Why did my organic reach drop by 95 percent?

organic reach

[lacika012345]

Hello,

My Facebook pages have had absolutely zero organic reach for external links for weeks. Even if I share any external link to 4-500 thousand people, only 1-2 people click on it and that's it. I also tried to advertise, but no one clicked on that either, while thousands of people clicked on my shares before that.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[allhearts]

What's the difference between sharing the link on a comment vs sharing it on the status/description of a photo? I see large pages who share the link on a comment and pin it and they get very little to no engagement. I have a group however and can't pin comments, so I just add the link on the status/description.

[Benjamin dray]

How can zuckerberg have the right to do this legally. Facebook wasn't even the one who created it and it should be regulated so as not to do anything. I saw in the Android playstore, everyone is complaining about the new news feed which is rubbish and uninteresting. I hope that in 2024 there will be positive change otherwise Facebook risks losing everything...

[lacika012345]

I thought that when Christmas was over I would get some of the reach back, but I see it as nothing to do with anything, simply discriminating against some people and completely oppressing them. I have made a video of me changing Facebook page names live, and the online numbers go up 10 times, but only for a while, then it all goes back to "normal".
I don't know what's causing this, but maybe someone has an idea.
The facebook game might be related to this.

[edited by: not2easy at 8:40 pm (utc) on Dec 28, 2023]
[edit reason] Please see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Benjamin dray]

Good morning, Happy New Year everyone. unfortunately with this year the reach is even worse. the clicks become non-existent. I think Facebook censorship with the media is complete.

[lacika012345]

Hello, Happy New Year. yes you are absolutely right.
I spoke to Facebook again 4 days ago. It is fashionable nowadays to call me on the phone during a conversation, I think to avoid a trace in writing.
He explained that I should share more pictures, text posts, and then my link sharing would get more reach. But how is it that many people just share links and never have any problems? It's so unfair. Moreover, I share mixed posts to no avail, it does nothing for link reach.
I currently pay for ads on 3 websites that no one looks at, and then I end up getting a fake result... I can't get 20 people online from 1 million followers on my websites (including ads) and they think that's ok. I noticed that several facebook pages have stopped sharing, I guess they have zero reach too.
I just wish whoever came up with this on Facebook would spend all their money on medicine...

[Nora754]

The thing is facebook is making some changes at the back end, in coming days you will see major changes that is the reason many people are facing this issue. You can say that things are bit on testing phase at the back end. Facebook is making these changes in order to compete with its competitors, if at the moment your reach is not good don't worry it will be on track, just don't stop posting stay consistent.

[Benjamin dray]

Hi Nora What you say is interesting, but could you tell us more? Do you have any information? Is it related to the link history, the new functionality that will be deployed worldwide by Facebook in the coming days? All the media are talking about it

[not2easy]

The Link History news is here: [webmasterworld.com...]

The situation discussed in this thread has been going on for nearly a year now, if you have authoritative News or FB source of news regarding organic reach changes, please do share.

[Ahmad_Qaisi]

Facebook 2024 algorithm Update : Point # 5

5. Balanced mix of content types
The algorithm is designed to show users a variety of post types, such as videos, photos, links, and text posts. This ensures users don’t see multiple posts of the same type in a row.

[gregl512]

"Facebook 2024 algorithm Update : Point # 5
5. Balanced mix of content types"

I found the article you're referring to where this came from (https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-algorithm/). Unfortunately it's from that Hootsuite site, which, along with many others, are written for click bait rather than actually giving out any factual, updated information. They just repeat the same information from year to year, and update their articles claiming it's new information. I don't think Hootsuite or any similar types of websites ever pointed out the problem we're all talking about on here that happened last year, showing they're completely out of the loop and are just writing click bait articles.

[edited by: gregl512 at 11:45 pm (utc) on Jan 12, 2024]

[gregl512]

Did anyone who used to have a lot of interaction on their posts (up until this change happened last year) also have a lot of people sharing their content? I have noticed that all the people who used to share my posts have totally vanished. Instead I'm now left with the same 30-50 people (out of 1,800 followers) who constantly see my posts, very few of whom ever share anything.

[Benjamin dray]

Hi,

For my part, there has been a 99% drop in link clicks since January. I suspect Facebook has permanently banned the links. However, the deployment of the link history should have improved things. I don't understand anything anymore, how can the European Union let Meta do this legally? Britain's largest news publisher Reach to lay off 450 journalists after Facebook pulls out of news

[lacika012345]

What I don't understand is, why doesn't the big media report on this? A lot of media outlets are broke and they don't say a word. I can't find any articles about it. The last time I spoke to them, they told me to share pictures and all kinds of things. I did, but no improvement. Do they think everyone will share videos and pictures as a hobby?

[Benjamin dray]

hi Lacika, I think exactly the same thing. Why don't the media use their power of communication? No one in France dares to denounce these actions and I found only one media outlet which relayed the information and CNN also did an article in the United States. Besides, I went from 2,500 euros per month to 400 euros in January 2024. It's a disaster and my business is in danger.

[gregl512]

"The last time I spoke to them, they told me to share pictures and all kinds of things. I did, but no improvement. Do they think everyone will share videos and pictures as a hobby"

I, along with other photographers on Facebook, actually do share pictures (and occasional videos) as a hobby --- and yet my organic reach has been broken for close to a year now. I've said it before and I'll say it again --- it has nothing to do with what you're sharing, when you're sharing, or how often you're sharing at this point. Facebook is broken for at least 75% of its users. My main question at the moment is why are some pages not affected at all. Some photographer pages I look at with 20,000+ followers are getting approximately 50 likes per post. Other photographer pages with 5,000 followers are getting a minimum of 500 likes per post. The content isn't any better on the pages getting more likes. Both pages post just as often. But it's clear that the followers of certain pages are still seeing all the content, while the rest of us are having our content hidden to a majority of our followers.

I noticed the other day that a few of the pages not affected by this organic reach mess were created just last year. So one of my new theories is that pages created last year after Facebook broke whatever they did have not been affected by this. Perhaps it was when everyone was switched over to the "new pages experience". But that wouldn't explain the sudden drop in interaction on Facebook groups now as well, which started late last year. One group I follow used to have a minimum of hundreds of likes on most posts. I noticed in October 2023 that it was dropping, and contacted the admin of the group to ask him what he knew. He told me "based on what I see, I don't see a decline in interaction". But he was using Facebook provided charts and graphs to check, rather than his own eyes. Well, now in January the interaction rates in that group are even worse. Posts have gone from a minimum of hundreds of likes to per post to an average of 50 likes or less. But there are still certain members of the group who can get a minimum of 1,000 likes on everything they post, no matter how pointless and boring it is --- because, for whatever reason, everyone is seeing their stuff in the feed still.

[lacika012345]

Hello Gregl512,

It's interesting that some people only have no organic reach to the links and others have no reach to the images/text. For me, the image/text posts are getting atill good reach. They usually get 500-1500 likes. I don't understand myself what happened to the pages where only images are shared and no reach. Why no reach there? It still occurs to me that there is a bug in the system, but the error message is not getting through. I only have zero reach to links, as most of us do. I have friends who only post links, nothing else, and they have atomic reach, as if they have a separate subscription or simply forgot about Facebook. Whenever I look at them, they have stable reach, I can see the online numbers. His pages are very old , about 10 years old, but could be older. For me and several friends here in Hungary, for example, the news feed has been down for about 6 weeks. On desktop computer he only loads 1 post at a time, on mobile only old post. In the morning there are 1-2 new posts.

[Benjamin dray]

hi, For now, my cardboard pages stand out in the photos. With two pages I have 14 million people reached and one of my pages is always suggested with 30,000 likes per photo. That's all well and good but what interests me are the links and then that's much more complicated. Nothing clicks anymore and I think that what is restricted at the moment are the press links. I'm waiting to see Link History, the new Facebook feature that's rolling out. Because what would be the point of such a functionality if it is to block the links behind it.

[not2easy]

The point of having access to your Link History is to allow users to have access to a record of all their link clicks because FB link history is used for driving FB targeted ads:

all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. Users can opt-out, but Link History is turned on by default, and the data is used for targeted ads.

That information and more is posted here: [webmasterworld.com...]

[gregl512]

I was talking to someone today online who runs a store on her Facebook page. She said she had made $200,000 (US Dollars) in sales with her Facebook store --- I'm not sure over what period of time this was. She said she used to post items in her store, and they'd be almost immediately sold out. Well, starting last year that all changed. Suddenly nobody was seeing her items. She got so annoyed she stopped trying to sell anything in her store for a few months hoping things would improve. When she started posting things again a few months later, things were just as bad so she gave up.

Considering Facebook makes some type of commission when you open a store on your business page and sell things via their checkout system, this makes even less sense than having organic reach drop in posts. It's like they're actively trying to sabotage everyone's pages, no matter what that page is posting. I keep going back and forth between thinking Facebook is doing this on purpose, and thinking the top management at Facebook at the moment has no idea how broken everything is because they're not paying attention and don't care.

[lacika012345]

Hello gregl512,

I totally agree with you, I've been thinking the same thing for so long. I'm sure this problem hasn't got to the relevant people who should. They have no idea what is happening on the pages. They are obviously only interested in revenue and nothing else. I see pages with 10-20 million and no reactions, no comments, completely dead. And I see 20-50 thousand pages that are doing remarkably well. At one time I was looking at the possibility that my site might be under attack, but no.
Last time I wrote to facebook that I have 1 million followers, but as if I didn't have 1, they could practically delete me because so many visitors from google would click on me.

[Benjamin dray]

Good evening, from what I understood there had actually been a bug for the scope of the links which had lasted 4 months in August 2023 it seems to me and it was never resolved, they may have taken a liking to it but to my notice if Facebook is perfectly aware of what is happening and it is even voluntary. Currently in France they are laying off lots of people at Meta France. They only keep the team in charge of artificial intelligence. Facebook said that only 3% of people saw links in the News Feed so why break everything? What's the point if not being toxic to the world and censoring...

[gregl512]

I haven't posted on Instagram in a few months, so yesterday decided to investigate what was going on there. Since Meta owns that as well, I assumed the same problems with reach would apply to both platforms. I looked at Reddit and discovered that was the case. For those familiar with Reddit, there is an Instagram board on Reddit filled with complaints from people about how their IG reach started falling apart last year, around the same time FB reach started falling apart. Interestingly enough, Meta has some spokesperson/employee answering user questions on Instagram via video. The topic of decreased reach came up, and this fool Meta has talking to the public basically said it was your fault if your reach decreased, as your followers no longer want to see your stuff. This, of course, is a ridiculous stance to take that nobody believes. Meta is taking no blame for any of this, and instead is alienating all its users from both their platforms. I've never heard of a company trying to sabotage itself, but that seems to be what Meta is doing. If you want to see any of this for yourself, go to Reddit, find the Instagram board, and do a search for "reach". (A few people on the Reddit Facebook board are finally starting to talk about the decrease in reach as well --- when I first brought up the topic on that board last year nobody responded.)

[porioo]

Hello, Meta just released the functionality where you can verify your business page. it costs around 35$ per month.

Did anyone try it? I am curious to see if it boosts the reach of the page.

They say: “ Improved discovery
Get discovered in new ways by being featured as a Meta Verified business.”

[facebook.com ]

[edited by: not2easy at 2:18 pm (utc) on Jan 23, 2024]
[edit reason] fixed broken link [/edit]

[lacika012345]

Hello porioo,

No, because facebook already is full of verified pages, and zero organic reach... This is just another money grab from them..

[lacika012345]

I just had about 3 weeks of normal reach, but of course it fluctuated constantly. This morning again zero everything. I have no reach to pictures or plain text posts anymore. A couple of weeks ago I had 1-2 thousand likes, now 100-200. It's as if some pages are being deliberately suppressed. I have 1 million people on my pages, but virtually none. From there, it's just a step to stop sharing external links altogether. I haven't seen any news for weeks, just the stupid videos...

Just today I wrote to facebook for a completely different reason. I haven't had a news feed on mobile or desktop for months. I tell the story to support and he says he can't help, I should submit a bug report. But I say no one ever replies to that, as if I'd throw it in the bin. Well, he says, there is no other way. I say I'll pay the blue check for the money, which promises better support. I say, why am I paying for this? He says, unfortunately he can't help me, he can only help me with advertising. By the way, here in Hungary, many of us do not have an up-to-date newsfeed, so maybe that has something to do with the reach problem. It's just that these errors don't get to where they should.

I could list 10 facebook bugs off the top of my head, which facebook has and still has. It used to be that a bug would go away after a few days. Today they are driven by revenue. The latest bug for example is that I can't share from website to facebook page, that option is gone. And I foresee that this will never be solved either...

[gregl512]

I haven't had normal reach since this mess began close to a year ago. But I only have about 1,800 followers. The only thing that I can say for sure is that all the people I see who have my original reach numbers from before this mess began, and only a few thousand followers like me, just created their pages last year. There was talk about how reach decreased with this "new page experience" that was implemented, when all our old pages were switched over, and I think there may be something to that theory. Now I'm trying to create a brand new page as an experiment. The problem, of course, is I can't reach out to my current followers to follow the new page because they're not seeing any of my stuff. And trying to get people to follow a new page isn't easy.

As far as reporting bugs go, it's a total and complete waste of time. I used to argue with Facebook's outsourced "support" department endlessly, and it was like talking to a wall. Every time they said something was "escalated", it wasn't. Every time they said someone in the "escalated" department would get back to me, they didn't. And at this point it looks like this outsourced support department is running the entire operation. Zuckerberg's focus is on his virtual reality "meta" crap. He should sell FB & IG to someone who actually cares about them.

[lacika012345]

Hi gregl512,

You can create a new page with your old followers in a simple way. Create a new page, then rename it to the same name as your old page. And then merge the two pages so that the old page disappears and puts people on the new page. I've done it for several pages, in fact it's better for a while because it's a new page. You can do it here: [facebook.com...]

It is true, we all see this, that the management does not know how serious the problems with the algorithm are. They are dealing with something completely different. It's just that sooner or later this will end, there's nothing to look at on Facebook.

[gregl512]

lacika012345,

Interesting. Have you tried merging an old page and new page any time last year to see if it helped with reach at all? You said it helped initially, but I was wondering whether you tried it last year and whether the increase in reach was only short-term. Thanks.

[lacika012345]

gregl512

As long as you don't start sharing links on a page, I think you'll have a good reach. As soon as you share a link, you'll be punished... Now the link is Facebook's biggest enemy.

[gregl512]

Links have never been my problem, as I've never shared a link on Facebook and my reach fell apart anyway. When is the last time you tried merging pages? I found an old help article, and it looks like merging pages may not be an option anymore.