10 Steps To Completely Optimize Your Facebook Page
Incorporating Facebook into your SEO strategy can be an effective way to improve brand awareness, grow an audience, and increase website traffic.
Follow these 10 steps to completely optimize your Facebook Page:
- Facebook Page Title Optimization
- Create A Facebook Vanity URL
- Add NAP Information
- Categories & Page Setup
- Install Facebook Pixel
- Content Marketing Strategy
- Grow with Facebook Ads
- Review Generation
- Facebook Schema Markup
- Scale with Barnacle SEO
1. Facebook Page Title Optimization
An optimized page title can help your page rank higher in Facebook search, and signal to both users and search engines that your page is more relevant to a specific query.
For example, a hair salon named “Bella,” would benefit more from having a Facebook Page Title of “Bella Hair Salon.”
Choosing a Facebook Page name is the first step of creating a page, and it can be changed at any time here…
Pro Tip: Make sure that all local listings share the same title. This will help the most relevant listings appear in branded search.
Once the title is optimized, and your page has 25+ likes, you can assign a vanity URL (username) to the page.
2. Create A Facebook Vanity URL
A vanity URL makes you page easier to share, and provides it with an optimized “identifier” (ID) that is unique to your page.
If you don’t have 25 Facebook Page Likes to create one, invite some friends to like the page.
There are a couple guidelines when creating a vanity URL:
- Usernames should be clean, and can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (“.”).
- Usernames must be a minimum of 5 characters.
- Only admins can change page usernames.
A vanity URL can be set or changed in the page’s “About” settings…
When setting a vanity URL, it’s important to prioritize the brand over keywords.
Generally, the best vanity URL is simply the name of your brand – it’s easy to remember, and easily identifiable.
3. Add NAP Information
Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) settings contribute to roughly 10% of Local Pack ranking factors.
Your NAP settings on Google My Business should match what is placed on Facebook.
With proper optimization, Facebook will appear high in branded SERPs like this…
What exactly does this do for you? Let me explain…
Imagine someone just heard about your brand, and they head over to Google Search.
One of the first things they’re going to see is great Facebook Reviews.
This builds trust, and can create new customers.
Pro Tip: Paired with a Facebook social media strategy this can be super powerful. For example, let’s say the searcher clicks your Facebook page. Once there, they see an offer for a discounted service, and decide to download it – they just moved from the top of your marketing funnel to the bottom in just a few clicks!
Consistent NAP information is used by search engines to associate your brand identifiers (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) with your website.
Your Facebook Page’s NAP info can be checked here…
Once you’ve confirmed it’s consistency, you’re ready to make further Facebook optimizations.
4. Business Categories & Page Setup
Similar to a Google My Business listing, your Facebook page should contain the exact same categories as your GMB.
You can add or remove categories here…
In some cases, this isn’t always possible since Facebook’s business categories aren’t identical to Google, but you can usually get pretty close.
I’ve created a Google My Business SEO guide, which includes how to select primary and secondary categories, so I won’t go into detail here.
Outside of categories, you’ll also want to make sure that your page has all of the following:
- High Quality Profile Picture (Logo)
- High Quality Cover Photo (Represents products or services)
- Page About Description
- Accurate Business Hours
- Instagram Profile Link
- Founding Date
- Facebook Call-to-Action Button
Having all of the above ensures that your profile is well-branded, and optimized for Goole Search.
5. Install Facebook Pixel
Here’s where things get a bit more technical.
Facebook Pixel allows you to track website visitors, and remarket to them with Facebook Ads.
Before installing Facebook Pixel, check to see if one already exists on your website.
This can be done with the Facebook Pixel Helper extension for Google Chrome.
How does Facebook Pixel translate to SEO?
It allows you to market your content to people who have taken specific actions on your website, or create a look-a-like audience to reach new people who are likely to take action.
This grows your brand.
And brand building translates to more branded searches and website traffic – both of which are ranking signals that can help you rank higher for target keywords.
6. Content Marketing Strategy
The best way to build your brand on Facebook is with a content marketing or social media strategy.
You can find content ideas with SEMrush’s Content Analyzer or the Top Content Report by Ahrefs.
Outside of standard photo and video posts, you’ll want to share website links.
This is what’s referred to as social signals, a ranking factor based on social media engagement.
Pro Tip: For additional engagement, you can generate more community-driven engagement by using the guide on how to create and grow a Facebook Group – all with automation.
7. Grow with Facebook Ads
At best, your Facebook posts are only going to reach 10% of your page followers.
Facebook’s algorithm is designed to force you to create and pay for ads if you want to reach more people.
And Facebook Ads work…
If you look closely, this RV dealership was receiving leads for $5…
These were REAL people requesting quotes.
Ads are a great way to promote your content on Facebook, and generate more engagement, leads, video views – or any other KPI you might have in mind.
8. Review Generation
To stay ahead of the competition, you’ll want to have an on-going strategy for review generation.
As you’ve seen, these can have a tremendous impact, and even appear on your local knowledge panel.
You can use softwares like Podium to automate review generation for Facebook and Google.
To further SEO efforts, we’ll do a few things on your website…
9. Facebook Schema Markup
Schema Markup is Structured Data format that explains the relationships between items, objects, and elements of a webpage.
Using Schema Markup to include in social profiles in knowledge panels is now depricated, but it may still help obtain social media profiles in local knowledge panels.
Local Business markup or Organization markup helps communicate the relationship between your website and Facebook Page with structured data.
Additionally, you’ll want to be sure that your website includes working links to your social media profiles.
You can use this Local Schema Markup Guide to learn more about Schema and how to leverage it to boost local visibility.
10. Scale with Barnacle Facebook SEO
If your business has multiple locations, you can leverage what’s known as Barnacle SEO, which can be SUPER effective.
Basically, this means building out a brand page, and attaching it to all of your sub-locations.
Almost every major brand uses this strategy…
This makes hyperlocal targeting possible, which makes your content more relevant, delivers better engagement, and creates more review opportunities.
Complete all of these optimizations, and create an SEO strategy that incorporates Facebook social media marketing, I guarantee you’ll see results.
Happy SEO-ing 🙂