Is your reach down? Seeing less traffic coming from your Facebook fanpages? Well, you’re not alone. This is the result of a new Facebook algorithm that was specifically designed to combat clickbait titles. While Facebook has no way to know which article is truly clickbait, they can judge from the title which link may be a little exaggerated. Now, this is something that might sound difficult to beat, but Facebook admitted that this new algorithm simply looks for common phrases and words used in clickbait articles. While it’s too early to tell, initial tests look promising, as we are noticing better reach on links that avoid commonly used “clickbaity” words. It is time to re-think your strategy, as Facebook will no longer let you enjoy free traffic if you don’t comply.
Most common clickbait phrases and words to avoid are:
- Shocking
- Amazing
- Then he/she/they found out
- What they saw
- Brought him/her to tears
- Looks inside
- Going viral
- Never expected
- Incredible
- The reason why
- Watch the reaction
- What’s happening
- Then he/she/they realize
- When he/she/they saw
- Can’t stop laughing
- I had no idea
- (PROFESSION HERE) hate her/him
- She/he noticed something
- Here’s why
- OMG
- LMAO
- CRAZY
- Unbelievable
- Hilarious
- Whoa
- WOW
It is also advised that you avoid CAPITALIZING one word and don’t use exclamation (!!!!) points. If you really insist on having a clickbait title somewhere in your post, you will have to fire up your imaging software and add the title in the article image. This way when Facebook pulls the story (along with the picture) you will have your clickbait title within the post, thus circumventing the algorithm. If you don’t feel like editing each of your website articles you can simply upload an image every time you publish a link, however, that still requires some imaging work. To speed up the process perhaps using one of the countless online meme generators may save some time, as they already provide the features needed to add captions to images. This Facebook change might actually be a good thing, as many case studies have proven that adding a large text to the top and bottom or your article image, post, or video increases the engagement levels.
Stay tuned for updates!