The Future of Facebook SEM

Thus far Facebook has fought off the competition from Google+ as well as the plethora of other aspiring social networks that have come and gone in the last few years.  Now that it looks like Facebook is here to stay, in the world of search engine marketing we need to look at how Facebook will likely evolve in the realms of its business use.  Below I have listed the three items Facebook needs to take care of in order to become the leader in online business use.

1. Facebook needs to become the internet. 

Currently like, most Australian internet users, the homepage on my web browser is Google.com.au.  Through Google I then navigate to all the websites that I need to get to, including smh.com.au, 131500.com and Facebook.com.  The empirical evidence of 45,500,000 searches for Facebook in Google.com.au in Australia last month (source Google AdWords Management Tool) proves that I’m not the only one that does this. 

What Facebook needs to do is develop to the point where my homepage when I open my web browser is my Facebook page with me already logged in.  So the real question is how they get there, which brings me two number 2.

2.    Facebook needs easy to use iframes. 

As every professional SEO company in Sydney and beyond knows, Facebook is not the most user friendly website when it comes to building a business presence.  The tools available and functionality are light and limited.  What Facebook needs to do is let go of the idea of allowing businesses to build websites inside their social network.  Instead, they need to let web design companies do what they do best, which is web design and they can do what they do best which is attract traffic to the page.  This is how it would work:

• You would go to a web design company to have your website built with all the look and feel and functionality that you desire.
• You would then go to Facebook and setup your business page including obtaining your business URL (e.g Facebook.com/The-Web-Showroom).
• You would use a simple tool in Facebook to then import your website in as an iframe on to your business page. A note on this, a good Facebook developer can already get most of this done, however the keyword is “Facebook developer”, the need for them has to be removed.  This process needs to be as simple as setting up a personal profile on Facebook.
• Facebook users could then interact with your website in the exact same way that they interact with a normal website sitting on it’s own domain.  The only difference would be that it all be it would completely through an iframe surrounded by the normal Facebook pay per click (PPC) advertising and navigation items.
• Completed online lead generating forms would be stored inside Facebook that way Facebook could match up the person’s details with their database and provide you perfect demographic information about your customers.  The advantage for this for Facebook and for your business can be huge. Facebook will learn the persons shopping preferences and be able to provide better tailored advertising on the persons profile page, dramatically increasing their advertising revenue.  For the business, this will allow them to see almost perfect information such as:

• What geographical area there customers are coming from
• The demographic of their customers, including:
1. Age 
2. Sex
3. Occupation

Your business phone number would stay on your website as per usual; however it would have a “click to call” feature that would utilise Facebook voice chat.  Facebook would allow you to call for free through voice over IP (VOIP) in return they would obtain more information on your buying habits to again provide tailored advertising.  The business owner could then login to Facebook analytics and not only see traffic information but also phone tracking information.  
I’m aware that the above poses privacy concerns however, Facebook could easily introduce privacy controls to allow you to make your online shopping anonymous. 

3. Facebook needs a better search feature. 

The main advantage that Google+ has over Facebook is the fact that it incorporates Google search features.  Facebook’s search functionality is a big weakness in its current state.  Facebook most likely does not have the in-house expertise to build a Google like search engine from scratch, but it has the next best thing which is hundreds of millions of dollars at its disposal.  Facebook can easily acquire another search engine and improve on its capabilities and place it in.  This search feature can then find businesses that have been uploaded through the iframes into Facebook, similar to how Google currently works.  

Through the combination of the items above, Facebook will become the “internet”.  It will be a one stop shop for:

• Interacting with your friends
• Finding information
• Shopping online
• Managing your business and
• Marketing to new clients

Every morning you will then be able to load your browser or Facebook app straight into Facebook and have no reason to ever navigate to another website.

As stated above a lot of what I have stated is already possible in Facebook; however it can involve a great deal of technical knowledge and/or custom development.  Facebook needs to simply this process so that time poor business owners can easily incorporate their existing or new website into their Facebook business page.

Is this the road Facebook is heading down and if you’re the best SEO company should you be preparing for this?  Only time will tell, but for now I would focus your Australian search engine marketing on Google.com.au