What is Facebook SEO?
Most people who use Facebook don’t use much of its expansive functionality at all. Most people use it as a social network; simply view and update their wall, upload videos and photos to their profile and visit the wall of each friend and family members.
The Wall is how most people view Facebook – also called News Feed. Two parts of news feed include: Top News and Most recent. Most people are not aware that its default view is Top News and most people doesn’t change this setting.
As internet marketers, we want our content to show on the news feed section. This is all about optimizing based on the Facebook Algorithm known as “Edgerank”. In the Facebook marketing industry we call this “News Feed Optimization”.
News Feed Optimization (NFO) is creating and optimizing content to rank well in the news feeds of users whose connected with us.
This game is about optimizing content based on the Facebook Algorithm called Edge Rank. It’s about the importance of posting good content to Facebook that is of interest to your users. Content is the key to being a successful Facebook marketer.
Things you need to understand about Facebook SEO
Objects and Edges
- Just like traditional SEO (links, citations, keywords)
- Every single thing on facebook is an “Object” (a post, comment, picture, page, profile, video etc.)
- Every single action taken on any Object is an “Edge”
- Each “Object” or “Edge” has multiple values associated with them
The collection and integration of all these objects and edges and the many factors associated with them are what makes up the Facebook ranking algorithm called Edgerank.
Factors objects and edges use to determine Edgerank:
- Time – importance diminishes as time progress
- Affinity – Social value (likes, comments, sends, tags, etc.)
- Weight – Importance (determined by Facebook)
- Relevancy – Relationship between user and creator of any object or edge
Algorithms can get pretty complex, but when it comes to EdgeRank, the formula is rather simple. It figures in three variables to score postings to decide what shows up in a user’s news feed. First it considers the affinity score between the user and the creator of the edge. Second, it gives weight to the type of edge that is created, and third it considers time based on how long it has been since the edge was created. Understanding these three elements will help you to improve visibility of your company on Facebook.
Affinity
Affinity is simply attraction or liking of a certain thing. The creator of the edge is a person who responds to a status update (likes, tags, comments on, or shares it with others). In a nutshell, the affinity score is based on the relationship between the viewer and the person that responds to a post. Therefore, status updates that are likable and evoke comments and sharing are prime factors in your social media marketing campaign.
Weight
The weight is related to the response that is involved. For instance, a viewer can create, comment on, like, tag, or share a post. While the weighting function has been kept pretty secret for now, it makes total sense that a comment holds more weight than a like and so forth. At any rate, any response holds value for you, the creator of a status update, because responses create an edge. The edge means more exposure for the post.
Time
The time factor is pretty simple to understand. The longer that it has been since an edge was created, the less important it becomes. Engaging your readers with some awesome content becomes even more important. The more discussion that surrounds a status update, a not or video, the longer it will be of advantage to you.
All these factors can be researched very thoroughly and just knowing what these factors are, go a long way towards helping you make the right decision about your page and how to interact with your page visitors.
Need help with your Facebook Business Page?
If Facebook SEO sounds a little complicated and you would prefer we just handle it for you then get in touch for a free Quote of your social media strategy.
Your Turn
Have you applied Facebook SEO to your business page? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments box below. We’d love to hear from you!
