Optimizing Facebook pages & places/locations for GBP

[mattstephenskc]

Hi friends!

We're looking to strengthen our off-page signals for organic and GBP. Currently, I'm running into a few mental roadblocks re: Facebook. These could be individual topics, but I figured it'd be cleaner to include them all in one post. Here's what I'm trying to crack:

1. Business name on FB - Our business name is "keyword poor." It lacks any explicit reference to the type of business or services we offer. A few years ago, we replaced the "LLC" in our name with "Law Firm"—just on Facebook (across our corporate/brand account page and location/place pages). We thought this might help with SEO. I'm not sure if it's made any difference, pro or con. Should we change it back to "LLC" to match our GBP name? We aren't comfortable changing the GBP to "Law Firm" (but are open to convincing).
2. In our GBP listings, under Social Links, is it better to use the corresponding Facebook Place/location page URLs or our corporate/brand Page URL? Our Page has around 3,500 followers, while our Places only have between 5 and 40 followers each. Is it better, short term or long, to strengthen the connection with the local citations despite the minuscule followings there? Or would the vastly larger brand page following outweigh the relevance factor of the local citation?
3. Importance of posting directly to local Facebook Place pages - How much local SEO value would we gain by manually posting to each individual Place page vs. syndicating to them from the Brand page? Or by boosting our engagement and followings on those local Place pages? (Obviously, the Brand page is getting pretty much all of what little attention we get.)

Again, three topics relating Facebook to GBP for local SEO. LMK if I should split these into three threads, or if it's OK to keep them clustered here.

Thanks, all!

 

[ElizabethRule]

1. Business name on FB - Our business name is "keyword poor." It lacks any explicit reference to the type of business or services we offer. A few years ago, we replaced the "LLC" in our name with "Law Firm"—just on Facebook (across our corporate/brand account page and location/place pages). We thought this might help with SEO. I'm not sure if it's made any difference, pro or con. Should we change it back to "LLC" to match our GBP name? We aren't comfortable changing the GBP to "Law Firm" (but are open to convincing).

Is the goal to rank the Facebook page higher for branded searches? I think a Facebook page would have a hard time ranking for much else besides a branded search, so I don't think it matters much if it's LLC or Law Firm.

On the GBP, Google says to not add "irrelevant legal terms" in the business name, including LLC, so you can get rid of that if you want. Not sure if Facebook cares or not.

1. In our GBP listings, under Social Links, is it better to use the corresponding Facebook Place/location page URLs or our corporate/brand Page URL? Our Page has around 3,500 followers, while our Places only have between 5 and 40 followers each. Is it better, short term or long, to strengthen the connection with the local citations despite the minuscule followings there? Or would the vastly larger brand page following outweigh the relevance factor of the local citation?

As far as I know, the social profile links are not a ranking factor, so I think it's best to add the Facebook profile that will give the best user experience. If you have more local content on the location specific pages, add those.

1. Importance of posting directly to local Facebook Place pages - How much local SEO value would we gain by manually posting to each individual Place page vs. syndicating to them from the Brand page? Or by boosting our engagement and followings on those local Place pages? (Obviously, the Brand page is getting pretty much all of what little attention we get.)

If the Brand page gets the more engagement, I would say syndicate the content from that to the local pages to save on time and effort. From an SEO perspective, if you want the local pages to rank for branded terms in their areas instead of the Brand page, you may have to put some effort into unique local content on them but I am not sure if that would even work if the Brand page is so strong.

Depending on how they are set up now, you can look into creating FB Locations under the main brand account, rather than having separate pages for each location, which might help give the locations a boost if they are connected to the main page (if this is not how you have it set up already).

 

[mattstephenskc]

Is the goal to rank the Facebook page higher for branded searches? I think a Facebook page would have a hard time ranking for much else besides a branded search, so I don't think it matters much if it's LLC or Law Firm.

On the GBP, Google says to not add "irrelevant legal terms" in the business name, including LLC, so you can get rid of that if you want. Not sure if Facebook cares or not.


As far as I know, the social profile links are not a ranking factor, so I think it's best to add the Facebook profile that will give the best user experience. If you have more local content on the location specific pages, add those.



If the Brand page gets the more engagement, I would say syndicate the content from that to the local pages to save on time and effort. From an SEO perspective, if you want the local pages to rank for branded terms in their areas instead of the Brand page, you may have to put some effort into unique local content on them but I am not sure if that would even work if the Brand page is so strong.

Depending on how they are set up now, you can look into creating FB Locations under the main brand account, rather than having separate pages for each location, which might help give the locations a boost if they are connected to the main page (if this is not how you have it set up already).

Hi Elizabeth!

We aren't concerned about the FB location pages ranking in search, just with their impact on our GBPs.

Had no idea LLC was prohibited! Would adding "law firm" or "attorneys at law" -- consistently across all our citations/listings and social accounts -- help us at all in search?

Our FB Places (location pages) are linked to our brand page/account, and basically function as extensions of it. We rarely post anything on select location pages; pretty much always brand syndicated content.

 

[mattstephenskc]

After some more research, I've heard pretty overwhelming anecdotal evidence from law firm SEO peeps that Google doesn't enforce their ban on "irrelevant legal terms" like "LLC" for law firm GBPs, since many states require firms to use their legal business name (including, e.g., LLC, LC, PC, PA) in all public-facing listings and marketing. The legal marketing agency I spoke with said, out of the hundreds of law firm GBPs they've managed over the years, they've never had an account reprimanded for having LLC in their name.

I'm still curious, though, whether we'd do well to change "LLC" to "Attorneys at Law" on all our citations, since, per Darren Shaw, having keywords in one's business title is the #2 ranking factor!