Is it possible to force Facebook Likes to follow 301 redirects

Question

We have a large number of old Urls with FB likes that redirect (301) to new Urls. Is there a way to get FB to recognize the 301s and migrate or move the likes to the new Url?

Answer 1

I have been experiencing the same problem and just found a good solution.

Specify your old url in your like button html code (fb:like) so that you can fetch your original like/share count. When someone likes it, it will be published on his/her wall as your old link which does not exist anymore. So you need to do two things:

1) Make sure your old url exists (via url rewriting, keeping your old copy or whatever you can think of).

2) 301 redirect your old url to your new url.

You still need to display your old url in the Like button html code though. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

URLs that don't return a 200 aren't "likable" - this is intentional to prevent people from being duped into liking a URL they didn't intend to.

There may be some administrative channel for you to go through that will let you "port" your likes over, but honestly I don't think this is something they have a process for. At least not yet.