Facebook

Facebook – A Supplement to, or Replacement for, a Business Home Page?

Author: Chris Marentis 

Published: June 29, 2011

Word on the street is that Facebook wants business pages to be a larger part of their business model going forward, which could mean we’re heading down a path where we begin searching for businesses within Facebook alone, similar to how we currently search on the entire web for business information.

Facebook already has a build-in search engine that first provides results within Facebook and then provides a list of web results immediately after, and the question is, will the Facebook search engine eventually supersede other search engines and become the search of choice when we’re looking for specific businesses online? Probably not.

However, Facebook’s trend towards the goal of making business pages a larger part of their business model does beg the question; will businesses begin to see Facebook as a supplement to their current business home page, or will Facebook business pages begin to replace business websites and home pages?

This question is a good one when you consider the power Facebook has in regards to SEO and search engines, such as Google, the most used search engine as of late. It’s not uncommon for a Facebook page to have more impact in the rankings compared to a business’ actual website. This is in part due to unoptimized business web pages.

Individuals who don’t understand or know how to optimize their business website can still get a decent ranking with a Facebook business page by knowing just a few key tricks, such as using a highly ranked keyword or phrase as part of their Facebook Business Page name, selecting the right category for their business on Facebook, and obtaining at least 25 fans (easily obtainable from personal Facebook ‘friends’) which grants the ability for a vanity URL from Google that will include the business’ name or key phrase in the Facebook URL for that business page. This URL alone will boost...