Just like optimising your own website pages, there are a number of things you can do to help your Facebook page succeed with the search engines and internal Facebook search.
This may sound like a no-brainer. However, it's the most basic step when it comes to optimizing your brand on Facebook, and is also the most important.
There is always the temptation to stuff your fan page name with tons of keywords, like "Bob's Bakery - Muffins, Bagels, Cookies, Breads - Catering & Events." In actuality, having a name like this can hurt your viral growth rate inside Facebook. If you appear too spammy, your fans will be less likely to engage with your page, let alone share posts and updates with their friends. In fact, people can even hide your updates from their news feed - imagine the horror!
Don't be too generic either, though. Facebook's intent behind fan pages is that they represent real businesses, brands, personalities, etc. By choosing something too generic, like Travel, Sports, Fishing, etc., you run the risk of Facebook shutting down your ability to post updates and reach out to new fans.
Quick Tip: The first word in your fan page title is given the most weight (importance) by Google.
Once your Facebook business page has over 25 "Likes", Facebook gives your you the opportunity to create a unique web address (or usernames as Facebook calls them) for the page. Because web addresses carry weight by search engines, it is vital that your Facebook page address reflects an aspect of your business.
If, by some misalignment in the stars, you find that another fan page has claimed your business' name already, make sure to include what your business is about in the URL.
You can check out some different username options Facebook offers before selecting your one for your fan page.
Just like traditional websites, keyword optimization is the most fundamental form of on-site optimisation. The most important pieces to pay attention to are the About section, Mission, and Company Description, since these areas are actually pulled from your fan page as SEO elements.
Here is an example of how a search engine would index your page:
SEO Title = Your fan page name
Meta Description = Fan page name + the About section of your page
H1 = Your fan page name
To optimize your page for local searches, it is very important to include your full address. For product-related searches, the Company Overview, Mission, and Products fields should be filled in with your appropriate information.
Quick Tip: Just like your website's meta data, you may want to consider using a brief, 140- character description for your Facebook page so your whole message displays in the search engine's snippet.
As surprising as it sounds, there are a good amount of businesses out there that don't include this type of info on their fan page. As a majority of your sales may be from online traffic, it can appear to be not quite so important for you to include. But remember, indexing your brand for local search results is crucial to growing your Facebook business page.
In addition, Google places higher importance on pages with specific information like your business's phone number and address. So, pages that include this type of data can effectively increase your brand's overall SEO.
The more inbound links to your page, the more authoritative your page is according to Google. You will be ranked higher. That is why it is very important to bloggers when they have their content linked to from other websites, blogs, etc.
This same principle applies to your Facebook business page. So, where it is appropriate, include a link to your fan page from your other digital channels, like your website, blog, and Twitter profile.
When posting updates to your Facebook timeline, remember that the first 18 characters of a Facebook post serve as the meta description. So take advantage of the option when Facebook prompts you to "Write something..." since that text will be considered the SEO title for that update. Including direct links to your small business website in your updates is also a good practice to follow.
Quick Tip: Just like your fan page's name, Google places a higher importance on the first word of your update, so you definitely consider making that a keyword.
Don't forget that the main objective of Facebook SEO is adding to the value of your overall brand. It is important to pay attention to the comparison between raw traffic and engagement level.
While using the methods above can help boost your ranking, the most crucial part is that it coincides with a great product or service and customer engagement to grow your following.
We can set up your Facebook business page for just £36.00 with all the necessary steps to make it fully search optimised - Contact Us for more information.
