Why optimize your Facebook Posts for search? It is mainly because Facebook is the leading social media with the most number of active users, tallied at 2.19 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2018. This is a goldmine for online marketers.
Facebook is the regular “go to” for those who want their brand or businesses to be noticed. This social media platform is crucial for each and every brand that needs to market itself. It has a variety of features, if fully optimized, could help your brand or business in so many ways.
So how do we optimize our Facebook posts for search? We all know that Facebook is such an excellent social media platform to connect with our target audience. So to find out more about how we should optimize our Facebook posts for searches, let us explore first the world of search engine optimization:
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
It is the list of results provided by a search engine after a query was made by looking up a certain keyword. How important is this? It will match the content word for word or a select few so you could be able to gather information about what you are looking for.
This information is usually gathered from the posts or website description. Now, what should we do to maximize the potential of how other users do their searches? Here are a few ideas you could use to optimize your Facebook posts for search.
#1 Pay Attention to your Meta Description
Meta Descriptions is a short paragraph preview of your posts or website. It is like a unique identity of your posts. It shows searchers what your site is all about even without accessing it yet.
Keep away from writing the same meta descriptions. These should be unique for every post and for every website page. Who would want the same identifier for everything? Only those who do not understand how the meta description algorithm works. Although it does not influence algorithm for Google rankings, always bear in mind to keep it short and simple, let’s say around 130 to 155 characters. This is one characteristic of what works for meta description.
There should be a call to action and let your followers act on it. A meta description should grab the attention of your target audience and they take action to your posts or website. Be sure that your meta description matches the content of your post or website.
Your meta description should also have the keyword you’re focused on. Not only should it be unique, but it should also be in the active voice. Take advantage of your meta description. It will be the most helpful in the future.
Fill out the About section on your Facebook business page or even your personal page. Toss in a couple of keywords related to you and your business.
#2 Choosing an Appropriate name
Make sure you choose an appropriate name for your Facebook page because what you chose the first time, is permanent. Choose a name appropriate for your brand or business. If you want to optimize your Facebook post for search, then be unique. Let your target audience identify you easily from the thousands of similar brands out there.
Among the billion Facebook users, your brand or business should be able to stand out from your competition. Let your name be the keyword your target audience searches for. Let them find you because of your unique name or brand. And if not, be it your company.
Choose a name that is easy to remember, relevant to your business and would let the billions of Facebook user identify you easily.
#3 Complete Your Profile
Incomplete profiles are a turn-off. It would make it seem like you just made an account to stalk somebody. How can your target audience trust you if you are not that transparent? When you complete your profile, it helps in making it easy for your target audience to find you. They can search for you or your brand perhaps by using data that they know such as your email address, or location. When they search for you, it could be narrowed down by Facebook for them. And the more information you put in, the more chances for your target audience to find you.
Complete your profile and show off your brand and sell yourself if necessary. It will show that you have a professional attitude. Show your target audience that you made time to put in an avatar and that you took time to complete your profile information. Don’t ignore Facebook because its potential is limitless and it will give you such a wide reach that could help your business and your brand to get the needed attention from your target audience.
Be sure to put in more information about your company or perhaps where you are located. Include what your products and services are so that your fans could easily find what they need.
Include more information on your cover photo about your products to help your followers find them. Put your website and blog links in the “about us” section on Facebook and put in your contact information as well so that your followers could communicate with you even outside of Facebook.
Choose the appropriate category for your business or brand. If you are selling yourself, then be sure they can find you as a Public Figure and not in Local business. If you have a product then put in your Brand or perhaps your Product information. Show off your personality or what your business is all about. Develop transparency with your target audience.
Always include a link to your website or perhaps your landing page in every description of your posts so that you can be easily reached. It will make you more visible in the SERP and when people can easily find you, you will have an increase in traffic and sales as well.
#4 Make Use of those Tabs
If you’re using the Facebook business page, be sure to add apps or widgets for your target audience to find you. There are tabs located in the left portion of your Facebook page which you could use to include your Pinterest or Instagram account.
The tabs on the left are what they first notice and would be curious to know more about you. Satiate their curiosity by giving them links to your other social media accounts to boost traffic for your pages and perhaps boost your selling powers.
Give them links to a landing page or perhaps for them to get free resources from you. One way you could use the tab is to connect your social proofs and products perhaps in Amazon or an App store. Get these target audiences find what they are looking for in just one click so to speak.
Include a “call to action” button, like “Contact us”, “Book with us”, a “Purchase Now” or “Download Now” button. Just make sure the users can act on your Facebook Page to optimize your Facebook for search.
#5 Content Matters
Social media users are surfing the net to get something out of it. So provide them with relevant content and value the visits they make to your page. Provide posts with content and show them that their time is valuable and “here is a reward as a thank you” to show them your appreciation for visiting your page.
If they give you their emails, don’t spam them and be mindful of that fact that the emails you gathered from them are only to be used to give them updates about your business or your brand. Provide them with regular updates on the content they liked or anything similar to it. Keep the communication between you and your audience going.
Content with the most engagements usually shows up in the SERP as compared to those without any user engagement. Interaction is the key to these social media networks, which is why it is called “social” media in the first place. Socialize with others who have similar interest and keep engaging them in conversations. Make your small talks be the talk of the town is one sure way to optimize your Facebook posts for search.
Wrapping it Up
Best to optimize your posts on Facebook so that your brand or product will have an improved ranking with Google. Chances are, your target audience is looking you up already.
Keep in mind that meta descriptions are valuable for you to get noticed in SERPs. Provide them with key information about you or your product. Be sure to choose an appropriate name for your audience to remember you and find you easily as well.
Don’t be lazy in completing your Profile. Your Profile is your identification to your target audience. Makes use of those tabs and connect as much as possible with your other accounts. Remember that content matters and even Google is more interested in content rather than some other white hat tricks for page ranking or SERPs.
John says
Blogs are not just for socializing with others but it can also give us useful information. like this just like me I’am a new blogger and this article gave me lots of ideas on how to start blogging to a site or posts.
Tonya Vitol says
I had Initially thought that meta description is only applicable to web pages. Never knew one could use them for Facebook If not other social profiles. Going to update my meta description now!
Arlene Kirsch says
Great article, I’d like to add another thing. Many people over optimize their meta descriptions by fluffing it with keywords. That will cause a Google penalty for sure, this is not 2008 people.. 1-2 target keywords with 2-3 LSI keywords will work great.
Adam says
Great addition, thanks Arlene.
Alfonzo Kremer says
I highly agree with #2, adding in a target keyword in your brand or companies name, perhaps even the companies slogan, gives one an edge in the SERPS.
Elsie Willars says
I see so many people with incomplete social profiles. Not only does that give you a very unprofessional look, but it actually misses out some potential search traffic. And as the post states, some people may use the companies location or address to search, and if they don’t find it, a potential lead goes to waste..
Adam says
They usually are in a hurry to get going and forget some of the main points, yes.
Lamont Cuadras says
Didn’t Facebook ban links that are posted on pages or profiles?
Adam says
Not really, depends on the links.
Antonetta Gallipeau says
The tabs in Facebook, as unused as they are, are quite beneficial for a brand. It’s a great way of maximizing the use of your traffic, be It in the form of them following you on another social medium, or downloading your app etc.
Jarrod Gunnoe says
#5 is a good tip, especially the spamming part. Not only does email spamming has a negative impact to your brand image, but it’ll also result in the consumer not reading any future emails or even unsubscribing thus leading to a potential loss of a sale.
Adam says
Yes, special attention here to affiliates that can spam in your name and you end up having problems without having done anything 🙂
Kerri Wilkins says
These stuff seems like basic, but still I wasn’t aware of half of it. Thank you so much for sharing this information, it will be very valuable for me and my team. All the best!
Camron says
Thank you for sharing this guys! I like that you emphasized how meta descriptions are important. This is definitely something you should pay attention to and do not ignore.
Ammar says
Very nice article, very nice explained what to do to get the desired audience and to keep their attention. We need to be honest and to include as much informations about our business as possible and about us in general.
Marissa Thomas says
In order to get the most out of your Facebook posts, you should definitely create valuable content that will really mean something to your readers and help them. This way you will be able to generate more engagement on your posts and help your posts to rand better on SERP. We are making a lot of effort to drive engagement and communications on our Facebook posts.
Lallana says
Very nice point with META DESCRIPTION part explanation. Very nice explained and set in the right place, the first one. Soon as we realize the importance of this part we will start noticing better results.
Liroy says
The only thing that we must do is to see and, so to say follow what “the big ones” do, how did they sort their profiles and accounts, what they offer and what they avoid.