12 expert tips to optimize your Facebook business page

Considered the world’s biggest social network, Facebook likely already has some of your attention, one way or another. And, if you have a business, it’s important you optimize your Facebook business page to its full potential.

Check out our six tips to boost your marketing on Facebook.

Why you need a Facebook business page

Facebook remains the world's largest social network, with more than 3 billion monthly active users and roughly 2.1 billion people logging in every day, nearly 70 percent of its monthly base, according to Backlinko's Facebook user statistics.

And to be considered relevant these days, every business must at least consider an active Facebook business page. Beyond just relevancy, though, a Facebook business page can help your business promote and/or share its services or products and engage in effective customer support. In addition, social media accounts do rank fairly high on search engine result pages. In other words, your social media presence can boost your search engine optimization (SEO).

A Facebook page can be considered your “micro-site” within the platform that highlights your business and shares various details with users.

Be sure to check out our snapshot of the challenges and opportunities of Facebook for small businesses as you’re optimizing your Facebook business Page.

The following are 12 tips to optimize your Facebook page and grow your business on “the social network.”

Choose the correct Facebook Page category

Facebook has simplified how new Pages get set up. Instead of picking one of six broad “page types” up front, you now mainly choose a Page name and up to three searchable categories, such as “Bakery” or “Software Company.” Your first (primary) category has the biggest impact on which features and information fields your Page gets, like hours and a map for a local business, so it’s worth choosing carefully.

The old six-type groupings still show up as useful shorthand when you’re brainstorming which category fits, so here’s a quick reference:

Update your Facebook Page category

If your Page already exists and the category no longer fits, here’s how to fix it: open your Page, go to Page Settings, select Page Info, and edit Categories. You can set a primary category plus up to two more, then save. Changing your primary category can affect which features and ad targeting options are available, so review the change before publishing it. See this current guide to Facebook Page categories for the full walkthrough.

Branch out with Location Pages (if applicable)

If your business doesn’t have multiple locations, you can skip this tip.

But if it does (or will), read on.

Facebook's Locations feature (managed from the Stores tab in Meta Business Suite) sets up a “parent-child” Page relationship for your business. Your main Facebook business page becomes the “parent” for your brand and can no longer carry its own street address, while each individual location gets its own “child” Page with its own address, phone number, hours, and recommendations.

Franchise Facebook location page example

As a simple example, consider the franchise business McDonald’s (and assume it only has three locations for the purpose of this example). There would be the main McDonald’s Facebook page and then three separate location pages for each of its physical locations.

This relationship means that you can post content to your main page that then automatically filters down to your location pages. It also means that users can interact with your location pages separately by checking in, giving you a recommendation, posting comments and so on. And, of course, a location page can share its own content in addition to whatever is filtering down from the main page.

For businesses with 10 or fewer locations, adding each one manually inside Meta Business Suite's Stores tab is the recommended approach; larger operations can bulk upload locations with Meta’s CSV template. Find out more about setting up Stores and Location Pages on Facebook.

Create a unique username for your page

A custom username for your Facebook business page helps users find your page (and tag it in posts) more easily. It also will give you a shorter and cleaner-looking URL.

So, instead of a “facebook.com” followed by miscellaneous numbers and more, it can simply be your brand name at the end.

Of course, you’ll want to keep your brand name in mind when creating your unique username. If your preferred username is already taken (which is always possible), consider slight variations, such as adding “the,” “co,” “inc” or other relevant options. Do your best to keep your username as consistent as possible across social media platforms.

Example Facebook page variations

A few rules to keep in mind when picking a username:

• You must be an admin to create a username.
• Spaces or underscores are unavailable to use, but you can have periods separating words.
• Capitalizing any words to enhance readability won’t have an impact if users type lowercase letters to find you.
• Usernames must be between five and 50 characters.

Find out more about creating a custom Facebook page username.

Maintain an ‘SEO mindset’ when optimizing your Facebook business page

As we’ve already mentioned, active social media profiles rank well in search engine queries.

Therefore, it’s only in your best interest to include relevant keywords throughout your Facebook page. The keywords that matter for your website should matter on your page.

Don’t overdo it, though. Just like on your website, you want to consider the user experience first. Keyword dumping not only makes for an awkward (and ineffective) first impression, search engines often catch and flag such practices.

Fill out your page information fields

Sometimes, in the haste of creating a Facebook business page, a few (or many) relevant page information fields may go overlooked. The “About” section includes such information as your page name, description, categories, contact information, location and operating business hours.

Every field matters and should be filled out in a thoughtful manner. Remember, this is your opportunity to maximize the SEO value of your Facebook page and provide added value for your visitors as well.

When it comes to your operating hours, keep in mind that while Google Business Profile will allow you to set custom hours for holidays, Facebook does not. If you have special hours to communicate to your audience, be sure to post and/or advertise those separately on your Facebook page.

Go beyond the traditional cover photo

Cover photos have long been a fixture of Facebook page features. But now, you can go beyond the traditional image.

You can treat the top spot on your Facebook business page as a featured photo section by clicking on the cover photo and selecting the option to edit or create a slideshow. You also have the opportunity to upload a video to share even more about your brand with Facebook users.

Cover photos display at 820 by 312 pixels on computers and 640 by 360 pixels on smartphones. Your profile picture overlaps the bottom-left corner of the cover, and the call-to-action button sits in the lower-right corner on desktop, so keep both of those areas clear of important text or logos. Any cover video should be at least 1250 by 312 pixels and between 20 and 90 seconds long.

There are still Facebook Pages, Groups, and Events policies to follow, however, so be sure to review them.

Use the call-to-action button on your Facebook business page

The call-to-action button can enable users to easily interact with you, help them learn more about your business and so on.

Because there are a number of options to use this button for, consider your goals, what might make the most sense for your business and what users most likely would want or need to do when they visit your Facebook business page.

Generate leads from your Facebook page

For lead generation, consider using the “Sign Up” button to link to a webinar sign-up page.

Review all the options and see what fits best, and remember that you can change your CTA button whenever your goal or intention changes.

To edit your CTA button, click on it when you’re signed in, then choose “Edit button.” You can select the preferred action from a list. You’ll be able to monitor the activity it generates in Meta Business Suite Insights.

Turn on Recommendations for your Facebook business page

Engagement and real-time feedback are critical components to all social media. Facebook retired the old five-star review system some time ago in favor of Recommendations, a simpler yes-or-no format where visitors say whether they’d recommend your business, then add an optional comment, photo, or tag.

Before you blindly turn on Recommendations, be advised that you should consider and plan an entire response strategy:

• What should you do if you receive a negative recommendation? How should you respond?
• How about a positive one?

Know what your plan is and then definitely feel empowered to go for it. To do this, go to Page Settings in Meta Business Suite, then Privacy, then Page and Tagging, where you can turn Recommendations on or off. See Meta's guide to turning Recommendations on or off for the exact current path, since Facebook periodically reorganizes its settings menus.

Just remember that recommendations are a great way to gather testimonials and highlight the value of your business.

Embrace Messenger on your Facebook business page

Facebook Messenger is a valuable customer service tool. However, just like recommendations, you should have a strategy in place on how quickly you can respond and how you should respond to incoming messages.

Your responsiveness rate will appear on your page and shows users how efficient you are at responding to messages.

Messenger and Instagram Direct messages now live together in the Inbox tab of Meta Business Suite, so you can reply to both from one place. Under Inbox, then Automations, you can also set up instant replies, away messages, and preset answers to frequently asked questions, which functions similarly to the Messenger bots many businesses used to build separately to help with the most basic of inquiries.

To make sure people can message your page privately, go to Page Settings in Meta Business Suite, then Privacy, then Messages, and confirm messaging is turned on. For more on setting the right response expectations across channels, see our five ways to improve your customer service.

Organize your page tabs

This is an easy optimization to overlook, but it’s worth doing. Depending on your business, some of the available Facebook page tabs might be more of a priority for your business.

Facebook offers templates that can help suggest a relevant arrangement of tabs. In Page Settings, under Templates and Tabs, you’ll see the various templates. You can also drag the tabs into a custom order that you prefer.

Claim any unofficial pages

If you search for your brand’s name and find other pages that appear to be your brand but aren’t yours, these are often unofficial, automatically created pages.

Fortunately, this is a solvable problem.

Facebook creates automatic pages almost as a placeholder, which gives visitors an opportunity to check in and post reviews and/or comments about the location. This can happen before or after you create your own page.

To solve for the existence of an unofficial page, you can claim the page and even merge it with yours if you want. The key is that you verify your main Facebook page.

Verify ownership of an unofficial Facebook business page

While logged into your personal account, navigate to the unofficial page and click “Is this your business?” near the top of the page. Facebook will ask you to verify your connection to the business through one of the following:

• Phone call
• Email
• Utility or phone bill
• Business license
• Business tax file
• Certificate of formation
• Articles of incorporation

Once the page is verified (usually within 24 hours), you can return to the unofficial page, select “Is this your business?” again, and choose “Merge into a Page you manage.” Select your official page and submit.

Because unofficial pages can pop up from time to time, it’s a best practice to regularly check for them.

Review your Facebook Insights

Monitoring your Facebook metrics and understanding what’s working on your Facebook page (and what’s not) plays a big role in continuing to optimize your page and your content as your brand, audience or even Facebook itself evolves. Insights now live inside Meta Business Suite alongside your Instagram data, so you can compare performance across both platforms in one dashboard.

Keep it simple but consistent when reviewing your page’s performance. Set at least one time a week to review and determine if anything needs to change about your strategy. If you’re also running paid campaigns, pair those organic insights with your ad performance; our tips to maximize your social media advertising budget cover how to keep both working together.

Conclusion

Regardless of the time and effort you invest into your Facebook business page and overall presence, it is not an adequate substitute for your own website. Think of it this way: If Facebook was shut down tomorrow, where could you be found online? Or, in a more realistic sense, what if you were reported and banned on Facebook? Always make sure that you exist on a platform that you own and control (such as your own website).

See the 13 biggest mistakes businesses make on Facebook (and how to avoid them).

Now that you have your Facebook page working for you and not against you, consider leveling up your digital marketing process. Consider DailyStory, with such features as automation and audience segmentation. Schedule your free demo with us today.