From the archive. First published in November 2015. Rewritten for clarity, with a note on what happened afterwards.
This post originally offered two simple tricks for improving page reach, written in the aftermath of the December 2013 algorithm change that cut organic reach and percentage reach by around 44 percent, with some pages seeing falls as steep as 88 percent.
A decade later, the useful thing is not the tricks. It is working out which of the era’s standard advice survived contact with evidence.
Survived
- Post consistently. Accounts posting in 20 or more weeks out of 26 earned around 450 percent more engagement per post than sporadic posters. Observational, but the strongest finding available.
- Native beats external. Content uploaded directly outperforms links to the same thing elsewhere, by roughly six times on reach rate.
- Reply to your audience. Confirmed as a ranking signal for connected content.
- Ask genuine questions. Explicitly not treated as engagement bait when the request is real.
Did not survive
- Engagement prompts. Asking for likes, shares, tags or comments to lift reach is now classified as bait and demoted, with page level penalties for repeat use.
- Posting volume. More posts does not mean more reach. Industry posting volume has fallen to a six year low while engagement rates stayed flat.
- Timing as a major lever. Real but small, with the effect size never published and two analyses from the same company disagreeing on the best hours.
- Text status updates as a reach hack. Facebook separated page status updates into their own category in January 2014 and explicitly warned of reduced distribution.
Never had evidence in the first place
- Link in the first comment. Widely practised, never measured.
- Specific signal weights, such as a share being worth ten likes.
- Groups getting multiples of page reach.
- Advertising suppressing organic reach, which is a reporting artefact rather than a penalty.
The current version of all of this is in our guide to organic reach.
Thinking of selling?
We give free valuations with no obligation. Send us the page URL and a representative replies with a figure, usually within one business day. Looking to buy instead? Register as a buyer.
