Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform with over 2.9 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2022. With such a massive user base, Facebook offers powerful search capabilities to help users find content, people, pages, groups, and more across the platform.
Searching on Facebook via mobile devices is a very common activity given the widespread adoption of smartphones. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets account for the vast majority of time spent on Facebook. As of 2021, 94% of Facebook’s monthly active users accessed the platform via mobile devices.
How does searching work on Facebook mobile?
Facebook’s search function on mobile works very similarly to searching on the desktop version. Users can access search by tapping on the search bar at the top of the Facebook app. They can then type in any keywords, names, pages, groups, hashtags etc. to pull up relevant results.
Facebook returns results in a few main categories when searching on mobile:
- People – Profiles of users that match the search query
- Pages – Public Facebook pages with names matching the query
- Groups – Public and private groups matching the keywords
- Posts – Posts from friends and pages that have the keywords
- Photos – Photos tagged with the search terms
- Videos – Videos matching the query
- Marketplace – Listings on Facebook Marketplace with the keywords
- Events – Public events with details matching the search
- Apps – Apps that match the search query
- Places – Local places and businesses with info matching the search
Tapping on any of the results will bring up more details. For example, tapping on a user profile will open up that user’s Facebook page. Tapping on a Marketplace listing will display the full listing details, etc.
What factors affect search results on Facebook mobile?
Facebook uses a complex proprietary algorithm to determine the order and prominence of search results on mobile devices. There are a number of factors that likely influence search ranking:
- Keyword relevance – Results directly matching keyword terms are prioritized
- Content freshness – More recent posts and information may rank higher
- Popularity – Highly active and engaged pages and profiles rank better
- Connections – Friends and followed profiles/pages are boosted
- Location – Closer events, places, Marketplace listings get preference
- Interests – Results tailored to users’ preferences and interests
- Engagement – Posts and pages with more likes, comments, shares rank higher
In addition to these main factors, Facebook likely considers hundreds of other signals such as device type, user history, page authority, spam risk, and more when ranking search results.
How to improve search visibility on Facebook mobile
Here are some tips businesses and users can follow to try and improve their visibility in Facebook search results on mobile:
- Optimize pages and profiles with relevant keywords in titles and descriptions
- Engage followers by posting regularly and encouraging likes/comments/shares
- Use hashtags strategically to make content discoverable in searches
- Advertise on Facebook to get more followers and engagement
- Claim and optimize business listings on Facebook to improve local SEO
- Tag people and locations to link your content to higher ranking profiles
- Avoid spammy practices that could trigger search ranking penalties
Pros of Facebook search for businesses
Facebook search offers a number of advantages for businesses trying to get discovered by customers:
- Huge reach – Over 2.9 billion monthly searchers
- Targeted – Can reach very specific demographics and interests
- Social context – Results boosted by social signals and connections
- Local – Excellent for local search optimization
- Visual – Photos and videos highlydiscoverable
- Real-time – New content ranks quickly in search
- Free – Basic search optimization is free
- Ads – Can further boost search visibility via Facebook Ads
The popularity of Facebook combined with the relevant, social search results make it a very strategic channel for customer acquisition and engagement.
Cons of Facebook search for businesses
Facebook search does come with some drawbacks for businesses as well:
- Competitive – Hard to rank against established brands and profiles
- Opaque algorithm – Difficult to reverse engineer or predict rankings
- Restrictive rules – Prohibits some promotional tactics
- Costs – Paid advertising usually required for best results
- Duplicate content – Listings on Pages and Groups can compete/overlap
- Impersonal – Not as trusted for purchasing decisions as Google
- Ephemeral – New content quickly pushes old content down rankings
- Agnostic – Doesn’t focus only on brands and business content
Businesses need to be strategic in their Facebook search optimization and balancing it with other discovery channels like Google and paid social ads.
Tips for optimizing Facebook search on mobile
Here are some top tips businesses should follow to optimize for Facebook search on mobile devices:
- Place key terms in page username, title and description
- Include target keywords naturally in post content
- Use descriptive and keyword-rich image captions
- Add location tags to posts when applicable
- Include hashtags relevant to your industry and products
- Respond to comments and questions to boost engagement
- Claim your business profile and fill out details completely
- Run regular ads to Facebook’s massive audience
- Analyze competitors’ strategies and optimize accordingly
- Avoid black hat tactics that could trigger search ranking penalties
Common Facebook search queries
Some of the most common types of searches people conduct on Facebook search include:
- Names of friends, family, celebrities, acquaintances
- Names of brands, businesses, restaurants, shops
- Generic terms and interests like “coffee”, “music”, “jobs”
- Local places and venues like “hotels in Chicago”
- Hashtags and events like #Coachella #SuperBowl
- Product names and categories
- Movies, TV shows, games, books
- Public groups and community pages
Monitoring and optimizing for these high volume searches can help businesses improve their visibility and traffic.
Leveraging Facebook search for marketing
Smart marketers leverage Facebook search in the following ways as part of their strategy:
- Search-optimized Facebook Pages and profile info
- Search-targeted Facebook ads using relevant keywords
- Monitoring competitors’ search optimization strategies
- Measuring brand search volume and rankings over time
- Identifying influencers with high search visibility to partner with
- Optimizing landing pages for traffic from Facebook search clicks
- Analyzing search trends to create relevant content
- Building engaged fan bases to boost search rankings organically
With over 2.9 billion monthly searches, Facebook represents a massive opportunity for brands to get discovered by new audiences searching for relevant products, content, and connections.
Facebook search vs. Google search
Although they are both dominant search engines, there are some key differences between Facebook search and Google search:
| Facebook Search | Google Search |
|---|---|
| Social results prioritized | Most relevant results prioritized |
| Immediate social connections rank well | No priority for social connections |
| Oriented around people, Pages, Groups | Web page results oriented |
| Short text content | Longer articles and guides |
| Mostly used for navigation within Facebook | Used heavily for external website navigation |
| Younger demographics | All demographics |
Facebook and Google search excel in different areas. Smart digital marketers will leverage both strategically.
Facebook search ads
Facebook search ads allow advertisers to show up at the top of results when people search for relevant keywords in the Facebook search bar.
Some benefits of Facebook search ads include:
- Targeted – Can focus on very specific demographics, interests, behaviors
- Top placement – Ads show at top of search, ahead of organic results
- Branded – Own the branded keyword results for your business name
- Measurable – Track clicks, conversions, ROI closely
- Flexible budget – Spend as much or little as you want
Facebook search ads follow a traditional PPC model and are a proven way to complement organic search efforts.
Facebook search trends
Some interesting Facebook search trends happening now include:
- Increase in local searches for services and restaurants
- Growth of search for Shop features and ecommerce
- Spam searches growing as % of overall searches
- Increase in long-tail keyword searches
- Video as top content format in results
- Younger users searching much more via mobile
- Decline in personal name searches among teens
- Rise of search for social causes and groups
- Increase in direct brand name searches
- Hashtags getting more search volume
Monitoring search trends allows brands to identify opportunities to create relevant content and campaigns.
Future of Facebook search
Facebook is likely to invest heavily in improving search capabilities even further going forward. Some potential innovations include:
- Enhanced local and location-based search features
- More personalized and contextual search based on user data and signals
- Shopping and e-commerce focused search upgrades
- Visual search for finding images and photography
- Voice search optimization
- Live search for events, stories, videos
- Augmented reality search integrated with AR features
- More advertising formats in search results
- Curated collections of search links
Facebook search will also keep evolving to fight spam, misinformation, and improve relevance in an effort to keep users engaged.
Conclusion
Facebook search represents an enormous opportunity for brands to engage existing customers and reach new ones. Optimizing content, profiles, ads, and strategy for Facebook’s powerful search capabilities can drive significant visibility, traffic and engagement.
Businesses that learn to leverage Facebook search effectively along with Google and other channels will have a decided competitive advantage in their marketing and social media efforts.