Tuesday 1 September 2015

8 Simple Tips to Optimize Your Facebook Business Page

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Social media should be the main ingredient of any marketing strategy. While some marketing techniques may get a bit expensive, this one is free and may bring you big profits.
It’s vital to have your Facebook Business Page correctly optimized with some SEO best practices in order to maximize conversions. First of all, there is a correlation between a well-developed social presence and your search rankings and in the end, a Facebook Business Page becomes a “second home page” for your online business. Since there are many rumors about Facebook Business Page Optimization on the Web, let’s put this straight. Within this post, you will learn some essential rules that will leverage your Facebook page….
Let’s start with the optimization basics:

1. Choose the right name

When it comes to correct optimization, it is fundamental to find the right name for your Facebook Business Page because you choose it once and it is permanent. It’s key to remember that the first word of your Facebook page title is the most significant in the eyes of Google.
This is why stuffing your page title with generic keywords won’t work. Doing so might make it look spam-like and discourage people from getting engaged, let alone sharing your updates. You need a brandable name that represents your business and shows its personality. This is the real intent behind any Facebook Business Page.

2. Custom your vanity URL

Never settle for the dynamic URL which is automatically generated when you sign up. On Facebook, you can easily personalize your address and unify it with your brand name. Make it unique and easy to remember. If you match your Facebook vanity URL with the page’s title you are going to strengthen your brand recognition. Moreover, personalization will hugely improve the findability of your page both in Facebook search and in search engines.
facebook_vanity_url

3. Fill out your profile

Make sure that your avatar, cover photo, bio and profile info are complete and contain up-to-date information. A complete profile reveals your professional attitude and is a clear signal to your audience that you are engaged. Moreover, aim for consistency across all of your social media channels, and make sure that the main visuals match. Utilize a Facebook cover photo that is 851 x 315 px.
Facebook-Cover-Photo
Build your marketing personas and improve the communication with your targeted audience by using the appropriate voice and tone.

4. Pay special attention to the “About us” section

The truth is, your visitors want to know all of the details about your business: where your office is located, what service you offer, what your working hours are and so on. Therefore, provide them with complete information. The “About us” section is a good place to emphasize values and benefits your products or service may bring to the customers. Similarly to Meta Description, you need an apt description short enough [you get 155 characters] in order to be correctly displayed in the search engine snippet, both on desktop and mobile. Make sure that you choose an appropriate category:
  • Local business or place
  • Company, organization, or institution
  • Brand or product
  • Artist, band, or public figure
  • Entertainment
  • Cause or community
 Categories-on-Facebook
Complete your short description diligently and use accurate wording (including targeted keywords) to concisely characterize your business.
Pro-tip: Remember to add the link to your website or landing page within the short description because it strongly improves the findability of the particular offer or content page.

5. Sprinkle your business page with keywords strategically

Optimizing for keywords remains crucial, even when it comes to social media. Place your targeted ones in the most important, strategic parts of your page. Include them in the URL, page title and “About us” section because they will be visible on the front page and will appear in search results.
Remember that the name of your page corresponds with the title tag and your short description works as the meta description tag. However, make sure that you do not overuse keywords: stick to a top six and mention them naturally in the proper context.

6. Include the phone number and address in your Facebook page

The current Facebook design shows your business category, location, phone number and business hours straight away, on the front page. Therefore, make sure to fill out your street address, city, state, zip, and local phone number. Adding the address helps with indexing your brand for local search results and increases page following. Google simply pays more attention to pages that give specific contact information.

7. Optimize Facebook updates

The first 18 characters of each of your Facebook posts serve as the meta title and the meta description in SERPs. Therefore, anytime you are going to post on Facebook, share the content or upload a picture, and take advantage of the fact that you can add a description.
Facebook-updates

8. New features that you should implement

Facebook is constantly introducing new useful tools that are going to make running your business easier. To keep your page well-optimized, make sure that you keep an eye on any new features that emerge and implement them when available.

Call to action on Facebook

Worth mentioning are call to action buttons for Facebook Pages introduced in December 2014. Thanks to the call to action, people can easily interact with your business page. You can choose the suitable destination for your type of business and direct your followers to it. The full list includes 7 types of actions:
  • Sign Up – mailing list or webinar sign up page, join the tool.
  • Book Now – hotel or restaurant reservations
  • Contact Us – contact form
  • Use App
  • Play Game
  • Shop Now – e-commerce store
  • Watch Video
choose-a-call-to-action-button

Messenger for Business

Just recently, Facebook officially launched Messenger for Business to let users chat directly with the companies. Some U.S. businesses can already have a personal, real-time conversation with their customers.
Messenger-Business

Payments via Facebook

Facebook launched a payments feature on its Messenger app available on mobile and desktop. Payments can be made with a debit card, and the best part is, Facebook won’t charge you for it.
payments-in-messenger
However, at the moment payments are only available for United States’ users and are limited to circles of friends. We hope that it will soon become accessible in other countries and useful for businesses, also.

Saved replies

Moreover, Facebook is currently testing a new feature called “Saved Replies” which is going to help business page owners speed up communication with templates. This will save you precious time from repetitive customers service inquiries. Saved Replies enables you to create a message and save it for later use. It will be accessible via the messaging interface within a particular message view. When the message pops up, the Saved Replies will appear on the left sidebar with the “Manage Replies” button at the bottom.
Saved-Replies
Saved Replies View
Prepare generic replies for all of your frequently asked questions and always personalize them before sending.
This functionality is targeted to small business including startups and e-commerce shops who are not using any helpdesk platforms like, for example, Zendesk.

Conclusion

Of course, the overarching objective of Facebook is to stimulate engagement and produce valuable and exciting content. Therefore, tailor your language to your audience, be personal and personable, and use fresh and simple wording. Executing these optimization tips will improve your Facebook Business Page visibility and user experience, both of which are crucial for your success.