Your Facebook Group link or URL is one of its most visible parts after the About page, name and cover image, and it is also fully customizable. It is the only unique identifier for your group online (two groups can have the same name) and it can help you rank higher on Facebook’s search results.
In this article, we will talk about how to change your Facebook Group URL to a custom address and why you should do it.
Why you should customize your Facebook Group URL
Like any website or business online, you can name your group practically anything you’d like but your group’s URL needs to be unique.
That is why Facebook automatically assigns a numeric URL to each group when it is created, the same way it assigns a numerical URL to a new Facebook profile or page. This means that the last or the 3 parts of your group’s URL is the one you can customize.
After the numerical number is assigned, we strongly recommend that you go and edit this to create your group’s vanity URL. The case for customizing your URL is best understood with an example. Of the below two links, which would you be more likely to click on?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/solofemaletravelers/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/198556510962482/
With the top URL, you know exactly what it is you’re clicking on as opposed to the second URL, which is a mess of numbers and could lead you to anything. The first URL is far easier to remember than the second, and the strength of the branding has a higher chance of empowering people to click through.
Why should you customize your Facebook Group URL? We recommend you do it because:
- It helps you build trust with potential members. The URL acts as an additional element of your group that complements its name, cover image and description.
- It gives you an additional signal in search results rankings within the platform. Facebook’s search algorithm is relatively simple but it does look at a group’s name, URL and description.
- It is easier to remember on offline mediums. If you’re wanting to advertise your group on newspapers, flyers, brochures, etc., a personalized URL is more memorable and easier to type at a later stage.
- It is easier to remember when mentioned verbally. If your group is mentioned on TV, Radio, or by word of mouth, a list of numbers will be impossible to remember. Facebook.com/groups/solofemaletravelers is something people can actually say in conversation – facebook.com/groups/198556510962482/ is not.
- It gives you a heads up against other groups. Any group that may be created afterwards with your same name or a similar one will not be able to claim your same URL because each is unique.
In brief, not customizing your URL can greatly limit your potential for growth.
How to change your Facebook Group link
By default, when you create a group, you will get a numeric identifier at the end of the generic Facebook URL that looks like this: www.facebook.com/groups/[numerical identifier].
In order to customize that, you need to go to your groups’ Settings and then scroll to Customize Group. The first option you will see is Web address also known as your Facebook Group vanity URL.
To customize your URL, click on the pencil icon under Web Address and type the URL you want for your group. If a URL is taken, it will show up in red as seen below. If a URL is available, you’ll get the green tick, and can hit Save to make the URL live:
Things to consider when changing your Facebook Group URL
Before you change your group’s URL, you should take a moment to think about it carefully for several reasons:
- You should make sure that your URL is easy to remember and aligns with the rest of your group’s identity, its purpose, the business it may be associated to and the type of members you want to attract. If the name of a group and its URL do not match, this may confuse potential members and send contradictory signals.
- Like with your group’s name, you should try not to use too many acronyms that are hard to decipher but should also not make the URL so long that it gets clipped, especially on Facebook.
- You can only chance the URL and group name every 28 days.
- Once you have more than 5,000 members, you won’t be able to change the URL anymore (you can still change its name every 28 days).
- Every time you update the group’s URL you’ll have to remember to update it anywhere where it has been mentioned including external websites who may have linked to it and other locations offline. While Facebook does redirect, some other platforms (like your email marketing tool) may not.
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Frequently asked question about Facebook Group URLs
You can change it every 28 days but will not be able to do so after your group has 5,000 members.
Customizing your group’s URL makes it easier to remember and is useful when sharing it verbally or offline. It is also another signal that can help your group rank in search results on the platform and builds trust with your members versus the generic numerical address that Facebook assigns every new group. As a unique identifier for your group, it is also recommended that you claim the best URL for your type of group first so other groups created later on cannot capitalize on it. Two groups can have the same name but not the same URL.
Go to your group’s Settings, scroll down to Customize Group then click on Website address and type the last part of your groups URL that will appear after www.facebook.com/group/
Does anyone know how to capitalize the Facebook group URL?
Hi there, URLs for groups don’t have capitalisation per se, you can write down the name of your group with capitalization and it will work the same if they do not capitalize it. You can check out groups, we hav capitalised them all when we write the URL down http://www.facebook.com/groups/SoloFemaleTravelers but if they type the address without capitalization is works anyway and also, FB URLs don’t officially have capitalised letters.
Many Facebook groups use capital letters in their custom URLS.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OttawaPhotoEquipmentForSale
How they do that?? pls assist…
can I change URL on mobile or does it have to be on my laptop? On my mobile it doesn’t show web address option Only colour, badge and tags
Thanks for the info. We are currently looking at doing this, but one question I have is what happens with the old URL. Right now, we have a numbered name which is obviously useless, but there are a lot of people that have the old link and references to it in other FB groups.
Do you know if the old one redirects to the new link or just it just disappear?
Thanks
I’m looking for the answer to this as well. I have a customized name but want to change to a different customized name.
Hi Martin & Shannon, from having changed the URL of a few of our groups, my experience has been that it does not redirect, so if you have built links to the Facebook Group they’d need to be changed over unfortunately. Keep in mind that it’s typically then also not available to use again, once it’s been used it seems to keep it’s status as unavailable, and doesn’t get released once you change. So you wouldn’t be able to change it back and would have to come up with a variation if you wanted to down the line. Something to also keep in mind 🙂
Can anyone help me with updating my Facebook group, url. I changed the name, but there is absolutely no place in my settings, anywhere, to update the URL. I’ve done it before, so dont’ know why I can’t now. Help please.
Hi Sheila, we think the option has been removed from those groups where a change is no longer available, eg. if the group is larger than 5k members
Hi Mar,
So if I drop the members to less than 5K so this feature change the URL will come back and shows in the option.
In my new group of 50 ppl rn there is absolutely no way to get to the change group address with the directions you provided…I’ve clicked every button using my phone & laptop & it’s just not there. My group is private btw
I am experiencing this too. WTH?
I believe there is a minimum number of members for the option to be available too, usually, 50 members is the threshold for some of the features to be available. How many members do you have is it above 50?
How long does Facebook hold onto the old URL? I’ve changed the URL for my group in order to free up the old URL for another group, but it still seems to be reserved.
Hi Nate, are you finding that the URL is still reserved a week or so later? Not certain on how long they hold onto a URL for, though it could definitely be that once a URL is taken it’s not available even if it changes. Sadly there’s not a lot of info on this so it’ll be a case of trial and error and figuring out what works, and when. I’d be really interested to hear your experience though and we can update the post with what you find.
Does the old group link redirect through still, or just say it’s a broken page?
I am dealing with this very issue. I am on day three. And I am the only owner of the page and two groups. I wanted the URL on the public group, not the private group and I couldn’t change the private group to a public group even though I was the only member. It directs to the old original group. I am checking daily.
this is EXACTLY the situation I’m in right now. Did you find a solution? Did the old URL free up after some time so you could use it for the Public group?
Thanks for sharing this. A quick question if I may.
I set up a FB group including a customised URL. Then deleted the group.
I’ve tried to set the group up again and it says the URL is already taken.
Does the 28 day rule apply here? Or is the URL assigned once only and if you delete the group the URL is lost?
Appreciate your insights.
Hi Lindsey, Nate seems to be having similar issues trying to use an old URL for a new group, (comment above), so my best guess would be that there’s either a cooling off period until an old URL becomes available again, or it just isn’t available once it has been used once. I’m thinking it likely becomes lost.
Sadly there’s not a lot of info on this so it’ll be a case of trial and error and figuring out what works, and when. If you give it another try after the 28 day period let us know if it works, and I can update the post information with your experience 🙂
Hi I have a page and a group. I changed the group name but when I try to share the group using copy link it reverts back to the old original group name. Any ideas x
We suspect this is a bug, since they are so common with facebook…your only chance is to wait it out for it to be fixed or, if you have Group Support, you can reach out to them to see if they can raise a ticket for the bug. Good luck and sorry we can’t be of more help
I don’t have option of web, I am unable to change the UrL and name as per my wish. It’s just showing like 984857585950….
Can’t we change Group URl from using Facebook on phone? Do we need to login into laptop or PC to get that web option?
If I have more than 10k members in my group is it really impossible to change the url?
Unfortunately this is what Facebook used to say and now, they are also enforcing it
I want to create a new group using an old group alias from a different group. But it won’t let me. Is there a way to delete the old alias?
Thanks!
Hi Mike, so you want to create a new group using the same URL as was previously used for an old group, is that correct? Sadly I don’t believe they release old URLs, ie once it’s changed the old URL will still show as unavailable / reserved and from experience becomes lost 🙁
Why is the customize URL option greyed out for me as an Admin? I should be able to change the URL and would like to. Also in case it matters (having seen the above comments), my group has fewer than 20 members so the number shouldn’t be an issue either.
Please advise and thank you.
Hi there, I just sent an email, but shortly after realized there is this comment section available. I am currently also trying to use a previous custom URL for Facebook Group. I started a new group today, created custom URL, but accidentally set up the group as PRIVATE. So I quickly deleted the group (to also free up the custom URL name), and started a new group a few minutes after, this time as PUBLIC. Then when I went to the custom URL settings, it shows that same URL name that I wanted as “available”. But when I click save, it just keeps popping up an error message, and won’t let me save it to proceed. Does anyone know the solution or answer to this? Thank you
Hi Jason
Yes unfortunately the previous name you’ve set will always be now registered as ‘taken’ in Facebook’s system, even if it’s showing as available it’s unlikely that you will be able to retake it. I have tried to do a similar thing in the past, and unfortunately once a URL is taken it seems to be forever unavailable, even if a group is deleted.
My understanding is that the only option is to create a slightly different URL / name.
Did you end up being successful in the end?