Leicestershire, UK -- (SBWire) -- 06/24/2013 --From July, as it rethinks search ads for its new Graph Search offering, Facebook is no longer offering sponsored search results to advertisers. With that in mind, integrated SEO, social media and PR agency Punch Communications is advising brands to ensure that their content works harder to improve their visibility in the social network’s search results.

Facebook ‘sponsored search’ was a way for companies to target specific entities, such as Pages, Places or Apps, not a way to purchase specific search phrases, which was the common misconception. The advertising opportunity was therefore a way to siphon customers from rival companies. As Facebook has announced that it is streamlining its ad product offering and removing this search ad opportunity, companies will have to put a greater focus on their posted content and their page ‘about’ information to boost internal social search prominence.

Like traditional search engines, Facebook prioritises pages so that the most relevant results appear in user queries, and there are a number of factors for businesses to consider to boost rankings. Brands should post regularly, making sure content is compelling for followers to like and interact with. Frequency of posts, likes and interactions it all thought to contribute to Facebook search rankings, as does the use of relevant terms on the ‘about’ section of pages.

By introducing Graph Search, which is still awaiting its global roll out, Facebook will be able to sift through user data in a more intelligent way. Whilst it isn’t yet well-defined how brands will be able to take advantage of the next generation of Facebook search, businesses can by making sure pages are up to date and categorised correctly with an accurate address and business hours. As Graph Search is said to prioritise engagement from fans, businesses need to ensure they are gathering insights and posting the types of content that encourages the most engagement.

Keredy Andrews, account director at Punch Communications, commented: “With companies no longer able to leapfrog the competition and appear as sponsored links at the top of Facebook search results, brands need to look at their ‘about’ information and posted content, and implement a strategy to maximise visibility ahead of the global roll-out of Graph Search. Companies need to identify their audience-engaging posts and create a tactical content plan, whilst ensuring that company information is correct across the page. Failing to do this could have a detrimental effect on their visibility in the internal search tool.”

For more information about Punch’s integrated services, including social media, SEO and online PR, please visit http://www.punchcomms.com.