Linking to your Facebook Page - Good or Bad Idea?

[crobb305]

I can't find any opinions on this. Since we began linking to our FB page, our rankings have dropped significantly. A #1 spot for 4 years, dropped to #12. Obviously, many factors could have caused this, but we haven't made any changes to the site. My gut tells me that linking to the FB page has caused a subtle drop in our PageRank, enough to affect our rankings.

All things equal, would you guys expect a negative impact from linking out to the FB page? I see very few sites in the top 20 in my industry who link to FB. I am just looking at this from the standpoint of outlinking. I have always believed that linking to quality external sources have a positive user/SEO benefit. But am not so sure about linking to your FB page, which reciprocates links back to your site. I'm starting to think there is very little benefit to doing this.

[tedster]

I definitely would not expect a ranking drop because of linking to my Facebook page. Nothing wrong with the link back either. In fact, that should provide beneficial "circulation", something like linking to your own internal page that links back.

In fact, reciprocal links of any kind shouldn't hurt unless they involve a bad neighborhood. After a certain level they might not help anymore, however - but they won't hurt.

[proboscis]

Could your facebook page be in a bad neighborhood?

I don't know if that can happen, users can share information and upload photos, can they add links too?

[crobb305]

It just seems that the highest-ranking sites in my industry have zero outbound links on the homepage, very small pages, and most don't even have a FB page at all. I used to belong to the school of thought that quality outbound links were good (both for the user and for SEO), but I don't see a lot of evidence for that right now. I held #1 for 4 years on my competitive term, but now at #10, a gradual decline that began when I created the FB page a few months ago. This is just very odd to me. I feel like I am sending PageRank off to the fan page. I know PageRank is just one factor in the algorithm, but I just wonder if I made a mistake by linking to the FB page. I do not use nofollow at all (and I don't want to start).

Just speculation here. The Facebook thing is relatively new, so I was hoping to find others with experience (either increases or decreases in rankings) after linking to their FB page. Also, just for clarification, I am not referring to the "Like" button. I am referring to a simple "Find Us on Facebook" button. I have given the "Like" button some consideration, but I worry about the significant reduction in page load time that some have reported (but that is another issue).

Thanks for the replies :)
C

[crobb305]

proboscis, I can't imagine that it's a bad neighborhood. I only allow likes and comments (which I delete if inappropriate), I disallow wall postings, and no one has ever left links. There really isn't a lot of participation, so I am starting to feel like it's pointless (although Bing may like it).

[ecmedia]

To me it appears that this is just coincidence. So many websites now link to FB and nothing bad happens. The culprit is something else.