How to Use Facebook for Search Engine Optimization

Many businesses of all sizes now have a Facebook fan page to promote their business. It is a great platform for online marketing for so many types of business. It can help build your brand and it can be used to engage with customers and clients, but another big area of added value from Facebook is that of Search Engine Optimization. If you optimize your fan page for searches using keywords, then your Facebook fan page can show up organically in listings when potential clients search for the products or services you offer.

Here are six tips on how to do that:

Page Name

Choose a page name for your site that is relevant to search terms that people may use. This may be your company name or a short summary of what products or service you provide.

User Name

This is the address of your page, in the format http://facebook.com/username, this is used by search engines, but also needs to be relevant and short for human users to remember it.

About Section

The Facebook fan pages have an “About” section, make sure you fill this in because search engines use this part of your page. Use keywords as you would for SEO of your own website, but be sure to write this in a way that is understandable for humans, not just search engines.

Link to Facebook

Set up links to your Facebook page from your business website and blog if you have one, and other places where your business is mentioned on the internet. For this to work for SEO, do not just use the plugins, you need a high quality link directly to your page.

Links and Likes

Encourage existing and prospective clients to “like” your page. Also, use advertising. For each user that “likes” your page there is a link back to your Facebook page on that individual’s list of likes. Search engines sees all profiles or pages set as public so will factor them into a page’s ranking.

Become a Place

If you add your business address as a Facebook Place people can “check in” to your business. Each time that happens, they are shown the “like” button for your page, which, if they click it, will increase the number of links to your page.