There has been an ugly rumor going around, started by some very large companies in fact, that Google cannot crawl Facebook pages.
As many of you know, Google has had problems crawling JavaScript and Ajax in the past. There are of course modifications you can make to help get this type of online content indexed, but you have to make the effort. Furthermore, there are really two categories of JavaScript and Ajax. There is JavaScript that once activated generates indexable content on the page and that when activated simply modifies the indexable content. It is really the activation that has been the problem for Google.
For example, the SEO Inc. Facebook page has plenty of great content on their new Facebook Business Page Timeline, but turn off JavaScript and visit the page and this is what you get.
As you can see, all of the posts are now missing due to turning off the Javascript.
So can Google crawl the content on the new Facebook Business Page Timlines? We believe so. First, lets take a look at a post by Matt Cutts.
As we can see, back in November of 2011 Matt Cutts confirmed that the Googlebot has the ability to execute Ajax and JavaScript to index some dynamic content. We would assume that Google would do everything in their power to index Facebook content. So it is pretty safe to believe that they are using these or similar abilities to index Facebook pages.
Furthermore, any SEO can look at their backlink profile in webmaster tools and see links from Facebook pages.
As of now, all signs point to Google being able to crawl Facebook pages and index Facebook backlinks. Have question or comment? Leave it below!
Footnotes
As many of you know, Google has had problems crawling JavaScript and Ajax in the past. There are of course modifications you can make to help get this type of online content indexed, but you have to make the effort. Furthermore, there are really two categories of JavaScript and Ajax. There is JavaScript that once activated generates indexable content on the page and that when activated simply modifies the indexable content. It is really the activation that has been the problem for Google.
For example, the SEO Inc. Facebook page has plenty of great content on their new Facebook Business Page Timeline, but turn off JavaScript and visit the page and this is what you get.
As you can see, all of the posts are now missing due to turning off the Javascript.
Can Google Crawl Facebook
Can Google Crawl Ajax and JavaScript Matt Cutts
Furthermore, any SEO can look at their backlink profile in webmaster tools and see links from Facebook pages.
Webmaster Tools Facebook Backlinks
Footnotes
- Facebook has commented out content. However, Google would still have the ability to access this. An exception may be being made for Facebook.
- The webmaster tools backlink report shows links from Facebook pages as well as http://en-gb.facebook.com subdomain.
