How to make a Facebook business page, step by step

You make a Facebook business Page from your personal Facebook account. Go to facebook.com/pages/create, or Pages in the app's menu, enter your business name and a category, add a short bio if you like, and select Create Page. Add a profile picture and a cover photo and the Page is live, usually within ten minutes. The Page has its own followers, inbox and settings, and your personal profile isn't shown on it.

The steps are quick. What causes trouble later is everything around them: a name Facebook won't accept, a username that doesn't match your Instagram, a single admin who gets locked out, or a business run from a personal profile instead of a Page. This guide covers each one.

Before you start, gather these so you can finish in one sitting:

• Your business name, written the way customers know it.
• A category that describes what you do, such as bakery or plumbing service.
• A square logo or photo for the profile picture, and a wide image for the cover.
• The contact details you want public: phone, email, website, address and opening hours.
• The name of one trusted person to add as a second admin.

On a computer

1. Log in to Facebook with your personal account, click Pages on the left (or go to facebook.com/pages/create), then click Create Page.
2. Select Public Page, then click Next, then Get started.
3. Type the Page name: your business's real name (the rules are in the next section).
4. Choose a category. Start typing what you do, such as “bakery” or “yoga studio”, and pick the closest match.
5. Add a bio if you want one: a sentence on what you do and where, such as “Custom cakes in Pune. Order by message.”
6. Select Create Page.
7. Upload a profile picture and a cover photo, then select Done, or Next to work through the remaining set-up screens.

In the Facebook app

Open the menu, tap Pages, then Create. The app asks for the same things in the same order: name, category, bio, then photos. The menu's layout differs between iPhone, Android and app versions, so if Pages isn't on the first screen, look under See more.

Once the Page exists, Facebook suggests optional steps: contact details, opening hours, an action button, connecting WhatsApp and inviting friends. Skip any you're not ready for. All of them stay available in the Page's settings.

Facebook's guidelines for Page names say a name must reflect what the Page is actually about. Four of the rules catch most businesses:

• No generic words on their own. “Pizza” can't be a Page name; “Northside Pizza” can.
• Standard capitalization. All-capital names aren't allowed, except for acronyms.
• No symbols or unnecessary punctuation, such as the ® mark.
• Nothing misleading. A shop that stocks a brand can't name its Page as if it were that brand's official Page.

You can request a name change later in the Page's settings if you have Facebook access to it, and every new name has to meet the same guidelines. Your followers and anyone searching will know you by the first name, though, so it's worth getting right now. Keep descriptions and slogans out of the name, which Facebook's guidelines don't allow: “Sugar Lane Cakes Best Birthday Cakes Pune” is hard to read and looks like spam. Put those words in the About section and your posts.

A username gives your Page a short web address, facebook.com/ followed by the username, and a Messenger link, m.me/ followed by the same username, that opens a chat with the Page. Both are worth printing on menus and packaging, putting on your website and adding to your Instagram bio.

• Use only letters (A to Z), numbers (0 to 9) and periods. Underscores and hyphens aren't allowed.
• Make it at least five characters long.
• Leave out generic terms and web extensions such as .com or .net.
• Pick one that no other Page or profile already uses.

Tip: Match your Instagram handle where you can. Instagram allows underscores and Facebook doesn't, so if you're @sugar_lane_cakes on Instagram, sugarlanecakes or sugar.lane.cakes keeps you easy to find on Facebook.

A Page with only a name and a logo looks abandoned. Before you invite anyone, fill in the details people look for before they get in touch:

• Contact details: phone, email and website. List only channels someone actually checks.
• Address and opening hours if customers visit you, with holiday hours kept up to date.
• An action button, such as Send message, Call now or Book now, matched to how you want people to reach you.
• A bio that says what you do, where, and for whom, in one or two sentences.
• A profile picture that still reads as a small circle. Logos with fine print turn into a blur.
• A cover image with the important part in the middle, because phones show less of the edges.
• Three or four posts, so visitors see a working business: products, prices, your space or a recent job.

Messages to the Page land in its own inbox, which you can answer from the Facebook app or from Meta Business Suite. Business Suite can also send automatic replies, such as an instant reply to new messages and an away message for when you're closed. Under Meta's messaging rules, a Page can reply freely only within 24 hours of a person's last message, so same-day answers matter.

As the Page's creator, you start with full control. When other people help, choose how much each one can do. Facebook offers two main kinds of access: Facebook access, which lets someone switch into the Page and manage it on Facebook, and task access, which works only through Meta's business tools. A third role, Community Manager, only moderates live-stream chat.

Give someone access

1. Switch into your Page, select its profile picture, then Settings and privacy, then Settings.
2. Select Page setup, then Page access.
3. Next to People with Facebook access, select Add new.
4. Search for the person by name or email, and turn on full control only if they need it.
5. Select Give access and enter your password to confirm. The person then accepts the invitation.

Tip: Give full control to two people you trust. Facebook's Help Center says a Page must keep at least one person with full control: if nobody has it, the Page is deactivated and scheduled for deletion. Never hand a helper your own Facebook password; give them access of their own.

If the business has an Instagram account, connect it to the Page. Linked accounts share one inbox for Facebook and Instagram messages in Meta Business Suite, can be planned and scheduled together, and work with tools that need the connection. The Instagram account has to be a professional account, Business or Creator.

You can make the connection from the Page's settings, under linked accounts, or from Instagram's own settings; either way you log in to the other account to approve it. WhatsApp links the same way, and adds a WhatsApp button to the Page so customers can message you there instead.

• Running the business from a personal profile. Profiles are for people and stop at 5,000 friends. A Page has no follower cap and comes with insights, a business inbox and the connections other tools rely on.
• Starting a duplicate. Search Facebook for your business name first. If a Page already exists, perhaps made by a former employee or partner, request access to it rather than starting another; two Pages split your followers and confuse customers.
• Sharing one login. Handing out your personal password puts your own account at risk. Facebook access or task access does the same job safely.
• Only one admin. One lost login can take the whole Page with it.
• Buying likes or followers. Bought followers never become customers, and Meta removes fake accounts when it finds them, so the number can drop overnight.
• Leaving messages unanswered. People message Pages to ask about prices, stock and hours, and a slow reply often means a lost sale.

Each of these takes a minute to avoid on the first day, and far longer to untangle once customers know the Page.