Facebook announced an algorithm change Friday that will help reduce the amount of bogus headlines flooding user’s timelines.
Clickbait headlines typically leave out crucial information in order to drive traffic to an article. The headline will usually tease information that you can only get by clicking the link.
Examples include:
“A Man Spent Years Taking Photos Of One Small Town. When You Look Closer, You’ll See Why” or “You’ll Never See These 16 Landmarks The Same Way Again. Stonehenge is Surrounded By… WHAT?!”
The social networking site stated the change comes from a lot of backlash from the community and users will begin seeing a change in the coming weeks.
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“To address this feedback from our community, we’re making an update to News Feed ranking to further reduce clickbait headlines in the coming weeks,” said Facebook User Experience Researcher Kristin Hendrix. “With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and more of the stories they want to see higher up in their feeds.”
Facebook warned that pages who rely on clickbait-style headlines will begin seeing a significant decrease in post distribution. In order to stay in their fan’s timelines, pages will need to steer clear from exaggerating articles and not withhold information that makes an article understandable.
Three helpful tools from Facebook to drive reach without clickbait:
- Share headlines that inform.
- Post headlines that set appropriate expectations.
- Public figures: Share links with clear, accurate headlines.
Page users are also encouraged to share a variety of content instead of solely relying on links to drive engagement. This can be done by posting photos, videos, gifs, polls, etc. for the page’s target audience.
Overall, the new algorithm change is expected to bring higher quality content to our feeds.
“We will learn from these changes and will continue to work on reducing clickbait so News Feed is a place for authentic communication.”