SEO for Facebook Guide

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© 2015 BancVue. All rights reserved.

What We’ll Cover

Why Use Facebook?

Facebook Lingo

Best Practices for Creating Your Profile

Types of Content and Interactions

Examples

Do’s and Don’ts of Facebook

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W h y U s e Fa c e b o o k ?

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Why Use Facebook?

Facebook helps marketers create brand awareness, drive traffic to a website, and deliver SEO benefits.

Although Google has said that a brand’s number of Facebook fans and other similar quantitative social signals don’t affect your Google ranking, being active on Facebook can affect SEO in other ways.

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Why Use Facebook?

Using Facebook benefits SEO because:Google crawls Facebook pages, so Facebook content could appear in search results.Content popular on Facebook is more likely to be shared in other places, like blogs, news articles, etc.Links to your website on dozens of different sites tell Google your content is popular, relevant and authoritative.

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Fa c e b o o k L i n g o

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Facebook Lingo

A Facebook Profile is an individual’s page within the Facebook platform. Users can post and share various types of content about themselves, or content on the internet they find interesting. Facebook Profiles have privacy settings that allow the user to control whether they can be found within Facebook search, as well as what parts of the profile other users can see.

A Facebook Page is similar to a Facebook Profile, but it is intended for promoting certain entities like brands, non-profits, local businesses, artists and more. Facebook Pages are public and can be seen by all users on Facebook who search for or “like” a particular page.

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Facebook Lingo

A Post is a piece of content that a Facebook user places on his or her page. This content can include simple text, links, photos, videos, questions and more.

A Like is a way for users to “vote” for other Pages or content inside and outside Facebook. When a user likes a piece of content, that content is more likely to be seen by other users on Facebook. When users like a Page, they are endorsing that Page on Facebook, as well as subscribing to see the page’s updates in their News Feed when they sign into Facebook. When a user “likes” something on Facebook, there’s a chance that a friend of that user will see in their newsfeed, “so-and-so liked a photo from Kasasa” with links that lead to the actual photo and the Kasasa Page.

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Facebook Lingo

The News Feed is a feed of updates that users see when they log in to Facebook. It shows posts from their friends, Pages they have “liked,” and advertisers who are targeting users based on their interests, connections or behavior within the Facebook platform.

Friends on Facebook are users who are connected. Friendship on Facebook is established only when both individuals approve of the friendship.

Fans are users on Facebook who have “liked” a Page. Users can be a fan of multiple pages on Facebook, and unlike friends, a “like” is a one-direction relationship. Brands also do not approve or deny “likes” on their page.

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Facebook Lingo

Both Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages can tag other users in their posts. Profiles can tag any other users they are connected to, as well as any Facebook Page, whether they have liked that Page or not. Pages can tag other Pages, as well as Events, but not personal Facebook Profiles.

Events are pages on Facebook that serve as the equivalent of an invitation and RSVP for events. Only Facebook Profiles can invite users to events, and they can invite only users they are connected to. Both Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages can create events.

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Facebook Lingo

A Facebook Timeline is a collection of photos, posts, videos and more that make up a Facebook Profile’s or Facebook Page’s story. Major historical events in an individual user’s life or brand’s history are recorded as special posts called Milestones. Milestones are displayed in a Profile or Page’s About section under Milestones and in the Timeline.

In addition to Liking content, Facebook Profiles and Pages can also Share content. Sharing is different from Liking an item, in that it posts the content on your Facebook Profile or Page. For example, if you Share a photo, the actual photo will be posted to your profile or page, rather than just text that says you Liked a photo.

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Facebook Lingo

Comments can be made on any post on Facebook. Similar to Likes and Shares, comments are restricted by Profile privacy settings. Pages cannot comment on an individual user’s posts, but users can comment on a Page’s posts.

Reviews can be left by Facebook Profiles on Pages to tell other users what they think of a given business, brand, artist, etc.

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Facebook Lingo

Facebook’s algorithm for ranking the content in a user’s News Feed used to be called EdgeRank. It was based on 3 main factors:• Affinity (how closely is the user connected to the content’s

source, and how has the user interacted with this brand in the past?)

• Weight (how much have users interacted with the content, and what type of content do users engage with most, like photo or video?)

• Decay (how recent/current is the content, and is it topical or trending?)

Now, however, News Feed ranking is determined by as many as 100,000 factors. Our advice? Don’t chase the algorithm, but instead adopt a content strategy that informs and helps your consumers.

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B e s t P r a c t i c e s f o r C re a t i n g Yo u r P ro fi l e

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In this section, we’ll go through the process of creating a Facebook Page for Freedom Institution in a way that is good for SEO.

Let’s head over to facebook.com/pages and start creating!

https://www.facebook.com/pages

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Facebook gives you a lot of options for creating your page. Different profile fields will be available based on the type of page you choose. We recommend selecting Company, Organization or Institution, since the Local Business or Place option is for one location.

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Once you’ve chosen Company, Organization or Institution, select the category Bank/Financial Institution—whether you are a bank or credit union, this is the most appropriate category for your institution. Most customers are familiar with this term, so it’s the most search-friendly, especially for Facebook searches.

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For the description, you have 155 characters to briefly introduce your institution. Try to focus on including a few keywords, like bank and accounts.

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Adding a website will help the search engines make the connection between your Facebook page and your website.

Be careful when setting your Facebook web address, or vanity URL, like facebook.com/doyoukasasa; you can change this only once after setting up your page, and you’ll want to reserve that ability in case of a name change or merger. Please see our URL-creation guidelines on the next page.

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Your Facebook web address can be an important SEO factor, and makes it easier for users to find your page. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Use your name, not keywords.Use something customers can easily remember.Use your full name if it’s not difficult to spell and is three or fewer words long.Omit title words like “the.”If your name is long, use a common abbreviation. If possible, abbreviate only part of the name, like using “MagnoliaCU” instead of “MagnoliaCreditUnion”If the name is already taken (e.g. “First National Bank”), use an abbreviation and then the city of your main branch (e.g. “fnbaustin”)

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Search engines can’t read pictures, but they can tell if you included one! Facebook users are also less likely to engage with you if you don’t have a profile photo, and a lack of engagement (shares, comments, likes) can hurt. Optimal dimensions for a Cover Photo are 851x315 and 180x180 for a Profile Picture. What makes a good Profile Picture? For a brand, it should be a logo. What makes a good Cover Photo? Promote whatever specials or events you have coming up.

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We recommend clicking the “Add to Favorites” button, which will let you easily access your new page from the sidebar in your News Feed. This can help you quickly navigate to your page to post updates.

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In this step, Facebook gives you the option to create ads to drive users to your page.We recommend just clicking the “Skip” button for now, since you probably don’t want to pay to lead users to your page until it’s more established. You can always set up Facebook ads later, once your page has more content and Likes.

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The cover photo goes across the top of your page, like a banner. Similar to your profile photo, it doesn’t really affect SEO, but can help with engagement. You could use a picture of one of your branches, but we recommend something more fun like a photo of your staff or customers (with their permission). You can also use this space for a promotional banner. The picture must be at least 400 x 150 pixels. Once you’ve uploaded your picture, you can reposition it within the frame.

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Best Practices for Creating Your ProfileHere’s the finished product once we’ve added a profile picture and a cover photo.

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Best Practices for Creating Your ProfileClicking on the cover photo will let you add a description, which can be helpful for SEO. Remember to write in a way that’s compelling to both users and search engines.

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Best Practices for Creating Your ProfileWe still need to update a few more things. Click the “About” tab to see the available fields we can edit.

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This can be changed to the year your institution was founded.

We recommend entering the address for your main branch.

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An optional field that’s required by some countries (you can leave it blank).

The long description is a great place to add additional information about your mission, the products you offer and why they are the best banking solutions for people in your geographic area.

As a reminder: never include APR/APY information on your social media channels.

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Once you’ve entered your address, you’ll also see a new field: Subcategories. Subcategories help people find your page. They appear at the bottom of your cover photo and in search results. Relevant subcategories include Bank, Financial Services and Loans.

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Instead of entering specific product names (e.g. “Freedom Checking Account”), use account types (Checking Accounts, Auto Loans, etc). Kasasa is the only exception.

General email address, if you have one (e.g. [email protected]).

Good field to fill out, if your institution has an official mission.

Great field to fill out, if your institution has received any awards.

Customer service line or main branch number.

Unless your founder is a well-known person, this is not particularly helpful to users or search engines.

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Once you’ve completed your profile, you should Like a few other pages if you’d like to show support for another page or your connection with it. You can Like non-profits you support, local businesses and pages like Kasasa!

Pages you Like will show up to the left of your Timeline. Up to five will display at a time, so if you have Liked more than 5 pages, Facebook will rotate between them. However, if there are certain pages you would like to always display (to show you are connected to Kasasa, for example), you can specify this by making these pages Featured Likes.

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First, make sure you’re using Facebook as your Page (ex: Freedom Institution) and not liking/sharing/comment as your personal Facebook account. This will ensure that any activity (likes, posts, comments, etc) is associated with your page and not your personal profile. It’s very important to always switch to the right entity so personal posts aren’t attributed to your institution or vice versa.Click the drop-down arrow in the top right of your screen, then select “Use Facebook as: [your institution].”

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Next, find the page you want to Like and click the “Like” button.Then click your institution name in the top right to go back to your page.

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Click the “More” dropdown, then select “Manage Tabs.”

On the next screen, select “Add or Remove Tabs.”

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Click “Featured” in the navigation on the left, then “Add Featured Likes.”

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Select the pages you want to set as Featured Likes and click Save.

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Ty p e s o f C o n t e n t a n d I n t e r a c t i o n s

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Now let’s discuss types of content and interactions you can post on Facebook and how they relate to SEO. The types of content include:

NotesEventsPhotos, Photo Albums and VideosMilestones

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Notes are essentially a built-in blog on Facebook. They work well when you have a large piece of content and you want it to live on Facebook. If you don’t see a Notes tab on your page, you’ll need to go back to More Manage Tabs Add or Remove Tabs. Click “Add App” under Notes. This will add “Notes” to your “More” dropdown menu. If you’d like to make it one of your visible tabs, you can use “Manage Tabs” to drag it closer to the top of the list of tabs. Otherwise, you can always find “Notes” by clicking the “More” dropdown.

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Successful note writing is the same as blogging, so refer to our SEO for Blogging Guide!

You can Add Photos to your note, but search engines can’t read images. Make sure to include a Caption.

Tags connect and form associations between your note with other people and pages on Facebook.

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Once you’ve published a note, it will be visible in your Timeline as well as in the column to the left of your Timeline.

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Types of Content and InteractionsCreating Events

First, head over to the section just below the top of your page where you can create a post.Use short, descriptive names, include your name in the details section along with the goal of your event, and allow anyone to post/comment on the event wall, which is important for social SEO. Assign a category to help people find your event when they search on Facebook.

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Creating EventsPhotos make events more compelling and more likely to be shared, commented on, attended and seen by other users. Interaction with content you post on Facebook, including events, contributes to SEO. Add a description to the event photo if you’d like to tell search engines what the photo is about.Finally, invite all your friends and family to your events to increase attendance and sharing on Facebook. This must be done while using Facebook as your personal profile.

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Photos, Photo Albums and VideosAs we’ve said before, search engines can’t read a photo, even photos with text in them. For every photo, photo album and video you post on Facebook, you should include a description that is search-engine friendly and compelling for humans.

Yes NoWe had awesome cupcakes at our Kasasa Launch Party on February 15th! Everyone who attended had a great time helping us celebrate Kasasa and the great ways it helps people save.

Freedom Institution’s Kasasa Launch Party on February 15th, 2013 at Stubb’s in Austin. Kasasa Cash, Kasasa Saver, Kasasa Giving, Kasasa Tunes, Reward Checking, High-Interest Checking and more.

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Types of Content and InteractionsPosting a Photo/Video

Note: Posting photos and videos involves the same process – upload and describe. Photos, however, are the most-shared content on Facebook, which is a factor for SEO.

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Creating a Photo Album

Photo albums have some extra SEO benefits. You can give a description, title, location and date of the album so all the photos are associated with those attributes.

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MilestonesMilestones are meant to be viewed as achievements. Examples are 10 years in business, a new branch opening, or new product offering. Milestones also appear in the About section of your page, so they benefit campaigns in multiple ways.

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E x a m p l e s

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Examples

Let’s look at some real-life examples of how financial institutions large and small are applying the concepts we’ve presented thus far.

Mint.comBank of AmericaVerity Credit Union

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Example 1: Mint.com“Company Overview” has more great information for users and search engines.Good keywords present: Online, mobile, financial, bank accounts, bills, free credit score, credit cards, investments, tips, advice.

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Example 1: Mint.com

This post includes content that Mint.com users care about. Teaching kids about finances is top of mind for many parents. Plus, the photo mentions eating 30 percent of your kid’s ice cream, which is going to get a chuckle (and consequently a share) out of a few Facebook users.

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Example 1: Mint.com

More timely posts from Mint.com:

Summer New Year Fall

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Example 2: Bank of America

Bank of America’s page focuses on how it serves communities around the country. It seems the bank hasn’t put a lot of thought into SEO when it comes to the information it provides.

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Example 2: Bank of America

Because many Americans are still very budget conscious, a lot of content on financial institution pages is focused around financial education and money-saving tips. Bank of America is no exception.

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Example 3: Verity Credit Union

Verity CU’s page is focused on how it serves its members. They used their full name, which happens to have a keyword in it — “Credit Union”

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Example 3: Verity Credit Union

Their “About” section has tons of helpful info that people shopping for a financial institution would want to see.Clear and comprehensive information that is keyword-rich and compelling to users.

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Example 3: Verity Credit UnionVerity CU is great at demonstrating its involvement in the community.

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Example 3: Verity Credit UnionRather than focusing only on products (or even the institution), Verity provides a variety of information that people might find helpful, covering everything from parenting to sleep.

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Example 3: Verity Credit UnionVerity is also great at slipping in mentions of product offerings in ways that are timed to appeal to members.

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Example 3: Verity Credit UnionVerity is also good at demonstrating involvement with its membership.

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Example 3: Verity Credit UnionFinally, Verity does a great job of leveraging social media to encourage engagement by conducting promotions and giveaways.

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D o ’ s a n d D o n ’ t s o f Fa c e b o o k

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Do’s of Facebook

Do tag other pages in your posts when it is relevant.

Do post photos frequently, since they are the content most likely to be shared on Facebook.

Do have fun; Facebook is a social place.

Do fill out all the information that is relevant in the profile section.

Do mention your name in posts occasionally.

Do promote your products in about 20 percent of posts, but in a way that is relevant to customers.

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Do’s of Facebook

Do use keywords that customers would use when writing your posts. Instead of DDA accounts, customers would say checking and savings accounts.

Do include links to your website in your profile and in posts when appropriate, as well as links to your other social presences.

Do use your full name for the name of your page.

Do choose a vanity URL that is memorable.

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Don’ts of Facebook

Don’t post photos of customers without asking them first!

Don’t post only promotional content or repeat content you’ve used in the past. If you have an event coming up, you can create multiple posts about it but they all need to offer new and different information.

Don’t post content that takes a side on a political issue, or that turns a sensitive holiday/anniversary into a marketing opportunity (e.g., tying your brand to 9/11).

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Don’ts of Facebook

Don’t post any specific content related to someone’s account information (do delete posts and comments from users who mention their account information and then send them a private message on Facebook to help them resolve the issue).

Don’t connect your Facebook and Twitter feeds so that your Tweets are automatically posted on your Facebook page or vice versa. You need to have specific content for each platform.

Don’t use grainy pictures.

Don’t start using social media without talking to your compliance department.

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T h a n k y o u !

SEO for Facebook Guide

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Transcript of SEO for Facebook Guide