5 Strategies for Optimizing your Facebook Fan Page

We all know Facebook can be a great tool for engaging with customers and prospects, but did you know it can also help your search engine rankings? If optimized for search, your Facebook page can show up in organic search results, right alongside your website, blog, and YouTube channel. Here are some quick updates you can make to improve your Facebook page visibility:

1. Use keywords

Search engines read your fan page in much the same way they read a regular website, so there are particular elements that you want to optimize. Be sure to include your keywords in your fan page name, as well as in the About, Mission, and Company Description sections.
Make your profile as complete as possible, including the fields for Address, Phone Number, Company Overview, Mission, and Products.

2. Create a custom fan page username

Not only does it make it easier for people to identify and find your page, creating a custom username also produces a custom URL for your page. URLs are weighted heavily by search engines, so this is another good place to include your most prominent keyword. You can easily create a custom username by visiting this Facebook page.
Please note, your fan page must have 25 likes before this feature is available to you. Also, you can only change your username once, so choose wisely.

3. Create backlinks to your fan page

Be sure to include a link to your Facebook page on your website, blog, YouTube channel and other social media platforms. The more inbound links to your page, the more relevant your page is to search engines, resulting in higher rankings.

4. Enable messaging

The main goal of social media is engagement with your audience, so do all you can to foster communication. Enabling private messaging allows your readers, including prospects, to ask questions in a more private format. To enable messaging, go to the Facebook admin panel and click “manage permissions,” then check the box labeled “messages.”

5. Optimize your status updates

The first 18 characters of your Facebook post serve as a meta description, so make them count. When you’re sharing content, but sure to “Write something . . . “– that text will be considered the SEO title for your update, so it’s a good place to use keywords. Including links to your website in your updates is also a good idea.
As search engines continue to incorporate social context into their search results, paying attention to just your main website is no longer enough. Simple SEO techniques should be applied to Facebook and all of your digital channels to maximize your online presence.

Rita Chaires
SEO and Social Media Manager
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com