Why You Shouldn’t (Always) Post Links on Facebook

Posted on October 7, 2024 in Blog

Meta designed its two marquee platforms to win the attention economy. The underpinning algorithms that shape the user experience on Facebook and Instagram are constantly optimized to serve users personalized content – the right cat video at the right time. Everything these algorithms do is meant to keep users on the platform.

That’s a big reason why including links on Facebook posts poses a problem for Meta—they give people a reason to leave the site.

So, what to do?

Read on! We looked at some of the best studies on Facebook, links, and social media performance—so you don’t have to.

Do Links on Facebook Posts Hurt Performance?

There’s plenty of evidence that including external links in posts negatively impacts impressions, reach, and engagement on Facebook and other platforms. And it’s not all that surprising.

Why does Facebook penalize posts with links? Every external link is a doorway that could let users escape to the wider web—or even a competitor. Facebook has been leading the way in throttling external link performance for years through pay-to-play programs and scare-mongering warnings.

Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn all rely on advertising dollars for revenue. Each platform constantly adjusts its algorithm, introduces new features, and changes its interface to encourage users to stay on the app or website for a little longer.

And it’s worked.

The average internet user spends nearly two and a half hours on social media daily, with TikTok having the highest average time per user. The amount of time we spend on social increased by 44.87% between 2013 and 2022, a quantifiable sign that these companies know what they’re doing.

It should be no surprise that all of these companies throttle posts with external links.

On LinkedIn, posts without external links get six times more engagement than posts with external links.
Tweets with links get lower engagement rates and reduced reach.
Facebook posts without links get roughly twice the engagement of posts with links.

So why should you include links on organic Facebook posts at all? Because it’s still an opportunity to convert followers into customers.

How to Post Links on Facebook (and Minimize the Penalty)

Scroll through your feed on any social media platform. You’ll find many brands including links in their Facebook and LinkedIn posts. However, marketers are starting to get creative, including finding new places to slap that link.

Brands can partially offset the algorithm barrier by posting links on different parts of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to reach users in new ways.

1. Link in the Comments

This tactic was primarily tested on Facebook but could also work on LinkedIn. The premise assumes that the Facebook algorithm is less likely to identify an external link in a post’s comments than the post copy. There’s some evidence that this works, but there is one big problem—visibility.

Comments aren’t automatically shown on mobile, which means most users who see the post won’t see the link unless they expand the comments. With mobile devices generating as much as 98% of social referral sessions % of devices, this tactic is a long shot.

2. Use a URL Shortener

Some marketers believe using a link-shortening tool like bit.ly to hide the root domain of external links improves performance. While there may be advantages to using shortened links, including improved tracking and reporting, it’s unlikely to enhance post reach. That’s because short links have been used in phishing scams to hide URLs, and Facebook tends to throttle shortened links for this very reason.

Doesn’t Facebook automatically shorten external links? Facebook won’t shorten every link, but it will truncate the URL slug if it’s too long. If your URLs are getting chopped, use a shortener; links with a branded domain or vanity URL have click-through rates 39% higher than “full” URLs.

3. Post Links in Stories

For Instagram and Facebook, posting links in Stories is an effective way to serve external links to users who spent more time in these areas of the respective platforms. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of evidence that including a link sticker on Facebook and Instagram Stories leads to lower engagement, particularly less reach and fewer shares.

4. Spend Money Where You Make Money

If there are high-value landing pages or site content that you know your social audience will love, double down by boosting top-quality content. In addition to your regular boosting efforts, mitigate low engagement or reach on posts with links by upping your budget. In most cases, we recommend this tactic in conjunction with a robust paid social campaign to serve supporting topics to a qualified audience.

For example, an HVAC company might serve an air conditioning repair campaign through Facebook ads and boost complementary blog content to reach customers higher up the sales funnel.

The Takeaway: Win the Platform, Not the Click

As the social media environment has changed, expectations must shift too. For years, many marketers viewed social platforms as secondary traffic sources to augment organic search. Today, that’s not the case. We believe the best way to measure social media success is to focus on platform-specific KPIs, such as engagement rate, reach, and follower count—not site sessions. Delight, inform, and grow your audience, and let that hard-earned brand loyalty pay off over time!

Want Fresh Eyes on Your Social Media Strategy?

Even creative internal marketing teams benefit from a new perspective from time to time. At Oneupweb, we’ve built our social media team to deliver the kind of content your followers want to see: entertaining, shareable, and informative. You’ll get expert strategies drawn up by our social experts with support from in-house photographers, videographers, and writers.

See what professional social media looks like; drop us a line or call (231) 922-9977 today to start the conversation!