Research has indicated that the main reasons people like a company on Facebook is because they want discounts or because they already have a relationship with that company. Beyond that, people will generally only like a company if they see interesting or valuable topics on the news’ feeds of their friend’s Facebook pages. This important factor – the indirect Facebook referral – is one of the fundamental ways where optimizing your Facebook page for Graph Search can work for your business.
Facebook Graph Search is Facebook’s version of a search engine except it only searches within Facebook and does not wander around the web as does Google and Bing. This means that companies on Facebook should work to optimize their business pages so that they have a better chance of coming up when a user queries Graph Search to find companies that their friends like. A good example of this would be a user searching for “Insurance companies my friends like” and Graph Search displaying results from that user’s network who like (for example) MetLife, Progressive or Allstate.
Below we will look into how your company can get the most out of Graph Search so that it has the best chance to come up in searches related to its offerings thus tapping into the indirect referral stream that Facebook has created.
The Basics
The below steps are a bit more entry level but are the foundation of a properly-optimized Facebook business page.
Name– This may sound obvious but many companies try to artificially inflate their rankings by putting a bunch of unnatural keywords into their name. For example, instead of just using “Progressive,” a spammy and bad approach would be “Progressive auto, homeowners, RV, boat, truck and ATV insurance.”
At the same time your company should not be so generic (ex. Insurance Company) as to be completely irrelevant. If you are a well-known brand your brand name alone (ex. Progressive) should suffice. A lesser known brand may want to consider throwing a keyword into their name as should a brand that shares a name with other industries (ex. Cadillac Dog Food).
Keywords in All Sections– Your Facebook business page provides ample opportunity for you to tell your fans about your company. Specifically the ‘about’ section gives you room to discuss your brand, your mission, a company overview as well as a description of your products or services. Use these sections to use keywords that are relevant to your company.
Your Facebook URL– You can create a personalized Facebook URL that also helps your page to rank in the search engines but also with Graph Search. The default business URL will have a bunch of numbers in the URL. Clean this up by going to the Facebook username page and filling out your business name.
Engagement for Graph Search
The ways you engage your fans on your business page will also influence your ability to rank in Graph Search. Think of everything you post as an opportunity to be indexed for those tidbits of information. All of your posts, pictures, videos, apps and shared information will give Facebook more ammo to help you come up in potential searches. This is not to say that your shared content should be based solely on principles of getting indexed but rather it is something to consider when formulating your content strategy.
Also keep in mind that Graph Search is more of a social tool than a search engine. Facebook is focusing on connecting people with their interests with other people in their network and Graph Search is intended to accomplish this goal. This also means that the content you share that has the best engagement will also likely have the best chance of ranking high in Graph Search. Don’t try to be ‘captain rankings’ and see your social engagement suffer as a result. You can learn more about creating great content here.
Try and figure out a game plan of how often you will post, the topics, how you will be engaging, and what value-add you will providing to your followers. Your Facebook content strategy can be well-adapted for Graph Search and help you to have more visibility as you actively engage your followers. Again, don’t focus on Graph Search as much for SEO as you do for creating a great network for your followers. If you build out your Facebook page properly, they will come!
To learn more about Facebook Graph Search and how to use it for your business, contact Success Agency today.
Thanks for reading,
