Facebook Pages : How to Rank Well in Facebook Search
Why use Facebook?
Because it’s where your audience is – by the end of 2010, there were over 600 million people on Facebook; there are over 23 million in the U.K. alone.
Facebook pages are gaining popularity as an online communication channel that can work with existing sites and blogs. Increasingly brands are pushing users to their Facebook page in order to take advantage of the built-in social interactivity on offer.
However, users still use ‘search’ as a means of finding the content that interests them, so at Reprise Media we’ve had a look at the factors that boost a page to the top of the rankings within Facebook’s own search facility. With over 1.6 million pages in existence, it’s important that yours gets seen!
What are the benefits of a ranking well in Facebook search?
- Auto-complete
When people perform searches within Facebook, the search box has an ‘auto-complete’ function set as default. So having the top ranked page will capture more visitors – many users will click the first result without even seeing the other options.
- Increased Perception Of Authority
A Facebook page can represent an interest, community, brand or organisation. A high ranking makes your page look more popular, interesting and authoritative so it’s more probable that people will ‘Like’ it over other similar pages.
Factors contributing to rankings within Facebook search
Like any search engine, Facebook’s has the task of prioritising pages to decide which are the most relevant to user queries. At Reprise Media we’ve examined the factors that play a part in determining rankings in Facebook.
- Total number of ‘Likes’
When a Facebook user has visited a page they can click the ‘Like’ button to indicate their willingness to receive news and content updates from that organisation or brand.
The number of followers or ‘Likes’ is the strongest indicator of authority. Furthermore, users are far more inclined to choose to follow a Facebook page which has a larger number of ‘Likes’ over a page with fewer because a popular page looks more interesting and relevant.
There are also other specific benefits to having ‘Likes’. People who ‘like’ your page will get the updates you post directly in their Facebook stream – they don’t have to visit the page to see what you’re saying. When they contribute to that content in any way, by commenting, or simply by ‘liking’ the post, their friends can see it, so get to know about you.
- Content updates
Content on a Facebook page can take many forms. It can be news about your brand or organisation, or just a friendly comment to keep in touch with the page users. It can also be other types of media such as photos, videos or links out to another website. There are also applications that can easily be utilised to include even more types of content, for example to post polls that you can invite your fans to vote in.
In our findings we observed that a regularly updated page is likely to out-rank a page with less updates even if the regularly updated page has fewer followers.
- Do users like your content?
In addition to the freshness of updated content, we believe Facebook values the frequency with which content is ‘liked.’
Facebook is evaluating the quality of the updates by measuring the ratio of ‘Likes’ to ‘Impressions’ served. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that these ‘votes’ received are a factor in determining a page ranking, as this is data that can be aggregated and compared against other pages – it’s a measurable metric.
- Content sharing
A piece of content is shared whenever a person decides to post a link or clicks the ‘share’ button. Content that is widely shared is indicative of a Facebook page that is providing updates that are useful or entertaining enough for users to recommend to their friends.
- Wall Posts and Comments
A page that generates engagement from users in the form of wall posts, and comments on the content, is demonstrating that it is relevant and interesting – again we see this as a measurable that is used as a factor in Facebook’s algorithms for ranking a page.
Facebook Page Recommendations
Reprise Media has combined what we understand about the metrics Facebook is measuring, with our experience in effective online communication, to come up with some easy-to-implement recommendations to enhance the popularity of your Facebook page.
- Integrate Facebook within your website
The most obvious way of leveraging Facebook is to add the thumbs-up ‘Like’ buttons to your site. Regular Facebook users will recognise it and find it easy to join the page followers.
Facebook provide guidance on the specific logos that can be used on your site to inform visitors that you have a presence there. Be sure you are following the rules on how to use their logos and buttons – more information on that can be found at facebook.com/brandpermissions/logos.php
- Have a conversation with your followers
A thriving and active community happens when the page administrators have a daily conversation with the people that ‘Like’ the page. This can take many forms so try different approaches to keep the page fresh and varied. You could:
- Ask a question
- Solicit opinions
- Make a comment to start a discussion
- Launch a competition
- Respond to questions and comments
Being an active conversationalist will not only engage the existing community, it also provides more data points for Facebook’s algorithms to measure the page and evaluate it.
- Update the page with regular content
This content could be specific to your Facebook page or refer to new content published on your website, or from other media channels that you may be using, such as YouTube.
Regular updates help to:
- Convince both new and existing members the page is relevant and worth following
- Encourage cross visiting to and from other channels
This all encourages additional ‘Likes’ of both content and the page itself over time.
- Host events
Given the socially connected nature of Facebook, hosting offline events is one of the most efficient ways of building a brand’s reputation. Your brand advocates will want to talk about the event and share their experiences on Facebook, which will attract more people to the page.
Conclusion
To have the best chance of being the top result in Facebook search, pay attention to the measurable metrics that Facebook informs you about in their insight reports for your page. Popularity and relevancy are evaluated on ‘likes’, freshness and frequency of updates, and the frequency and volume of engagement from fans.
Facebook will reward you for using your page routinely to communicate your message, and for encouraging dialogue with your followers – which, after all, is what your Facebook page is for!