How To Change Your Facebook Page Vanity URL

by Jason Keath on Jul 06, 2012

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Last week Facebook finally made it easy to change your customer Facebook page URL.

This feature has been requested for some time. Trademark issues and brand name squatters will still cause some brands a few issues, but this should go a long way to helping most businesses adjust their Facebook strategy.

Business names change occasionally. As do naming conventions. And even our social media strategies.

All these things cause us to need to tweak the most important URL in our social media arsenal. And until this change, it took getting in touch with a Facebook rep that was receptive to your needs if you wanted to rewrite the text after Facebook.com/.

The big caveat here is you can only change the name once. So if and when you use this new feature, make sure you plan for the long term.

Step 1. Update Info

Go to the page you want to change the URL of, as your personal profile, not the page. And then click on “Edit Page” in the top right page navigation and then “Update Info.”

Step 2. Click Change Username

There are several options under the “Update Info” page. Including a link over to the form for requesting a name change. But we are just focused on your vanity URL here, which Facebook calls “Username” for your page. Find this section and click on the “Change Username” link.

Step 3. Check Availability

This screen should look familiar. It is the same page you used to originally set your page vanity URL. In fact you can skip directly to this username page and change any of the pages of which you are an admin.

If you came from your page’s “Update Info” section, then the right page will already be selected and you can edit or type in the new desired vanity URL. Click on “Check Availability” and Facebook will check to see if any other Facebook pages have already claimed your desired username.

If not, then after a few CYA warnings from Facebook you can confirm and be home free. Say hello to your new Facebook page vanity URL.

But as I said before, make sure you get everything right. Think long term. Triple check the new URL spelling. And maybe even have a few dozen colleagues come by your desk to make sure everything looks right before you finalize.

You don’t want to have to go crawling back to another Facebook rep after all, right?

Good luck!

Post Author

Jason Keath

CEO and founder of Social Fresh, the social media education company. Jason is a social media consultant, a social media speaker and industry analyst. He consults with corporations and agencies on social media strategy, building community, and influencer... View Full Profile →

Melonie Dodaro

This is a very welcome improvement as
it allows brand to finally have a customised Facebook URL. Thanks for sharing this post, really very
helpful.
Kay Thomas

This is really wonderful if you have combined/merged a friend profile and a professional page. I wanted my original professional page’s vanity URL but the friend profile was the default URL when I first merged the two. After about two weeks the vanity page URL became available again (I understand FB “releases them” if you’ve deleted a page or combined like I did.) With this feature I was able to change the new page’s URL back to my original vanity profile. I was very relieved as that URL was on lots of printed material.
Jason

Does FB provide some sort of re-direct service from the OLD vanity URL to the NEW? In other words, if I change from fb.com/company to fb.com/company2, what happens to the old URL?
Sam

Good question I would also like to know.
ConfabulateSkepsis

http://goo.gl/0lTR1
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

The old URL does not redirect. And anyone will be able to swoop in and register it. Depending on how unique the URL is, this may or may not be cause for concern.
http://www.signalfire.us/ Matthew Olson (Signalfire)

Any idea on how quickly fb releases the URL when someone drops it? My specific case… Vanity URL assigned to a personal account. A proper business page is later setup under a different URL. If we drop the personal account’s claim on it, how soon before we can attempt the change with the business page?
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Not sure Matthew, especially with the personal profile involved. If I were in your shoes, I would set up a new profile and page to test the exact sequence first.
Angie

I see where you say it won’t re-direct but does that apply to a new vanity url that is going from the Facebook assigned url with all of the numbers after it? Will I have to update the website to re-direct to the new url?
http://twitter.com/meaghenk Meaghen Keyser

Hi Jason,

Do you know what happens to the vanity URL of a Facebook brand page if that page gets deleted? Does it become available for someone to claim again?
http://www.facebook.com/rowinskijake Jake Rowinski

Facebook doesn’t provide me with the “Change Username” Option..
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

You will have to test this. Old Facebook string links should redirect, but you should also change all the links from your website.
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

The old vanity URL will eventually be released and someone will be able to claim it unless a Facebook rep tells you otherwise, which is rare.
scott

Any chance you have the Facebook rep information so I can reach out to them? Need to change my vanity URL one last time…
cierra j.

Curious if anyone knows if this is possible: I have a personal vanity, let’s just say facebook.com/abc but I want that for my business page (not my personal one). Is there a way to transfer that vanity “abc” url over to a Page? I’ve been searching for this information and haven’t come up with anything.
Tom

If I change my url from its current BUSINESS NAME (“facebook/General Motors”) to the PRODUCT CARRIED (“facebook/automobiles”), will searches for the business name no longer direct one to the page?
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Never seen that before.
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

No, Sorry Scott. It takes having a budget. Usually the best way to reach out is through an agency.
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Once you change your personal vanity URL, any other page and profile should be able to use it. So your page should be able to pick it up pretty quickly.

There might be a delay between releasing it and being able to register the page’s new URL. I change one two days ago and I just checked, it is now available for my page to use if I wanted.
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Typically your Facebook page shows up in search for many reasons. It could help you Google search a little, but the benefit is not worth the confusion it would cause on Facebook in the newsfeed, from your fans, and anyone searching for your company name on Facebook.
fabiola

Hello Jason

Please I need your help….

I wanted to change the company name i work for on facebook as our name changed, but trying i found a video on youtube and what happen is that I change the URL, thinking is the page name. Now when someone write the name of the company on facebook search they don’t have access to the page and it says ”

Sorry, this page isn’t available
The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.

How could you help me so the people will be able to access to our page? PLEASE PLEASE HELP!
http://www.latinosbehindthelens.com/about/ Ramon B. Nuez Jr.

I appreciate the quick tutorial, Jason.
Sarah Harrington

Hi Jason! Thank you for this information. Just to be clear: The old vanity URL is not redirected to the new one, correct? So all Facebook links on our webpage, announcements, etc. would all need to be adjusted? But, likes, etc. remain the same no matter what the vanity? Thank you!
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Correct @590e5b09c3cfe5227b9473361b98381e:disqus. Good luck!
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Thanks for stopping by @ramonbnuezjr:disqus !
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Thanks Melonie.
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

So glad that worked out so well Kay. Thanks for sharing.
http://www.facebook.com/jane.jackson.792 Jane Jackson

HI Jason – thanks for this great info. What happens to your ‘likes’ when you change your facebook username? Are they retained or do you have to start over?
http://socialfresh.com/blog Jason Keath

Yes, you keep your likes.
Jane

Thanks Jason – you’re great! Such fabulous support!
http://www.facebook.com/charity.j.myers Charity Joy Myers

The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed. Crap!!! Now what?

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