I am certain you, or someone you know, spends more time on Facebook than you'd probably consider healthy. It appears you (or they) are in good company. Recent data indicates that nearly half , 47%, of the population in the United Kingdom log onto Facebook 68 times every month. So what does that mean for local SME's? Well, simply speaking this indicates, that Facebook represents an enormous oppurtunity for the local small and medium sized companies to increase the amount of visitors they're getting to their online businesses whilst also making use of Facebooks profile to receive some SEO-boosting backlinks in direction of the site.
Facebook provides us with the opportunity to establish a Facebook 'Business Page'. It's pretty straightforward and the standard default page will likely be sufficient, with space for one's logo instead of a profile picture, although you can if you want, find someone to create something a bit more 'stand out'. It obviously depends what you're promoting, nevertheless, you must be careful not to look like you're trying too hard like some pages there are. In my opinion , simple at this point is best - let your product or service speak for itself. That's where the Facebook business page comes into its own - you'll directly communicate with customers with the status update box consequently you get feedback immediately - hopefully all good feedback- and announce any offers, new branch opening etc. The great thing is theres no charge and also the whole thing is frequently live in no time.
How will a Facebook Business Page improve my Local SEO and where should you start?
Local Search Engine Optimisation With Facebook
You should consider your Facebook business page as if its an extension of, or possibly even, another website. The best thing with regards to them is search engines like bing love them, they are extremely low maintenance and they are constantly being updated. That last bit is a thing the various search engines look upon very favourably - fresh information shows that your 'site' is alive and well. Altogether they are pretty powerful factors to take into consideration whenever the search engines are ranking pages.
Heres a few things to do when you've set the page up: Simple to complete and may make a significant difference
Announce your Business Page - The moment your business page is live it is going to be announced to any friends automatically - that is something to bear in mind given that you need it to be looking like its finished before it starts the process of being seen. When it's finished, however, you can easily ask friends and family either by message or by status request to 'Like' the page and it'll then appear on their friends pages. This way you can effectively place your Facebook business site to 100's of potential customers.
Facebook URL - This should then mean you quickly get enough 'likes' to receive a 'Custom' or 'Vanity' url. You need 25 to qualify and means you may use a Facebook domain - such as www.facebook.com/businesspagename. You ought to definitely take advantage of this as it might be another place to use a backlink to your online site made up of keywords. Select with care though because it is not changeable once set up and it will be the url ranked on google search.
Logo - As we've mentioned previously it is best to make use of your business logo instead of a personal profile picture - obvious really wanted to be clear that its an option.
Keywords - You should add your keyword information using the About, Overview and General Information sections. There's quite a lot of space here but make sure that you make use of it wisely - add your keywords however, you also need to be sure the text is insightful and, where possible, different from the text on your website. Search engines like google are inclined to ignore replication so improve your possibilities of good ranking by amending it. Also you need to mention the areas you serve if you are looking at local search engine optimization including any offers you currently have.
Inbound Links - As soon as you can, as soon as the page is live, you should consider setting up links between it and your actual website. The greater the 'Likes' the better as far as search engines like google are concerned, so its definitely of great benefit to make a concerted effort getting your Facebook friends to 'Like' your brand-new page. You never know some may even genuinely like it but the main thing is that they click on the button. Another way to engage visitors with the Facebook business page should be to put a 'Like' button on your site - the more likes and links you acquire the more effective your SEO becomes.
Fresh Content - If theres something search engines have alwaysliked its new content and articles listed on web sites. Its taken as confirmation that website is active, alive and interacting with visitors. On a local basis the pages status update section should be used as often as you can to circulate as much important info out as feasible to your potential local customers - open days, time sensitive offers, holidays, changes in opening hours etc.
Photo uploading - This might be something which is overlooked on Facebook. The images section of the page can be so useful to show previous work if you are, for example, a car body repair professional or perhaps an interior designer. However these photos can provide a bit of Search engine ranking value because they can have key phrases integrated as 'ALT tags'. In other words as you're uploading your photos remember to add relevant key phrase and location details to each of them.
So is a Facebook Business Page worthy of building? - Its totally free and half the British public use Facebook, an average of, twice daily so just do it, its a no brainer.
----------------------------------------------------
Paul Cunningham has 11 years experience in website design & for the past five years has specialised in search engine optimisation,in Stockport, UK. The team at http://www.websitedesignlab.co.uk have helped hundreds of small & medium sized local business maximise their revenues via cost effective SEO in Manchester and all over the UK.
EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=250072
No comments:
Post a Comment