Two weeks ago, we discussed how Facebook’s recent changes to public user search listings could significantly increase Facebook Pages SEO. By adding millions of links to Facebook Pages, brand managers may notice that their Facebook Pages will be ranking higher and higher in search listings for their brand name.

Now, over the last week, Facebook appears to be taking further steps to drive traffic to Facebook Pages. According to several Page owners, Facebook has voluntarily been showing Facebook Ads driving fan sign \ups on their Pages over the last several days. As one Page owner writes,

Personally I have more than 10 pages and all of them have experienced an increase in its number of fans since 2 days ago. One of them has increased from 44.000 fans to more than 48.000 fans in 2 days (when normally its daily increase rate was 150 new fans every day).

Why would Facebook want to juice up the number of fans of Facebook Pages across the board for free? Simple: to increase brand owner engagement with Facebook Pages. If brand owners see that the number of fans to their Facebook Pages is increasingly significant, they’re more likely to spend more time investing in their Facebook Page presence – and ultimately, more likely to spend money on Facebook Ads.

Facebook wants to become increasingly important to brand owners who want to manage relationships and have conversations with consumers. The company is clearly making an effort to bolster Pages’ importance to brands in multiple ways.