Comments on: Custom Facebook Page URLs now available immediately – but read this first

By: The Rose McGrory team

The Rose McGrory team — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:15:07 +0000

Hi Blaine. We thought that engagement should always be the overriding consideration on Facebook (and of course if your Page name isn’t user friendly, folks may never find it, let alone engage!).

But then we would say that, as it’s our main area of work. Good to know that any SEO benefits are likely to be too minimal to be worth endangering that – thanks!

By: Blaine Peakall

Blaine Peakall — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:06:27 +0000

I disagree with Roy’s approach of stuffing keywords into everything you create online. Your brand is a long-term asset that should be developed and nurtured over time, not kicked into the long grass for some perceived short-term SEO benefit. Over time brands evolve and diversify – the company focused on “flat pack assembly” today, will almost certainly want to move into new products & services in the future. But they are stuck with the keyword-stuffed website domain, facebook page, twitter account etc. that is no longer relevant to the brand.

As Roy says there is some search ranking benefit to having keywords in your domain name but Google does not recommend this approach and has already stated it is reducing the effect of keyword domains in future algorithm changes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAWFv43qubI

There are hundreds of factors affecting search rankings – your domain name is just one. Don’t get fooled into thinking you must ditch your brand for SEO benefit. It’s very easy to rank #1 in Google for a term nobody ever searches for. But ranking for competitive keywords is going to take more than a keyword stuffed domain name.

Facebook is a place to showcase you brand and to engage with your audience – to share and to listen. So where Facebook is concerned concentrate on doing this – not worrying about SEO.

I should mention, I’m an SEO Consultant

By: The Rose McGrory team

The Rose McGrory team — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:44:20 +0000

That’s interesting Roy -and it certainly helps if your company name and target keywords are one and the same, as you say!
Thanks for stopping by! ~Kate

By: Roy Everitt

Roy Everitt — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:48:00 +0000

Regarding whether keywords in Facebook Page names are helpful I would say a resounding “Yes”.

It’s especially useful if your company name, website URL and Facebook Page ALL have your keywords in them.

For example, we wanted to focus on the key phrase ‘flatpack assembly suffolk’ for a new client and so named the Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/FlatpackAssemblySuffolk as soon as we could.

The website URL uses the same phrase and their Twitter account is a shorter version, @FlatpackSuffolk, while the company name is simply that key phrase as well. So EVERY reference to the business uses the number one key phrase.

That makes it less certain exactly what Google is picking up on, but their website and the Facebook Page (and a blogger blog) appear on page one for that key phrase, at least locally, as you would expect.