SEO in a nutshell
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about maximising your online presence in order to rank organically on a search engine results page (SERP).
While this includes optimising your website, your presence on social media can also contribute to your ranking.
By optimising a Facebook Page, brands can capitalise on Facebook SEO in order to further their ranking and increase their prospective leads as an additional marketing tool in growing the company.
We take a look at 4 Facebook SEO strategies to optimise your Facebook Page for Google ranking.
1 – Brand the page with your company name
The initial Facebook URL for a Facebook Page contains a long number, making it look cumbersome. Additionally, it is not easy to remember which would make it difficult for anyone searching for your business. Fortunately, this is where you get to brand your Facebook Page by selecting a username, so that you produce a URL which has your company name without the extra unnecessary numbers.
When creating your username, the following factors into account:
- Your username is permanent and cannot be altered once selected.
- It’s advisable to choose a name which best suits your brand (usually your brand name). Categories or products describing your brand may also be used. In terms of SEO your name is the most significant place on your page, so we would suggest to rather use a name which is the same as your brand name or close to your brand if the username is unavailable. This facilitates a strong brand association and makes your company easy to search.
- Your username consists of 50 characters made up of alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) with lower and upper case as well as a full stop “.” and must conform to the parameters of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.
- Create your username by going to facebook.com/username or click on the @username in the left hand side bar of your Facebook Page.
- Once your Page reaches 25 “likes” you are able to claim your own unique Facebook URL.
- You will need to agree to Facebook terms … and voila … congratulations – you now have a new Facebook URL of https://facebook.com/YourBusinessName
2 – Introduce your brand
By completing the details of the Facebook’s form, your reader is given information about your brand. Take advantage of completing the company overview where you can insert links to other relevant sites and platforms such as your social media profiles and your blog.
Links can also be used in the long description and products section, enabling your visitor to find out additional information and connect further with your brand.
3 – Keyword Optimisation
Just as keywords are central to your website SEO, they play an important role in optimising your Facebook page for ranking. Research your keywords and use them in your Facebook description as well as in your Facebook posts.
A word of caution: only use keywords where relevant and where it serves your content, rather than creating content around your keywords. In any case, if you are sharing content around your services and areas of specialisation, you will inevitably be using the relevant, targeted keywords.
4 – Backlinks
Although backlinks no longer carry the same weight as they did previously, they still have leverage when it comes to Facebook SEO. Links from websites and other social media platforms to your Facebook Page create the impression of authority and trustworthiness.
This in turn increases the value of your page which can impact on your ranking.
Conclusion
As Facebook continues to dominate the social media space, it is an effective means to rank on a search results page. In fact, there may even be times when your Facebook Page will rank higher than your website.
In order stand out from your competitors, it makes sense to optimise wherever you can. This means maximising every opportunity to rank as high as possible on the search engine result pages, using Facebook SEO to maximise brand exposure and increase leads and sales.