How to make sure you’re found on Facebook search.
Heard about Facebook Search? It’s true that Google reigns supreme with over 95% of the online search market. However social media giant, Facebook are actively making changes to grab their slice of the action. Yet despite the potential, Facebook hadn’t in recent years been able to effectively compete with the likes of Google in local search. Facebook is a great place to engage with existing customers and reach targeted audiences with sponsored posts in news feeds. However, customers still largely left the platform to find local businesses and information.
Wesley Young from an American Local Search Association recently published an informative article about recent Facebook changes. I have summarised the article below but encourage you to read Wesley’s full original post.
“Facebook is finally making a realistic foray into local search and has the potential to significantly grow usage, which in turn can help small businesses that already love the engagement it provides to existing customers.
Thus, it makes sense for a local business to review its business page “About” section and the way its information shows up in search results to make sure it captures the increasing search traffic Facebook hopes to deliver.
Tips to get started:
- Review your Facebook business profile and make sure it is complete. This is similar to the Google My Business (GMB) profile that includes contact information, details about your business and interactive functions you can adopt.
- Verify that location information is accurate and returns a physical map location that shows up at the top of your business profile when your page is displayed. While the map pin should be automatically generated when you provide an address, I have seen some businesses that do not display the location or map even when an address was provided.
- Add business categories that further describe your business. Although you are only asked for one business category when you create your Facebook page, you can return and edit the “About” section to add two more business categories that may help improve visibility, depending on the search terms used.
- Activate buttons that Facebook offers, such as click-to-call and appointment schedulers that help convert traffic to your page.
- Don’t leave blanks in any section that might trigger Facebook to crowdsource answers. Your answers will be the most reliable answers, even if you answer, “No,” or you indicate the question doesn’t apply to your business.
Take a look at the original and full article and then make appropriate changes on your business website. Get in touch with me if you have questions or need help optimising your chances of getting found locally.
