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A question came up yesterday in the office as to whether Facebook feeds were indexed by Google? Moreover, if content is published to a Facebook fan page and subsequently posted somewhere elseweb, is it possible for the elseweb site to get the credit (and not have a duplicate content penalty), or is Facebook always going to get the credit because of it's clout?

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Dani AI

Generated

Short answer for (and to follow up on ): Google doesn’t automatically “give credit” to Facebook just because it’s Facebook. When the same content appears on multiple URLs, Google chooses the version it will show based on signals (which copy it discovered first, which looks most complete/useful, redirects, canonicals, sitemap presence, HTTPS, etc.). That means if Facebook’s copy is discovered and indexed first (or has stronger signals), Google may show that version instead of your blog. (developers.google.com)

Actionable checklist to keep the original on your site:

  • Publish on your blog first and make sure the page is crawlable (no robots blocks) and listed in your sitemap. Use Search Console’s URL Inspection / “request indexing” for urgent pages. (developers.google.com)
  • Add Article/BlogPosting structured data (author, datePublished, mainEntityOfPage) so Google sees your page as the original source. (developers.google.com)
  • If partners republish your full content, ask them to either add a rel="canonical" back to your article or—preferably for syndicated copies—use a noindex on the partner page so it won’t compete. Note: Google treats cross‑domain canonicals and syndication specially; rel="canonical" is a strong hint but not a guarantee for syndicated content, and Google recommends blocking indexing on partner copies where possible. (developers.google.com)

Small, copy‑paste snippets you can use:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/my-original-post" />
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Rel="me" (your second question): rel="me" is for identity/ownership verification (IndieWeb/Mastodon style) and social-profile linking. It is not a substitute for canonical signals and won’t reliably make Google treat a Facebook post as your canonical content. John Mueller has indicated Google doesn’t use rel="me" for authorship attribution, though he has recommended using rel="me" for identity links to your profiles. (microformats.org)

Practical workflow: publish the full article on your site first, add Article structured data and sitemap entry, request indexing, then post a short excerpt on Facebook that links back to the original. If you must syndicate the whole article, get the partner to noindex or canonicalize to your URL. (developers.google.com)

Member Avatar for paine_today

Facebook Pages are indeed indexed by Google, and from what I have heard, since Facebook has such high clout on Google, is very useful for SEO purposes. This includes "tagging" of other pages, which appears also to play a role in Google rankings.

Though I have not looked into it, I would suspect that content posted on Facebook would not be viewed as a duplicate, from the Facebook generated title along with the other Facebook unique markups, I believe it would be considered unique content, for all intents and purposes.

Member Avatar for Dani

Hi, thank you for your reply. My question was actually the opposite, however. If I were to post something to a Facebook fan page first, and subsequently post the same thing to my own blog, would my blog rank or would Facebook always win out?

Also, what if I were to use rel="me" on my blog to point to my Facebook page, indicating that it is my own FB page.

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