How to Verify Your Facebook Business Page

12 Oct 2016
Alan Martin

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In October 2015 Facebook announced that they were introducing a new feature that would allow business pages to become verified.

This is something that you should definitely do if you have not done so already, but before I show you how to do it, it is helpful to know what a verified page is and why you want to go through the process of  having your page verified in the first place.

What is a Verified Business Page?

Just like Google wants to give you the best results to your search engine queries, Facebook also wants to show you the best Facebook pages when you are searching for them.

The only problem with that is that over the years there have been millions of pages created by businesses that have ceased to exist but never taken down, fictitious and dummy pages that were created but never used, not to mention the pages that have just become stagnant through lack of use.

This was causing a real headache for Facebook, so to solve this issue they came up with the verified pages idea. It’s like a kind of quality control stamp that Facebook gives to pages to confirm that they are actually legitimate businesses.

Why You Should Have Your Page Verified?

verification-badge

So now you know what it is, why should you care about this?

Well, companies that go through the verification process get to display the ‘verified’ symbol (a grey circle with a white tick) on their page which lends a bit of extra credibility, but far more importantly, according to Facebook, verified pages will show up higher in search results within Facebook.

I’ve also heard from clients that since becoming verified, their engagement levels have really improved. It’s hard to prove that this was a direct result of having been verified, but it doesn’t hurt to go through the process. Especially as it is usually a simple procedure.

If you are using Facebook ‘Live’, another reason you might want to verify your page is to access two great new features – scheduling and pre-stream loby – which at time of writing are only available to verified pages. These features will help you plan and promote your content in advance. You can read more about these HERE!

How To Verify Your Page

So now you know what it is and why you should do it, let’s jump into the process! Log on to your Facebook business page, and go to your ‘Settings’ tab. From there make sure you are on the ‘General’ view. The third field down is for ‘Page Verification’.

How to verify your business page

Click on the little ‘Edit Pencil’ and then click on the ‘Verify this page’ text link, and a pop-up window like the one below will appear. At this stage you should note that the phone number you have listed in your ‘About’ page, should be the one that you enter here.

If you want to use a different one, I would recommend you abandon the verification process for a minute and go back to your page to update the information there first (even if just temporarily).

Remember, Facebook is trying to match the information it knows about you to you, so you need to make this easy for it. Once you have entered in the correct phone number, click on the ‘Call Me Now’ button and you will receive an automated voice message with a code, which you then enter into Facebook to complete the process.

screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-15-28-57

That’s how it should work in an ideal world, but sometimes for whatever reason, Facebook are unable to match the number you have given it to its known records about this page, so won’t allow you to complete the process via the phone code.

If this happens to you, go back to the pop-up box where you entered your phone number and click on the ‘Verify this Page with Documents Instead’ link at the bottom left of the box.

If you need to verify your page in this way, you will need to upload any of the following documents showing your business’s name and address. This will help Facebook confirm you’re an authorised representative of the page that you are trying to verify.

You can use:

  • Business utility or phone bill
  • Business license
  • Business tax file
  • Certificate of formation
  • Articles of incorporation

Update: If you find that you don’t see the option to verify your Business Page as per the above instructions, read Simon Mitchell’s comments at the bottom of this article.

Conclusion

Normally verifying your business page is a quick process, so it’s definitely worth doing if you want to give your page a bit of an extra boost in the search results.

Let me know in the comments below if you found this article useful and feel free to share it with your own network using the buttons below.


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6 Comments
  • Simon Mitchell

    Hi Alan, great article, but….
    I don’t see any page verification option in my general settings. I can’t see anything in facebook help either. Search for ‘verify’ draws a blank.
    Anyone else have this issue? And if so, is there a solution?

    • Thanks Simon! It might be the category of page you have chosen. At the moment it is open to ‘Local Businesses’ or ‘Companies & Organizations’ categories.

      If your page does belong to one of these categories but you are still not seeing the option to verify your page, you could try requesting verification through another link.

      • Simon Mitchell, Floreana Ltd

        For anyone else who may be having this problem, here is a solution…

        If the page verification option isn’t appearing in your settings, use another link to request a verification badge.
        This isn’t ‘technically’ the correct link as this is for personal verification (for all you famous sportsmen & filmstars superstars out there). However…. it does give you an option to start a dialogue with the support team that’s pretty hard to find anywhere else!

        You will have to submit anI ID to use this request (submit your certifcate of incorporation, or other business ID).
        You should get a response saying that this is not the correct ID to use for personal verification.
        From here, you can reply indicating that the page verification option is missing from your business page settings.
        After a day or two – the options appear in your settings. You might not get a response from facebook – just keep checking your business page settings for a day or two until the option appears.

        From here on in, you can request the verification using the normal process as described in Alan’s great blog. Using a phone verification didn’t work in my case so had to submit (again) my certificate of incorporation to prove I own the business. I also submitted trademark certificates and this enabled me to verify a brand page that I have.
        The trademark documentation isn’t on facebook’s list of approved documentation, but it seems like they accept is as proof you own a particular brand. Which is nice.

        It takes a little while to go through this process, but it’s relatively painless. I look forward to seeing how my engagment scores change.

        • Thanks so much for taking the time to provide a step-by-step on what you did to get your pages verified, when you didn’t initially have that option on your page Simon. I am sure that will help anyone else in that situation.

          • Dianne

            I was very excited when I saw this solution as I have this very same issue myself – page verification option not appearing even though it is a company page.

            I then clicked on your link and I get ‘Page is not available’.

            I have spent a long time this afternoon trying to find a solution to me not being given a ‘Verify this page’ option via google, and I have just ended going around in circles with different people giving different advice – and I have not found an answer tat works

            When I read this here I thought, ‘Yay!’, but then, my tail soon drooped again. 🙁

          • Sorry to hear that Dianne and I definitely feel your pain! Trying to contact Facebook can be so frustrating.

            I’ve just tried the link again and it no longer works. They must have deactivated it because it was not for that purpose, but through that link Simon was able to get their attention and resolve the problem.

            You could try this one Dianne – https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/377211842296337

            Let me know if you get it sorted! I’ve heard from others that used the original link I shared, that they didn’t get a response but when they went back into their settings a few days later, the option to verify the page had appeared. They were then able to follow the instructions in the article and get their page verified.

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