When people think about search engine optimization most only think of Google and other mainstream search engines. However, Facebook is quickly becoming a massive player in online search and if you don’t think Facebook internal search results actually matter, think again. According to its publicly released statistics, the social network claims over 100 million of its registered members log into the site at least once per day. Every month friends share over 1 billion photographs and watch millions of minutes on videos. Considering little-to-none of Facebook’s activity is indexed by Google and some of the other mainstream engines, it’s quite easy to understand why Facebook’s members-only organic search results deserve some attention!
Facebook allows users to search the last 30 days of their news feed for things like status updates, photos, links, videos, and notes being shared by friends and the Facebook pages which they’re a fan of. Looking at my personal Facebook search results (among my friends) for “Italian food” I can see my friend Mary ate an Italian dinner one night last week. If other users have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you will also be able to search through their status updates, links, photos, videos, and notes, regardless of whether you are friends with them or not. With that in mind, there is lots you can do to get your content seen by thousands of people directly inside the social network. But how? Listed below are 5 Facebook SEO tips that I was able to come up with.
Facebook SEO Advice
1. Utilize more than just the traditional wall posts. Proper optimizing through Facebook requires you to utilize all the features they have available, not just posting to your wall. Create images, videos, notes, and anything else that might get exposure for different types of searches. You never know who will find it while searching for whatever!
2. Content you post on your wall (such as blog posts) should be optimized for important keywords, especially it’s title tag. If possible, post content where the call to action and/or contact information is actually inside the title tag. This will help get you into the search results as opposed to requiring a second click through to a profile page.
3. Seek advice from other tools Facebook has made available regarding common social graphs. Lexicon and Facebook paid search platform offer great insight on what might work and what might not.
4. Be sure to create new content on a regular basis. A good portion of the physical search results are compromised of social graph points generated within the last 30 days. One thing you probably already know by now is that content moves quickly on social media. Posting one blog post per week isn’t likely to get you much traffic. Instead, you should really be posting and sharing new blog posts daily!
5. Facebook does give some additional clues regarding their algorithm ranking factors. You can read more about those Here. Also, be sure to keep an eye on the Facebook blog for new updates with changes being made to their network.
To date, Facebook has not named anyone to really be their SEO guru (such as a Matt Cutts for Google). With that in mind, as end users we must do our best to try and figure the algorithm out ourselves. The key is to create good content on a regular basis and make sure it can be seen by everyone (those who are our friends and those who are not). Gaining likes, comments and shares on the content we share will also help with optimization. But remember, utilize everything the social network has to offer and not just wall posts!
