Companies in this, the information era, have recognized the importance of a strong online presence. The new emerging companies today cannot think of any strategy which doesn’t include SEO or Social Media marketing. The mindset of people has been altered to know for a fact that companies cannot have a competitive edge without a stellar online presence.
Companies have been dabbling with SEO and social media marketing for a few years,but now the new concept to optimize the Facebook page of the company with SEO is evolving. By combining both,a new practice called Social SEO, where companies put their efforts in optimizing theirSocial Profiles to increase the chances of higher rankings with the search engines has begun to take shape.
The most appropriate and distinguishing factors for companies using Social SEO for Facebook Pages are:
- Company Reputation: When a potential customer searches for a product or service the company is offering, it is more likely to conduct business with the company appearing in the top 10 searches rather than to go on to the next page of search results.
- Brand Identity: Companies need to make sure that their Facebook Pages should come in the first page of the search results, this helps in generating more revenue and also to create a strong brand identity.
- Customer Engagement: It is more likely that the user would visit the Facebook Page which is coming on top in the search results and engage in conversations and also Like the page, Share the content, or even invite his / her friends on the Fan page. The more “Likes’, “Shares’ and “Engagement’ the page has the more chances it has to come on top in searches.
Facebook have decided to help the companies improve their Social SEO and have provided a few steps to help you make sure your Facebook Page appears in the top 10 search results i.e. the first page.
- Link to the Facebook Page using your website: Links from your website provides directions to search engines that your Facebook Page is highly related with your brand. It’s recommended that at least your website’s homepage have a link to the Facebook Page.
- Using Brand name in the posts: It is very important to mention your brand name in your posts, as the search engines analyze the content of the Facebook page to determine when to show this page to the user. The more the brand name is used in the posts the more the chances are that it could appear on the top if the user searches for the brand name.
- Social Engagement and Likes: The user engagement and the number of “Likes” on the page helps the search engine to analyze the Facebook page’s reliability and also the number and quality of the links on the page. The content on the page should be designed as such that the user engagement is increased which effects on the ranking of the page with search engines.
- Fan Box: The Fan box is a very simple tool which helps in increasing the “Likes’ on the Facebook Page. It provides the profile images of the fans who already “Liked’ the page. There is a big chance that the user visiting the page for the first time knows any of the user from Facebook Fan Box and likes the page because his/her friend liked it.
- Facebook Connect: It is a social plugin for your website, which enables the user to experience some portion of Facebook utilities right there on your website, for example, newsfeed, wall etc.
Companies need to identify the necessity of the Social SEO in today’s world. The population on the Facebook platform is increasing day by day with no signs of stopping in the near future. Social SEO helps the company to improve the rankings of their Facebook Pages, which in-turn provides more users and more visits on company’s website.
