How to Boost Your Business Using Facebook Local Search
Ever since Facebook came into the fold during the 2000s, social media sites have become the most widely used internet platforms across the world. Boasting a user base of billions, this is also one of the best places for digital marketers to promote their brands.
In the past few articles, we have emphasized the need to optimize your local SEO strategies to boost your traffic and rankings. While Facebook search is no Google, it has gradually developed into a more capable search platform that works best when looking for local businesses near your area. This adds another layer to your social media marketing strategy that you can take advantage of to give your brand that much-needed boost. Here are some strategies that will help you do exactly just that.
Keep your business updated
In the same way as making sure that your Google My Business listing information is accurate, updating the information in your Facebook page ensures that users would be receiving the correct and latest information about your brand. Too often I see business pages on Facebook that contain information that is outdated, which includes unchanged business addresses, incorrect phone numbers, and even old photos that do not reflect hot their business currently looks like.
This will cause your page to stagnate and damage your brand as a whole. It is best to keep your Facebook page updated as regularly as possible, from the primary information to your posts. Active pages on Facebook show up on people’s timelines more often, and you would need that organic reach to establish your presence. While sponsoring posts boosts your traffic significantly in a shorter period of time, growing your organic traffic would be able to give you a more solid user base that you would be interacting with on a regular basis.
Using Facebook search for the first time might seem confusing at first but becoming familiar with how to find posts and pages is relatively easy. Facebook allows you to search for public posts, photos, videos, and pages near the area you have listed, with the option of searching further as well. Using keywords is similar to other search engines, as it would track every related content that contains the keyword.
The versatility of Facebook’s search allows you to access so much content, which is why it would help boost your business. Like other search engines, your results would be based on the area that you’re located. Upon checking a few search results, I can see similarities with Google, in a way that local business search results allow me to see maps, photos, and other pieces of content that I might find useful.
For hashtags, Facebook incorporates another system that can be found in other social media platforms, as you can track related hashtags upon clicking on them. This allows users to find content in two different ways, which further expands the opportunities for searchability. Using keywords on your posts allow more users to see your content, while hashtags work best for social media campaigns. While tracking keywords and hashtags on Facebook is still not as refined as Google, making use of them allows you to let your organic reach grow.
Make use of reviews and events
Reviews are a great indicator of quality and allow users to see what people think about the quality of your service. Social media provides a great degree of interaction, as it allows you to provide quick replies through comments and messages. Reviews can be seen publicly, which is why having a negative review can cause your reach to drop if not dealt with properly.
Creating events is also another great way to generate more organic reach on Facebook, as users are notified of all the events that would be happening within the month on the pages that they follow. Events are searchable as well, which is another way for users to reach your page. Events help generate buzz about your business, which in turn makes more people interact and inquire, providing more reach that keeps your page present in timelines.
Search works in groups too
Groups on Facebook also have a search function that allows you to view posts within the group. Sharing your page posts helps generate a significant amount of organic traffic depending on the group size, making it another great place to promote your brand. There are numerous groups on Facebook dedicated to connecting people to a business that they want to find and making use of hashtags and the right keywords would make joining these groups beneficial in boosting your brand.
Key Takeaway
Facebook has gradually developed their search to become more versatile and effective for their users, and for SEO professionals and social media marketers, this provides a great opportunity to establish your online presence even further. Facebook is the largest social media network around, and optimizing your brand would mean being able to reach the most people possible.
If you have questions about social media marketing and SEO in general, leave a comment below and let’s talk.
