You’ve probably reviewed and improved the search engine optimisation (SEO) of your business website, but have you done the same for your Facebook page?

You may not realise how much Facebook can affect your search engine ranking through attracting and engaging with your audience, driving traffic to your website, creating links through social media shares and boosting your profile through keywords.

Although social media accounts do not directly boost your profile on Google, popular content which is shared and liked will always attract a wider audience. More link clicks create more traffic, which is a key player in search engine ranking. Research has also shown that Facebook has more effect on SEO than any other social media platform.

So here are my five ways to boost your Facebook SEO:

CUSTOM URL

Customising your Facebook URL to match your business name is essential if you want to improve the SEO of your Facebook page. As well as promoting your brand, a custom URL makes your page much easier to find via Facebook and web searches.

Making a custom URL is easy, go to the Page Info section and click on “Create Page @username”. You need to create a unique name, a green tick means the URL is available.

USE KEYWORDS

It sounds obvious, but littering keywords throughout your content and meta data will improve your ranking, so you need to do this for each of your social media accounts. People use Facebook like a search engine, so keywords can really raise the profile of your page.

As an exercise, find the keywords most relevant to your business and type them into Facebook, for example: “florists Chelsea”. Hopefully, your page appears near the top – if not, you need to take action.

ABOUT SECTION

Once you have identified your keywords, you need to add them to your Facebook page. One of the most important areas is the “About” section – try to include your keywords in every paragraph, at least six times in total. The trick is to try to make your business description sound natural, and less like a list.

You can also spread your keywords throughout your page including any content. Visit the Facebook pages of some household brands to see how they use keywords.

BUSINESS INFO

Facebook allows you to add lots of information about your business, including location, opening hours and contact details. As well as being helpful to potential customers, adding an address allows Facebook to index your business for local searches.

POST VISIBILITY

The hard work begins once you have updated the information on your Facebook page. You need to optimise your posts to get more clicks, this means regular content containing your keywords. Even if you are just sharing someone else’s post, you need to add a short description with keywords.

Don’t forget to add a call for action such as sharing the post, adding a comment, watching a video or clicking on a link.