Your Look Inside: Facebook Ranking Factors
Is your business already on Facebook? If you answered yes then you are on the right track. With Facebook’s 1.6 billion person user base which spans around the world, not being on the platform is a disadvantage that most businesses just can’t afford (and wouldn’t want to miss anyways!). Furthermore, their ad platform is among the highest yielding online which can help extend reach even further. However, understanding the workings of Facebook is important in order to use it to your greatest advantage. Nobody wants to end up paying an arm and a leg for advertising when they could get it organically. Here is what you need to know.
Get the Most out of Facebook Marketing
For starters, the newsfeed is the highly coveted real estate where all brands want to be featured. Amidst people’s friends and family’s posts, we want our business posts to be shown offering helpful and engaging information. However, this is easier said than done. Facebook has to keep their users happy first which means showing them what matters to THEM most.
For this reason, Facebook has certain ranking factors which decide what shows up in a newsfeed. What are these factors and how can you maximize your post’s ranking?
Top 10 Facebook Factors
- Active Content – this means content that generates a lot of comments, shares, clicks or “likes.” Comments by Facebook users who tag their friends will help to give you even better results. The more action that is going on with a post, the more interesting it appears to be to Facebook which means more people will probably want to see it and it will appear more often. A few tactics for this have emerged such as asking a question and asking to click like for yes or commenting for no. Furthermore, you could ask a question that prompts responses, or bring up a controversial topic that will spark a conversation. Anything to get interactions up is going to cause your post to appear in more people’s feeds.
- Tags – When a post tags a different Facebook page, it obtains better results. On a similar note, if a page tags another page that has a similar audience, the page that’s been tagged will receive better results as well. When pages or people are tagged it is likely to appeal to a broader audience. Choose who you tag strategically to reach the most relevant audience.
- Credibility Helps – Getting an account verified works in your favor because verified accounts appear more credible. Facebook only wants to show credible quality posts to their audience so verified accounts rank better. No need to skip this step, just verify your account and you won’t have to worry about it again.
- Hyperboles and Bad Links – Avoid using hyperbolic claims as they can hurt organic results. One example of such a claim would be something like “Make $1 MILLION by simply clicking this link.” Also, “spam links” or bad links that lead people to harmful websites. Social media is all about building relationships first and becoming a trustworthy authority in your industry. This is done by posting truly interesting content related to your business, not hard selling. Facebook will thank you by showing more eyes.
- Same Content — Similar content created from your page puts your posts lower in rankings. To avoid this, don’t make Facebook posts that are too similar to each other or Facebook ads that are the same content. You always want to switch it up with fresh, unique content. This will also help you keep followers once you earn them as they will be interested in seeing the new content you are always posting.
- The More Time, The Better – The more that Facebook users stay, linger and interact with your posts, the more you will be shown in newsfeeds. So when you are generating Facebook content, your goal should be to get people to interact and spend as long as possible with your posts. Come up with creative ways to do this whether it is a video, a quiz, a story, or a slideshow.
- Trending Topics – If your Facebook post contains a trending topic, it will receive rankings. Facebook aims to get people informed, so try to integrate trending topics where appropriate. Head over to sites like BuzzSumo to see what is trending and look for topics related to your business.
- Videos – These can be a great boost for your rankings. There’re just a few stipulations: the videos must be original, uploaded directly to Facebook and they need to get a lot of Brainstorm some ideas about how you can showcase your business in an engaging way. This could be a product or service being used, best practices related to your business, behind the scenes specials, or a creative story about your brand.
- Links – Links are a great way to lead users to your content posted elsewhere online. However, a link only helps search engine rankings if it is in a status update or a photo caption. Use them wisely.
- Only Text Hurts – When creating Facebook content, aim to include more than text. Posts that are text only do not show up as well in newsfeeds because they just aren’t that interesting. Think about how you can integrate photos, videos, and other interesting visuals like infographics.
How Can These Factors Benefit Your Business?
- Exposure – When you know the ranking factors and plan your posts accordingly, you will reap the benefits of more exposure. More people will be seeing and engaging with your posts and thus they are more likely to get familiar with your business and eventually convert into customers.
- Save Money – Once you can properly utilize Facebook rankings to your benefit, you’ll be able to gain new customers through organic traffic which then reduces the amount needed for paid advertising.
More exposure while saving money, is this too good to be true? No it’s just aligning yourself with what Facebook has identified is most important to their users. After all, we do want to be creating the most engaging, interesting content for our audiences. These ranking factors can work as a guideline for your business to craft the content your Facebook audience wants.
Keep these 10 factors in mind and try out different types of posts. Be sure to follow up on the Insights page to find out which posts are performing best!
