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Back, just about six years ago, Google told us Facebook likes don't influence Google rankings and that statement remains true in 2017, just like it did in 2011. Gary Illyes from Google said the same thing yesterday on Twitter.
Truth is, I am surprised the question doesn't come up more often. Why doesn't Google use Facebook likes in rankings? Well, because the data can be blocked from Google to access it. Also because it can be easily manipulated. I suspect they tried to see if it would impact search quality at all but decided for probably one of those two reasons not to go forward with it.
Here is Gary's tweet:
@lordofseo cos we don't use Facebook likes to rank pages?
— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) March 28, 2017
As you see, Gary wrote "we don't use Facebook likes to rank pages."
And yes, it is a good topic to cover after six years.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
