Wondering how to change your Facebook Page URL?
It’s pretty simple, though Facebook once said you can’t.
I checked all of the Pages I admin, and the option to change the Page URL was readily available. Here’s how.
UPDATED with new text and screenshots March 2019! Yes, this article is actually correct, unlike those others.
We will cover:
- Rules for your Facebook Page username.
- Best practices and cautions when changing your URL.
- Exactly how to change your Facebook URL in 2019.
- Plus a video walkthrough of changing your Page and profile URLs.
NOTE: Here are the instructions if you need to change your Facebook Page NAME, instead of URL.
What’s your Facebook Page URL?
Your Facebook Page URL is the part of your web address after the https://www.facebook.com/. So in the case of my Fan Page, we’re talking about the LouiseMcom.
Facebook calls this your username. It’s also often referred to as your vanity URL.
Important rules for your Facebook Page URL aka username
Not surprisingly, Facebook has a host of rules about usernames.
- You can only have one username for your Page or profile.
- You can’t claim a username someone else is already using.
- Usernames can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (“.”).
- They can’t contain generic terms or extensions (.com, .net). However I was able to append “com” with no problem.
- Periods (“.”) and capitalization don’t count as a part of a username. For example, johnsmith55, John.Smith55 and john.smith.55 are all considered the same username.
- Usernames must be at least 5 characters long.
- Your username must adhere to Facebook’s Terms. source
Keep in mind that you must be an admin to create or change the username for a Page.
You may not be able to immediately create a username for a new Page if you’ve recently created several new Pages.
A Page’s username can also be removed because of inactivity.
More Facebook Page username best practices
In addition to FB’s rules, here are my suggestions to get the best Facebook username:
Choose a username you’ll be happy with for the long term. It may or may not be changeable in the future!
Keep your username as short and memorable as possible, yet…
Make it as close as possible to your true name or the name of the business or person your Page represents (ex: John.Smith, Facebook).
Regarding periods and capitalization, decide how you want it to look in the address bar, because users can type it in with or without periods and capitals.
I did see one article claiming that periods between words makes your URL more SEO friendly, as Google likes delimiters between words. I decided to forgo periods to be more user-friendly.
If the username you want isn’t available, you’ll need to pick a new one that’s not taken yet. A username may be unavailable if it’s already claimed, even if the Page or profile it’s associated with isn’t published yet.
Cautions on changing a Facebook Page URL that’s already set
Maybe you’ve decided your URL is too long, or you want to make it match your Page Name.
Changing your Page URL won’t change your Page name – the title that appears under your cover photo. However, be aware that once you’ve set a vanity URL, changing it will mean that any links to your Page will no longer work. If you don’t search out and change the old links, when clicked, they’ll lead to this cute message:
Not so cute when it means people searching for you won’t find you!
Also be aware: previously, Facebook allowed to change your Page URL only one time.
So don’t make a change lightly – you’re might have to live with this one, or start a new Fan Page.
When it comes to social media, there are no guarantees that what works today will work tomorrow!
What you MUST do before changing your Facebook Page username
If you’ve had your Facebook business Page for any length of time, and you’re active in promoting it, you’ve got that link posted in a lot of places.
I ran a search of my blog posts for my then-current “howtographics” username and was surprised to find over a dozen links.
You’ve probably linked your FB Page in at least one sidebar, header, or footer widget (I had 3).
If you’ve guest posted, consider whether you left links there, and how you can access them to make the change. The last thing you want is to impress your reader, then send them to a dead page!
If you’ve linked to your Facebook Fan Page from other social accounts, you’ll need to update those too.
You may have saved a Pin on Pinterest with a link to your Facebook Business Page – you can change the URL on the Pin (but it won’t populate to repins). And if you have an Instagram account, you might have dropped a link there. Or on your Twitter profile. Find ’em all!
Check your email signature, as well as any printed materials – business cards, brochures, anything else? These will need to be addressed first 😉
As far as search engines like Google, I don’t believe there’s a way to ask them to reindex a page on a domain you don’t own. They should eventually notice though. The length of time probably depends on how big or active your page is/was.
So yes, if people search for your Facebook page outside Facebook, a search engine such as Google will send people to a broken Facebook Page link for some amount of time.
For me, I was doubtful many people were searching for my FB page on Google. If you feel that’s true for you, try not to worry about it 🙂
Work on the ones things you can control – read on for the timeline.
Timeline for Changing Your Facebook URL
Now that you’ve figured out where you’ve placed your old username, it’s time to prepare.
Before investing time or money in the following steps, ensure that you have the option to change your username! Then proceed.
Most steps are optional and some may not apply to you. Use your best judgement. These are suggestions only.
- Printed materials? Get ready to order new ones ASAP.
- Post a heads-up on your FB Page that you’ll be changing your username. Explain why.
- Reach out to blogs where you’ve guest posted and ask if they will do this for you, if you don’t have admin privileges to do it yourself.
- Prepare an image to post on Facebook when you complete the name change.
- Set aside one to several hours (depending on how much you need to change) to do steps 6 to 9 in quick succession.
- Open all the blog posts, widgets, and social media accounts that you need to change in separate tabs. Enter the change, but don’t save/update yet.
- Go into your Facebook Fan Page and make the change following the steps below.
- Got a new username secured? NOW complete everything from steps 1, 3, 4 and 6.
- Change your email signature.
- If needed, change your Facebook Page NAME to match the new username.
- If needed, rebrand your FB Page graphics (more info on this towards the end of this article).
- If desired, inform followers on your other social accounts, blog, and email list of your change.
How to change a Facebook Page username that’s already set
1 | Log into Facebook as the personal profile that’s an Admin of the Page you wish to change. Please do so on a computer.
Click About on the left side of your Page.
2 | Click Edit next to your current Page username.
3 | Enter a new username.
4 | If it’s available, meets the guidelines, and you’re SURE you want to make the change, click Create Username.
You’re done!
How to change a Facebook Page URL: video
This 4 minute video will walk you through how to change your Page username (first 2 minutes) and after that, changing your personal profile URL.
Yes, it is still accurate in 2019 even though it says 2017.
But I still can’t change my Facebook Page URL!
My readers keep me on my toes! Just after updating this article, Jaz commented:
I had originally been able to change it but I did not click “Request Change” since I was still deciding what I wanted the new name to be.
Now when I click to Edit the Page Name, a pop-up comes up that says “You can’t change your Page name.”
I could not find anything definitive about NOT being able to change usernames except that you must be an admin. Nonetheless, here’s tht, plus some other things to check:
1 | Are you logged into a FB account that has full admin privileges?
2 | Have you changed your URL recently? Wait at least 3 days before trying again.
3 | Have you engaged in spammy behavior? Start over with a new Page if you can commit to NO spam!
4 | Have you ever used the Page? It’s possible that inactivity would prevent you from making this URL change.
5 | Do you have hardly any, or a ton of, Page Likes? Once again, a possibility.
If you still don’t have the option to change your URL/username, try this Facebook Page problem report.
However, if you’ve run ads and have an ad manager, contact them as they should be able to help.
Next steps for your Facebook Fan Page
Does your FB Page cover photo match your new brand?
Facebook’s cover photos are a bit tricky to size correctly to look good across devices!
Use my template in the article below! Or try the fast and easy way to optimized cover photos for every major social network. Design one, and optimize for another use in a couple clicks. Don’t miss it!
If you need to update your profile picture, this article is full of great tips. It mentions Instagram, but the tips are universal to all profile images – which should match everywhere your business appears online!
Plan to run ads to promote your rebranded page? Great idea!
And if you want to improve your ad’s success, check this one out.
I have loads more, but that should keep you busy for awhile!
Will You Change Your Facebook Page URL?
We covered:
- Rules for your Facebook Page username.
- Best practices and cautions when changing your URL.
- Exactly how to change your Facebook URL in 2019.
What do you think? Is it worth the hassle?
I deliberated for quite some time before deciding it was a necessity for me.
Let me know if you will change your Facebook Page URL!
David Dumonde says
Louise, thanks for the helpful article, but even more so, thanks for responding to the comments here. I’ve been trying to solve a puzzle and I think the comments from your users and your responses have helped shed some light on it.
A month or so ago I created two Fb pages, pageA and pageB, one right after the other. I was given an opportunity to create a username in the page creation wizard when I created pageA, and that was automatically set as my url. When I set up pageB shortly afterwards, I was not given the same opportunity to create a username, and About > Page Info does not have an option to edit the Facebook Web Address as you show in your article (but pageA does have this option).
The comments and your replies posted here lead me to believe that Fb lets you set up one page with a username, but if you create an additional page, you will need to meet some other requirement to be able to create a username for the second page – most likely a certain number of likes. I’m sure Fb does this to prevent people from “squatting” usernames.
I’ve actually spent a lot of time over several weeks looking for a specific answer to this issue, and I’ve only found hints here and there, but no clearly stated policy. Fb is not known for its transparency, but it would be really helpful if they included these details in their help documentation.
Thanks again for helping me clarify this puzzle.
Louise Myers says
You’re welcome, David, and thanks for taking the time to share your experience!
I believe, though never seen it stated explicitly, that you can have only ONE page at a time with a username and less than 25 (maybe 30) Likes. It would be great if FB clarified this!
One way around this may be to have another FB user (whom you trust) become an admin and set the username. This should work if they don’t admin another page with a username and less than 25 Likes.
Cheers!
Becky says
Hi David,
I’d just like to say thanks for posting this info. I recently created 3 new pages (1 for each of my company’s store locations) and could only change the info on one of them. I have now added someone else as admin and have managed to change the usernames. You’ve saved me a lot of hassle.
Thanks again.
Zumvo says
Hello Zumvo Here. I changed my Page Url Once and Now need some Minor changes as some other people are ranking with my same name but my Page have not written Official Anywhere can i Change it with the same method above or not ?
Secondly my Page do not show Up in Google when I search for it or any of my friend. How to Submit it to google like our website so that google may index it ?
Louise Myers says
You’ll have to check and see if you can change it. Normally, you can only change once.
Re Google Search: Make sure you have no restrictions on your Preferred Page Audience. Then, you need to create links to your page. There’s no way to submit it directly to Google.
Be patient. It can take time for Google to index your page.
Ti says
Thanks for the info. Is this working only on business type pages for Facebook? I was unable to find the Facebook URL or a section for “Page Info” on my personal page. I’d like to change my personal page’s URL to something a bit more generic to maintain some sort of privacy.
Louise Myers says
Click on “About” under your cover photo. Then “Contact and Basic Info.” That’s where you can edit the URL.
Jen says
I’ve been searching for ways to change my personal profile URL after unsuccessfully trying to rid myself of a cyber stalker that I’ve had for 3 years now. I have my contact info page open as you suggest here, but I do not see an option to edit URL. Am I missing something?
Louise Myers says
This is written for business pages, personal profiles may be different.
Anthony B. says
Hi Louise,
I’ve recently changed my business name and URL on my Facebook page, but now when I go in and edit some basic information It is not saved and I get a URL error message
Margarete Eller says
Dear Luise M.
I really appreciate your detailed instructions. Still, I’m stuck:
When I open my page and go to ABOUT, it simply doesn’t look like what you show on the screenshot above. I don’t see PAGE INFO on the left side, instead, under OVERVIEW, it says WORK AND EDUCATION, PLACES YOU’VE LIVED, and so on.
Can it be that what I have is a different kink of fb page? This is my page URL: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015433182548
and I’d like to have it be shorter to put it on my business card (like facebook.com/OhashiatsuAustria)
Thank you very much for you help!
Margarete
Louise Myers says
Yes. This isn’t a business page, it’s a personal profile. It’s against Facebook’s rules to use this for business purposes.
To create a page–> https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/
Margarete Eller says
oh sorry – I think I sent you the wrong link. Here is the page facebook.com/Ohashiatsu-in-Austria-125767250877111/
Would you be so kind to check again for me?
Thank you very much.
Margarete
Louise Myers says
Hi Margarete,
The layout of this tab has changed. Their should be a “general” section where you can change your username/URL. On mine it’s the first section on the About tab: Category, Name, Username.
John V Denley says
personal page URLs can be changed at http://www.facebook.com/username
Louise Myers says
Yes, you can.
Evita says
Hi Louise
Thanks so much for putting this together. I wonder if you have any insight into the following case scenario:
I am operating as my real name for business purposes and just used Facebook’s convert “profile to page” feature. Having read as much info as I could find about this process, I was under the impression that my Page would assume the name of my Profile in all ways, and my profile would need to be renamed. But while my page got my name, it did not get my username/URL. It is asking me to create a username for that page now, and if I try with my name, of course it says it is take and cannot be the same as my profile. To operate my business properly I need to have the page have the proper name credentials, and would like to rename my profile.
I am researching for answers, and have tried contacting Facebook to no avail, and am thinking if I modify my profile username/URL, would that allow me to give my proper name to my page? I am hesitant to do this though, as I read elsewhere that if you give up your username it becomes locked and not possible to use. But is that for others, or for me included, or would it then free up that username for my business page? I appreciate any advice or help you can offer about this case scenario.
Louise Myers says
Hi Evita,
I’m so sorry but I don’t have an answer for this. I might add that even if you find a “definitive” answer online, it may be outdated. Facebook changes things all the time.
Best suggestion is to come up with some derivative of your name. Such as “LouiseMyersBiz” or “LouiseMyersPage.”
Best of luck.
Evita says
Thanks for your reply Louise.
Toni says
Hello Louise Myers,
Quick question. My friend logged out of Facebook and when trying to log back in, the section where he needs to put his email or phone number has a generic number starting with 10000….
He was wondering if he had been bugged or if there is some problems with his Facebook account. I was trying to load the picture but was unable to.
Thanks in advance.
Louise Myers says
Sorry, never heard of this.
Kristina Mendoza says
Very handy information to have! Thanks for sharing Louise!
Peter Ebuka says
Hello. Good Day. Please I wanna change my fb page the 2nd time now. my fb page has 59k likes. This is because I change the name of my website. I try changing it after writing the new name, ill submit. but it won’t change automatically. what can I do? i really need to change my page name to match with what I do.
chris says
Hi louise,
been reading through the forum trying to get an answer for my problem.
Basically i have a Facebook fan page, and recently for the first time i wanted to change the name of the page and my user name (URL).
i changed it by just removing the middle name to make me more searchable on line as no one knows me by my full name that was originally on there.
i did this successfully and the page names have changed and it has even come up in the google search results.
but when i click on the link from the google search results it basically show the sign you posted above, (sorry this page is not available, the link may have been broken or been removed)
as i say the page is still up and running but i really want to try a figure out step by step guide how to sort this? no where else online is helpful.
thanks,
chris
Louise Myers says
I haven’t heard of this, but it could possibly be a caching issue… maybe try another browser, have a friend try on their computer, or clear your cache.
Other than that, it may just take some time for Google to crawl the page again and update its records.
Vincent Candito says
How to change a location area on a Facebook page
Raj says
Hello,
I have used a name (Say ‘http://facebook.com/MyURL’) which lands to my particular account page. Now i need to have that URL or username to my particular FB Page.
Is it possible to change the URL name for my account and use it to my page?
Pls suggest.
Thanks
Louise Myers says
I don’t know. Social media platforms change their mind on whether a name is released once someone stops using it – or permanently archived. No way to be sure what would happen.
Jodi says
Good Morning,
I have 2 pages for my business Page A has the name and URL I want but only 6 followers. Page B is the one I want to change the name and URL and it has 525 followers. Is there a way to do this? Can I somehow merge the pages?
Thank you for your time!
Louise Myers says
Hi, there once was a way to merge pages, I don’t know if it still exists or how it works. Search for it and see what you find!
Carl Smith says
Barbara’s quite.. stunning … 😉
Pinoy tambayan says
I really appreciate your detailed instructions. Still, I’m stuck:
When I open my page and go to ABOUT, it simply doesn’t look like what you show on the screenshot above
Louise Myers says
It changes all the time. Scroll to the bottom of the popup window and click “see all” then you can edit the URL.
Solowayne says
Louise thanks very much for sharing this price worthy info. I almost scratched off my wig trying to figure out how to do this LOL. Thanks alot!!!.
Louise Myers says
Glad I saved you that embarrassment! 😉
Catherine Finch says
Hi Louise, I changed the URL of my FB business page, but when I google my FB name, the old URL appears and says the link is broken. How do I remove the old URL? The new one appears on my page not the old one, but the old links are still on google. I don’t know how to remove these. Please help 🙂
Louise Myers says
I don’t believe there’s any way to “remove” things from Google. I suppose eventually it’ll realize there’s nothing there. I don’t know how long that would take. You probably need someone who knows Google crawl tactics intimately to answer that!
jacke says
Ya i got it and it works well with me
Athul says
Sir,
Really helped me a lot.
I have cleared doubt related facebook page Url to make any changes.
thanks.
Ann says
hi Louise, thank you for this–I am a bit panicked about changing our business FB URL and name, but we have changed the name of our business and it needs to happen. One question that I don’t see asked above, do you know of an easy or at least thorough way to find all the places there are links to a FB page? I thought there was a way to do it and I’ve tried a few Google searches but no luck. Thank you for any ideas, or even a “no it can’t be done” answer will be helpful bc then I can stop looking and start trying to remember! 😉
Louise Myers says
I don’t know of any way to do this. A quick search only brought up results for finding links to your own verified website.
Peter says
Hi
I setup a web page for a group. I setup the custom url for thr group om my profile page not the group page. How do I change the page the custom url points to? How do change some lower case letters to upper case letters in the url?
Louise Myers says
As far as I know, there’s no way to switch URLs. Group URLs always have /groups/ in them so it may be possible to use the same words you used in your personal profile URL.
URLs on FB work whether you type cap or lower case. If you want it to look a particular way in the browser bar, you have to set it up that way. It can’t be changed.
Kylee says
I set up a facebook profile a while back and the URL “shortcut”, I have recently set up a facebook page and now when I try to pick the username for my page EX.)
facebook.com/xxxxxxxxx for the URL shortcut it will not let me and is saying its already taken. I have tried changing the shortcut to something completely different and saving it, but when I type facebook.com/xxxxx the page is still coming up. I have also tried deactivating my account and then searching for the page and it says page not found. But when I go to update the user for my current page its still saying the username is taken. Let me know if that makes sense. If I delete the old profile will that lock the pages shortcut and nobody will be able to use it, or will it open it up to be used?
Thanks
Louise Myers says
No way for me to know or predict this.
Amanda says
Hi. Great info. I think I have changed my URL before. Hence why I can’t do it again. My URL on my fb and in my ph settings don’t match. My password is correct. But if I want to say, use fb contacts to play games with, I can’t do it as the username or password is wrong. I can’t change the URL name in my ph settings?? Any thoughts?
Louise Myers says
Never heard of this problem…
Awogor Matthew says
Detailed review but I was looking for how to edit personal profile url not for a fan page.
Thanks though
Lisa says
Hi Louise,
Thank you for your post. My question is probably quite primitive so excuse my ignorance! I was wondering how people who have liked my current page would be redirected (if at all) to my new page once the URL is changed? I don’t want to lose any of my followers but I need to change the URL to reflect my current business roles. Thank you.
Louise Myers says
They will not be redirected, hence the “broken link” page. You won’t lose followers. It would be extremely unlikely that they’d seek out your page by typing in the URL though. This would only come into play if they came across a link to your old page elsewhere online.
jim ferris says
Hi Louise
thanks for this information.
Id like to know how to know if a fb page is not a clone or a phishing site.
what would be the reason for receiving this message on fb…..
….this message has been temporarily removed because the senders account requires verification….
I have this happen many times when communicating on Messenger with people promoting BTC Trading and Mining.
Youre insights would be appreciated.
Regards
Jim
Louise Myers says
Hey Jim, unfortunately this is beyond my expertise. Sounds like a FB security measure in a possibly “phishy” niche.
sue says
HI
Do you know if it is possible to unlink business facebook page from instagram through facebook? My insta account has been hacked and blocked and I can not get response on how to fix it…
I want to link a new insta account to my business fb page, but it is saying the fb business page is still linked to the hacked insta page… I cant unlink it from insta as the account is blocked…
If you have nay ideas, please let me know
Will changing my fb username unlink the page from insta?
Thanks Sue
Louise Myers says
Sorry, Sue, I don’t know. Doubtful that changing the name will unlink them though. Seems like there must be a way but I haven’t come across it.
marc says
Louise,
I wish I had seen this article before changing the username yesteday. I’ve been caught in the same trap you mentioned:
“However, be aware that once you’ve set a vanity URL, changing it will mean that any links to your Page will no longer work. If you don’t search out and change the old links, when clicked, they’ll lead to this cute message: Sorry, this page isn’t available etc”
Exactly how do you change old links? I’m especially concerned that the message shows when I try to open the page directly from a Google search listing.
Louise Myers says
Hey Marc,
As far as searching out and changing links you can control, check this article on what to do before changing your Instagram username.
I don’t believe there’s a way to ask Google to reindex a page on a domain you don’t own. They should eventually notice though. The length of time probably depends on how big or active your page is/was.
For me, I was doubtful many people were searching for my FB page on Google. If you feel that’s true for you, try not to worry about it 🙂 Work on the ones you can fix.
Jaz says
Hi Louise,
I’ve been scouring the internet to see if I can find out a way to change my Facebook Business Page name. Thanks for putting this together!
I had originally been able to change it but I did not click “Request Change” since I was still deciding what I wanted the new name to be. Also, I am required to comply to my real estate boards advertising guidelines, which is why I need to make the change.
Now when I click to Edit the Page Name, a pop-up comes up that says “You can’t change your Page name”
Is there a way to change it? Or any way of contacting Facebook to allow me to change it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Louise Myers says
I’ve not heard of this happening in the past few years since FB has loosened their policy. Ideas:
Are you the page admin that has full privileges?
Have you changed it recently?
Do you have only a few, or perhaps many thousands, of fans on the page?
I’m not sure 2 and 3 are relevant, but it’s possible.
As far as contacting someone, I believe this is only possible if you’ve run enough ads to have an ad manager. BUT you can try this FB Page problem report.
I too have been scouring the internet so would really appreciate if you report back on what worked or didn’t!