In recent years, Facebook has added a “vanity URL” or “username” feature to all Pages, including your parish page. This is a unique set of characters preceded by the @ symbol that can be used to make your parish easier to find on Facebook. If your parish started its page more than a few years ago, you will need to claim your church’s vanity URL. To do so, navigate to the “About” section of your page and then go to “Username”:
Your vanity URL must be less than 50 characters long and should simply describe your parish community. In the example above, St. Agnes Church in Minnesota has chosen “agneschurchmn,” which is a good descriptor.
There are lots of benefits to claiming your vanity URL. The most important is that your page will appear higher in search results on Facebook, Google, and Bing. In addition, people will be able to navigate to your page by simply using the @ symbol and your username in the search bar and can more easily tag your parish when they upload
Claim your church’s vanity URL today, alongside making sure your Facebook categories are up to date, and you’ll be well on your way to improving your online presence.
