Do you have a Facebook page or are you thinking of creating one? Do yourself a favor and be proactive in setting your page up, so users can find you when they are looking. Whether you are setting up your first page, or tweaking an old one, the following tips can help you rise to the top of the search results.
1) Use your brand for your Facebook page name
When naming your Facebook page, you only have one shot at giving it a “name.” This is what shows up as the title of the page and is created when first setting a page up. This is currently the largest indicator for Facebook search and is make or break for your page being found.
2) Build your following
If the Facebook page name is top criteria for being found in Facebook search, the fan count is second place. If you have the same name as other pages (which is a common occurrence), the page with more followers should show up first. Leverage Facebook Ads to help build a following as advertising your pages can help boost fans of your page. You can also leverage employee profiles or groups that you are a part of to really help boost your group numbers.
3) Create a branded Facebook username
While this may not play a major role in being found within the internal Facebook search, the URL structure can play an important role in getting ranked in the major search engine results pages. Being found within these pages can clearly help to boost your fan following from those who may be searching outside of Facebook. While we have not seen a direct correlation between usernames and internal Facebook rankings, having a keyword rich username could an indicator in the future and would be considered best practice.
4) Create fresh content regularly
Wall posts, events and “posts by everyone” can now be displayed in Facebook Search. By creating regularly updated content, you will significantly increase your chances for being shown. Simple wall posts with branded keywords or branded events will give you extra visibility in the new real time Facebook Search.
5) Fill in all information about your brand/company
Whether it be the information boxes, mission statements, website or descriptions these could be indicators down the road. While the information isn’t currently helping your pages show in Facebook results pages, it can also help those pages in external Search Engines as most page content is indexed. The more relevant the content, the better. While these sections might not play a role in internal Facebook ranking, there is evidence that it can help the ranking of groups. This could be applied to pages in the future (and should IMO).
6) Spend a little time optimizing your site for bing
If you need one reason to pay attention to Bing, it could be for the sole fact that it displays the web results in Facebook Pages. You will always find those web results at the bottom of the Facebook Search, so spend a little time working your site for Bing and you could see a big payoff from the Facebook search platform.
These tips should help your visibility in Facebook search and help to take your fan page to new heights!
Article Source: Search Engine Land - Greg Finn