 10:25 am
I was wondering if anybody knows when Facebook is going live with this search feature…unless I am mistaking, I don't see it on Facebook yet. Anybody know?

Comment by Brad Twersky — July 16, 2010 @ 9:35 am
very good!

Comment by Air Max TN — July 20, 2010 @ 4:27 pm
This is great news! It will be interesting to see the shift (and I think it will be a dramatic one) for SEO in the next couple of years especially with Facebook greatly impacting how people are discovering and consuming information on the web.

Comment by Sheley Stayton — November 9, 2010 @ 10:56 pm
impossible google++++++
He holds a surprise just waiting as facebook
to consume all resources and then bang bang!!!!!!!!

Comment by soboric1 — November 17, 2010 @ 12:14 am
[...] all major brands ‘ webpages incorporate search engine optimization tactics, but only 30 percent incorporate that same logic into their Facebook [...]

Pingback by Most Brands’ Facebook Pages Get Lost On Google — April 18, 2011 @ 1:43 pm
Facebook getting crucial into seo tactics and the integration of bing's search into facebook indicates the potential that have to be unleashed within this media.

Comment by on demand bi — May 5, 2011 @ 7:28 am
I think Facebook has really become an important part of any web user's life. It is really essential for every web user to perform Facebook SEO too

Comment by kukkumol — May 20, 2011 @ 1:59 pm
Facebook has become a major tool in my tool box. as a Realtor http://www.facebook.com/chooseahome is a major plus.

Comment by Don — June 20, 2011 @ 3:17 pm
Facebook has become a major tool in my tool box. as a Realtor http://www.facebook.com/chooseahome is a major plus.

Comment by Don — June 20, 2011 @ 3:17 pm
They don't now – because the search features sucks. But Facebook search will improve – and sites that get into the graph now will have an advantage.

Comment by Rafael — June 28, 2011 @ 9:10 am
I have just added the open graph protocals to my real estate website for intigration to the facebook search. I have closed several clients from this technology. I would also recoment adding a FB app that connects fans and friends to your outside of facebook pages. check mine out at http://apps.facebook.com/gulfsideland

Comment by lee Forbes — August 5, 2011 @ 10:59 am
To mix up your organic ranking approach with social & SEO is the only way now as social signals play too bigger part in the 'bigger' picture.

Comment by seo pay on results — August 13, 2011 @ 9:17 am
It's a shame about these dodgy comments – but I agree with @Frank – it's really one for the future

Comment by James — August 22, 2011 @ 11:04 am
Thanks for sharing. We just started usen OG protocol just for images at http://kinderbeddengoed.com. I'm eager to see more of this!

Comment by Kinderbeddengoed — September 13, 2011 @ 4:30 am
I believe Facebook Open Graph Protocol won't replace Google search any time soon or possibly not. but surely OGP will surely going to add a value to your website! Go for OGP guys!

ALSO GOOGLE is supporting Open Graph Protocol. Check this link: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answ...

Comment by Alpesh — September 23, 2011 @ 8:05 am
Great concept! You can see Facebook is trying to catch up and make it easier for everyone to navigate through billions of data. Thanks

Comment by David — October 25, 2011 @ 9:59 am
I can see how it will be a necessary tool in geo based marketing will be done. "Like" pages can be encumbersome at times when it comes to seo, but this will make a societal change in what is considered a complete package.

Comment by templatesspot — October 26, 2011 @ 6:41 am
It is good announcement that face book test about seo open graph. This is interesting fact to be known.

Comment by graphs — December 13, 2011 @ 5:15 am
[...] to the top of a search page on a social network is considerably easier than trying to get to the top of Google search results . [...]

Pingback by Help People Find You On Facebook Using Keywords — January 23, 2012 @ 10:51 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Really great post and I can see how this will become increasingly important.

Comment by Adrian Eden — June 23, 2010 @ 1:56 pm

This is great news! It will be interesting to see the shift (and I think it will be a dramatic one) for SEO in the next couple of years especially with Facebook greatly impacting how people are discovering and consuming information on the web.

Comment by Helen Todd — June 24, 2010 @ 5:26 am

This is interesting and good to see they are taking this into consideration. My concern is the "internal search" for facebook when looking for a facebook page. It appears to have recently changed and alot of the facebook pages that we used to come up in facebook searches for, we no longer do. What changes have they made there and why??

Comment by Hannah — June 24, 2010 @ 7:28 am

Maybe it is about time Google sat up and took serious notice? It's certainly going to create new opportunities.

Game on methinks.

Comment by Philip Turpin — June 24, 2010 @ 11:36 am

Very interesting. You say Yelp shows up, too – this site cooperates with Facebook in the 'instant personalisation'-program. TripAdvisor can be considered an 'old buddy' of facebook, too, since their 'Cities I've visited'-app is one of the oldest and most popular Facebook-apps.

In conclusion I guess showing up in the search results is reserved for partners. How do you think about this? I'm eager to read more about this – please keep us posted

Comment by aharef — June 24, 2010 @ 11:33 pm

Link Building is all about finding quality back links and optimizing its usage for your businesses. Give your website the advantage of ranking on the top page of Google through Link Building. To get Visit Us at http://www.seorank.com/link-building-campaign.php

Comment by Anjali Sharma — June 25, 2010 @ 1:41 am

Wow! This is really game changing. I'm interested to know how Facebook is going to open up these results in a public way to compete on google's level.

Or are we perhaps seeing the continued emergence of Facebook as a portal or browser? If so they'll have to move away from Bing at some point and develop their own search technology. Having clear signals to help index (likes) should makes this far easier.

The mind boggles…

Comment by Joel — June 25, 2010 @ 5:03 am

This is great news and very provocative. Facebook should still try to increase the presence of its Fan Pages on Google search at the same time. Is that possible?

Peter

Comment by peter weiss — June 25, 2010 @ 9:59 am

Very interesting, going to open up a lot of opportunities for those who take advantage of this. Well, once the dust settles and it's more clear how it works.

Comment by Mike — June 25, 2010 @ 7:29 pm

Thanks for the great tip on what was going on. I can see how it will be a necessary tool in geo based marketing will be done. "Like" pages can be encumbersome at times when it comes to seo, but this will make a societal change in what is considered a complete package.

Enjoy the day,

James

Comment by James Stayton — June 25, 2010 @ 11:22 pm

So we have a bunch of Facebook marketers in the comments section.

Have you used the search on Facebook? Its a joke.

People don't go to Facebook to search.

Comment by Frank — June 27, 2010 @ 11:12 pm

great post! i find most anything to be possible for business when it comes to facebook, palo alto just published a really interesting white paper which discusses how to best maximize facebook http://bit.ly/brno0T

Comment by Kelly — June 29, 2010 @ 8:20 am

SEO is a great tool and has increasingly become popular day by day because of the customer satisfaction and a stronger customer support.

Comment by mirabel smith — July 2, 2010 @ 9:33 pm

Great post, I've incorporated the like button into as many of my sites as I can.

Comment by Bandon Sheley — July 5, 2010 @ 10:25 am

I was wondering if anybody knows when Facebook is going live with this search feature…unless I am mistaking, I don't see it on Facebook yet. Anybody know?

Comment by Brad Twersky — July 16, 2010 @ 9:35 am

very good!

Comment by Air Max TN — July 20, 2010 @ 4:27 pm

Comment by Sheley Stayton — November 9, 2010 @ 10:56 pm

impossible google++++++
He holds a surprise just waiting as facebook
to consume all resources and then bang bang!!!!!!!!

Comment by soboric1 — November 17, 2010 @ 12:14 am

[...] all major brands ‘ webpages incorporate search engine optimization tactics, but only 30 percent incorporate that same logic into their Facebook [...]

Pingback by Most Brands’ Facebook Pages Get Lost On Google — April 18, 2011 @ 1:43 pm

Facebook getting crucial into seo tactics and the integration of bing's search into facebook indicates the potential that have to be unleashed within this media.

Comment by on demand bi — May 5, 2011 @ 7:28 am

I think Facebook has really become an important part of any web user's life. It is really essential for every web user to perform Facebook SEO too

Comment by kukkumol — May 20, 2011 @ 1:59 pm

Facebook has become a major tool in my tool box. as a Realtor http://www.facebook.com/chooseahome is a major plus.

Comment by Don — June 20, 2011 @ 3:17 pm

They don't now – because the search features sucks. But Facebook search will improve – and sites that get into the graph now will have an advantage.

Comment by Rafael — June 28, 2011 @ 9:10 am

I have just added the open graph protocals to my real estate website for intigration to the facebook search. I have closed several clients from this technology. I would also recoment adding a FB app that connects fans and friends to your outside of facebook pages. check mine out at http://apps.facebook.com/gulfsideland

Comment by lee Forbes — August 5, 2011 @ 10:59 am

To mix up your organic ranking approach with social & SEO is the only way now as social signals play too bigger part in the 'bigger' picture.

Comment by seo pay on results — August 13, 2011 @ 9:17 am

It's a shame about these dodgy comments – but I agree with @Frank – it's really one for the future

Comment by James — August 22, 2011 @ 11:04 am

Thanks for sharing. We just started usen OG protocol just for images at http://kinderbeddengoed.com. I'm eager to see more of this!

Comment by Kinderbeddengoed — September 13, 2011 @ 4:30 am

I believe Facebook Open Graph Protocol won't replace Google search any time soon or possibly not. but surely OGP will surely going to add a value to your website! Go for OGP guys!

ALSO GOOGLE is supporting Open Graph Protocol. Check this link: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answ...

Comment by Alpesh — September 23, 2011 @ 8:05 am

Great concept! You can see Facebook is trying to catch up and make it easier for everyone to navigate through billions of data. Thanks

Comment by David — October 25, 2011 @ 9:59 am

I can see how it will be a necessary tool in geo based marketing will be done. "Like" pages can be encumbersome at times when it comes to seo, but this will make a societal change in what is considered a complete package.

Comment by templatesspot — October 26, 2011 @ 6:41 am

It is good announcement that face book test about seo open graph. This is interesting fact to be known.

Comment by graphs — December 13, 2011 @ 5:15 am

[...] to the top of a search page on a social network is considerably easier than trying to get to the top of Google search results . [...]

Pingback by Help People Find You On Facebook Using Keywords — January 23, 2012 @ 10:51 am

Facebook Tests Show SEO May Be Possible With Open Graph

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Follow AllFacebook

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Social Media Jobs

Let your next job find you!

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Jobs of the Day

Digital Strategist

Digital/Social Media Manager - Entertainment

Social Media Coordinator

See all jobs

Upcoming Events

1518733 Comments2010-06-23+17%3A57%3A58Nick+O%27Neill »