On a recent Wednesday night, I had 173 Facebook ‘like’ votes on my
website. On the following Thursday morning that number had inexplicably
dropped to 151.
I watch my website’s ‘like’ vote tally on a daily basis. Having only
had that button on my website for fewer than six months, it gives me
hope that people are happy with my work. Although I have nothing on my
Facebook page and avoid any activity on it whatsoever, I have added
social endorsement buttons to my website based on Google’s recent
interest in them.
I’ve often wondered how to find out who has been ‘liking’ my website.
So I consulted my website’s ‘like’ vote statistic page in my Facebook
account. Ironically, it tells me it cannot share who has been voting
because: “This data set is too small to display breakdowns without
potentially revealing personally identifiable information.”
None of this makes any sense, especially in light of this mysterious
reduction in my total. When I searched Google for anything about this
latest incident, I found a brand new December thread citing numerous
examples of people complaining that they had been stripped of huge
numbers of their ‘like’ votes as well. The reason? It said that Facebook
was doing “housekeeping” and it had detected fraudulent examples of
‘like’ voting everywhere, resulting in removal of the offensive items.
Could this be Phase 2 of a Facebook purge begun last summer?
Help! Facebook Has Stolen My Valid Like Votes
With no control over who visits my site, who clicks on my social
buttons and whether the totals are accurate or not, I can only trust
that Facebook has some way to measure the precision of its systems. I
have no choice but to assume they are operating in an ethical and
honorable manner. I, for one, certainly am. While I know there are
plenty of ways to purchase fake likes, fans, followers, friends and
whatever else they say I may need, I would never waste my money. I have a
hard enough time accepting the importance and expected longevity of the
entire social media world as it is, regardless of how much I admire the
technology behind it.
However, in reading the comments of many of the people affected by
this rude event, I realized those sites which sell advertising based on
such proof of popularity could easily lose revenue if the reduced
numbers affect their ability to retain their paying customers.
For me, it’s simply a matter of pride. It had taken a few months for
my ‘like’ votes to increase from 137 up to 173 and now they have been
slashed by some 22 votes. While I agree this whole issue is pretty
inconsequential, it has taken the wind out of my sails and made me even
more distrustful of Facebook as a result.
In further exploring this issue on Facebook’s website, I found that
the specific reason for this purge was to address fake ‘likes’ purchased
through “illegitimately created accounts, as well as malware,
compromised accounts, or deceived users.” Further, it said its
“cleaning” would reduce counts an average of one percent. Yet, one
famous account lost about 18 percent of its ‘like’ votes (amounting to
thousands of removals) which makes my 12.7 percent drop of 22 votes seem
pretty measly in comparison.
Still, I have to take issue with this event along with a great number
of other respondents who claimed total innocence in terms of
manipulating their ‘like’ votes in any way. However, according to
CNN.com, there are 83 million fake Facebook accounts, with some 14.3
million directly linked to illicit activity.
Since I also have a star rating system on my website, I often track
the IP addresses of all who have voted there. Not one voter has been an
actual person. All have been confirmed worldwide spider bots who travel
the Internet for whatever reason and click on my star rating system
while crawling my site.
I have long suspected that the Facebook ‘like’ votes have been similarly influenced in this way.
How Google Fits In
If it weren’t for Google’s recent interest in our social popularity
as another algorithmic gauge to our search ranking, this entire incident
would give me good reason to remove both the Star Rating System and the
social endorsement buttons from my website and wash my hands of the
whole ridiculous affair.
And, I have to assume that Google cares much more about its own
Google+ votes than it does about anything pertaining to its chief rival,
Facebook. Also, it has been found that Google’s Plus One system is
virtually untouchable when it comes to fraud or corruption of any kind,
unlike Facebook’s problematic vulnerability. So, whether your search
ranking is affected by how many fake Facebook ‘likes’ you may have would
be dependent on how much importance Google places on your Like count to
begin with. I venture to guess, not much.
But Google’s recent removal of tracking for its Google+ votes within
my Webmaster Tools account may indicate its embarrassment over the
generally lackluster reception it has had for that initiative.
Still, I would advise everyone to retain their Google+ pages and
linked social buttons on all websites because Google has begun to list
those pages prominently as valid results ahead of all others in organic
searches. Even though Google will not admit to using its Google+
membership to affect search rankings, that certainly is a compelling
enough reason to get some rich content into your Google+ universe which
could encourage visits, activity and ultimately social endorsement votes
where it counts: with Google, not with Facebook.
Marilyn Bontempo, Post from: SiteProNews
Are Fraudulent Like Votes Derailing Your Google Ranking?