Having a custom Facebook fan page is one of the surest ways to earn more likes and drive traffic. In Facebook where appearance is everything, good-looking and well-designed customized pages earn more credibility, interest and yes, likes over a haphazardly put-together page. But where do you start and end in customization?

Images

The visuals of your Facebook fan page should present a clear idea of what your page is about. Customizing the visual elements of your Facebook fan page should start with your profile photo. You can stick to your business or product logo or get more creative by coming up with a Facebook-specific design. If you’re just starting your business, stick to colors that are pleasing to the eyes but are memorable enough to be associated with your brand. Once you have chosen a photo, edit the thumbnail so it would capture the most important details of your image.

You can also customize the photo strip of your page – those series of photos found on top of your page – to expand your visual branding. You can attempt to create an illusion of a continuous image throughout the strip, although the order of the photos may not always work to your favor. Better yet, try a series of related and themed photos that define your page or expand on your messaging without needing to rely on the order in which they appear.

SEO

Yes, Facebook fan pages should be customized and optimized with keywords that would attract the search engines. Facebook uses its own search engine, and often prioritizes Facebook pages on search results. If you’re not sure of your keywords, you can look at similar pages by industry, locality or target market to get an idea of their top words. Apply these keywords strategically throughout your page.

Key SEO areas:

• Page Name
• Page URL
• Info Box
• Regular updates on related topics

Again, one of the best ways to improve your rankings is to have a good number of premium and useful links to and from your Facebook fan page. Growing the number of links should remain organic, but you can take advantage of your non-Facebook online presence to earn instant links. So make sure that you provide back links to your official website, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube channel and other online properties. In the same way, make sure you link back to your Facebook fan page from all of these accounts.

A Fan-Gated Landing Page

One of the most powerful custom Facebook fan page approaches is creating a unique landing page for non-fans. It’s called a lot of names like fan-gated page, a welcome tab, a reveal tab – but whatever else you call it, the goal is the same. With a landing page, you can directly address non-fans with a specific call to action that will encourage them to like your page. Of course, a simple request may not always cut it so make an irresistible offer. By liking your page, make sure that they get something valuable or at least interesting in return. You can give out a free report, a special discount, show an interesting video about their interests, and many other possibilities.

Unfortunately, creating a landing page like this would require quite a bit of programming know-how. It’s great if your organization has an in-house Web team or a third-party developer, but if you’re running a small business, you might have little choice but to do it yourself. The good news is that there are applications and special software that simplifies the process of creating a custom Facebook landing page. Take your pick, implement the new landing page and get handsome returns in no time.

My Little Secret

My little secret for creating a custom Facebook page in seconds and saving a lot of money is Like Page Maker. It’s a very affordable and easy to use piece of software that helps entrepreneurs to create, design and publish customized Facebook pages (including “fan-gated” or “reveal tabs”) in a few clicks.