In recent months, Facebook has stepped up its efforts to minimize spam and misleading content in its ads and News Feed.
The latest update will bury posts that link to “low-quality web page experiences.”
Everyone who browses the web has likely had an experience in which they clicked on an interesting-looking link, only to be taken to a webpage with very little genuine content and with lots of ads.
These are the same pages that tend to feature lots of false or misleading “stories” or create a loop of pop-ups when you try to close the window.
These are exactly the pages that Facebook is now targeting.
Since last year, they’ve had a policy in place that prohibits low-quality and disruptive content within ads. With this month’s update, Facebook will be “increasing enforcement” on ads and monitoring organic posts as well.
Artificial Intelligence will scan new posts, and posts that link to low-quality pages will show up lower in the News Feed.
If you’re already a conscientious advertiser or user, you likely don’t have anything to worry about. In fact, you may even see a slight increase in traffic, as you face less competition from spammy pages.
If you’re unsure whether you may fall on the wrong side of Facebook’s algorithm, you can keep Facebook’s guidelines on designing good experiences in mind.
Facebook advises brands to avoid the following:
A high ratio of ads to content
Sexually explicit or shocking content
Pop-up ads
Interstitial ads
Deceptive headlines or ad copy
Basically, Facebook wants its advertisers and users to link to pages that feature substantial content and provide a good, non-disruptive user experience.
This should be good news for brands who are already trying to accomplish that and for users who just want to see good content.
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