Facebook Vanity URLs Will be Available to Pages With Under 1,000 Fans in 2 Weeks

The Facebook username landrush starts tonight at 12:01am EDT, and with it comes potentially the best one-time opportunity for businesses to improve their Facebook identity and SEO by getting a good Facebook vanity URL. However, as many Page owners have discovered, if your Facebook Page has less than 1,000 fans or was created after May 31, your Page won't be eligible to get a vanity URL starting tonight. Instead, Facebook says you'll have to wait until Sunday, June 28 to get a vanity URL for your Page. Why is Facebook enforcing this rule? Essentially, to mitigate squatting. Facebook wants to make sure every vanity URL that gets registered in the system is authentic, and has put these restrictions in place to prevent speculators from creating thousands of Pages in order to squat on vanity URLs. However, this rule will delay legitimate Page owners with less than 1,000 fans from getting a vanity URL for two weeks as well. As we detailed earlier this week, Facebook has set up several rules to try to ensure the vanity URL landrush goes as smoothly as possible: Facebook is not allowing Page owners to choose generic vanity URLs. The most SEO-able usernames are those that most closely match frequently searched terms, like “flowers” or “pizza.” However, Facebook says that generic words are not available as usernames at this time. Rather, Facebook “encourages all users and Page administrators to create a username that closely matches the true identity of their name or business.” Facebook is not allowing Page owners to change or transfer usernames/URLs. Once you pick a username for your page, that’s your page’s username forever - so pick one you’re going to like for the long term. This also means that it will be harder for a black market around usernames to develop. Facebook is allowing rights holders to prevent their trademarks from being registered as usernames. If you own a trademark that you want to prevent others from registering as their Facebook username, Facebook has created this form that you can fill out to file the request. For more comprehensive details and best practices on marketing with Facebook Pages, check out our industry leading Facebook Marketing Bible.

Social Pro Daily

Facebook Vanity URLs Will be Available to Pages With Under 1,000 Fans in 2 Weeks

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