Hi,

 

I have read across the web but only got confused about this topic.

What I simply want to do is to add a Like or Recommend button in the header of my site.

No matter from which page the user clicks the button it should like the site in overall (the home page).

Now I have the first issue:

1. Should I specify the URL to be liked as my site URL
2. Or the FB fan site I created

If I understood well it should be option 2 since 2012 November 7.

But then how do I link my site to the Facebook fan page?

Facebook says on the topic:

 

App ID of a Facebook App representing the particular site

But I found no resources that would clarify what is a FB app that represents a page...

 

And if Likes go for the Facebook page, will search engines give credit for it to my site?

My #1 competitor has 900 Likes and I think this strongly contributes to it's first rank in search results.

Can anybody explain or give a useful link?

Found a correct guide here:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/facebook-open-graph-wordpress/

 

And also found a blackhat SEO method that I will use to customize the standard look of the Like button that I don't like:

http://www.esrun.co.uk/blog/disguising-a-facebook-like-link/

 

A possible replacement image I'm considering:

http://valleylanes.net/images/LikeUsOnFacebook_Icon.jpg

 

Now I'm only looking for the answer for the question:

If all likes go to the URL of the Facebook page and not to my own URL then how can Google associate the number of likes with my site?

For me it's the difference between like (to their wall) and 'share' (via a friends wall). I've read many options for this but I normally 'like' the main domain url and 'share' the url they are viewing. In addition I then add a social bar for following via different channels. I think Google picks up everything, people who 'like' your facebook page and those who 'like' your url. I've mixed results on clients without actual social network channels (e.g. they can't be 'bothered' with it all) so this method works quite well, but open to those who know better

A small adjustment to what you said:

Facebook did an update to their systems on 2012 November 7. After that date likes are no longer posted on the liker's timeline, but on the FB Page assigned to your site (old name fan page). Also after the same update FB doesn't recommend liking the URL of the page any more but the FB Page (old name fan page) instead. As the links posted suggest a FB App has to be created to link the FB Page to the original site URL.

I'm just wondering now how Google associate the likes of the FB fan page with the site itself. All likes to see to go to the FB page now.

I use some SEO tools to count Likes of my competitors that seem not to be able to follow this logic.

e.g. One competitor has 900 likes but the tool displays only 1. Explanation is not available.

A small adjustment to what you said:

Facebook did an update to their systems on 2012 November 7. After that date likes are no longer posted on the liker's timeline

 

I did a lot of research on this and found the same, however on my facebook I noticed that some users likes are still being updated to my timeline. For the life of me I have been unable to find out how!

I guess they pay Facebook to be able to post on your wall...

I would prefer carrying the link to my Facebook page and posting it wherever I feel there would be scope for good interaction. Using Black Hat SEO may be fine now but it is definitely not recommended in the long run.

What about tutorials for:

• fabebook like button (for website, not wordpress);
• facebook share;
• linked in share;
• tweet;
• G+ one;

There are plenty of poor quality tutorials and outdated ones, but not many good ones out there.

Personally I wouldn't use any of the 'widgets' that are available - purley because they can slow down your website signifficantly.

 

Instead I would use Facebook's official intergration options, they are easy to use as it's just a copy and paste.

 

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/

That first one Mango, is that out of date now? I'm logging into developers and creating new app, then clicking on websites and there is no 'create facebook app'.

Yes, the first option is outdated. It seems likes should be credited to the FB fan site.

This doesn't apply for liking individual items, like an article or a product.

I don't remember how I created my app, but I did it about the same date when I started this thread. I don't think FB changed since then. It must be around there somewhere.