More than anything, Facebook want their users to have the best possible experience on their network.

But, as businesses we want our brand, content and offers to reach as many people as possible.

So, who’s winning?

NOT US!

An increase in competition for space and a rise in the importance of personal newfeeds has culminated in Facebook decreasing the organic reach of business page posts.

In fact, as an average, Facebook only organically show 2-6% of your Page Followers the posts you’ve published…

…and, the greater the size of your page likes and follows, the lower that percentage falls.

So, how can we maximise our reach? And, what must we avoid to optimise our audience size?

There are three huge mistakes that kill Facebook organic reach (that we see time and time again). In this article, I’m going to highlight these and explain how you can avoid them.

I promise, you’ve almost definitely made one (or all) of these errors before…

…so stick around and I’ll make sure you never make them again.

The Facebook Algorithm 

I don’t want to go too deeply into how the Facebook algorithm works here. That’s another post for another day…

…and I’ve already created guides to How Facebook’s Ad Algorithm works (which is very similar to organic reach) and How the Instagram algorithm works (they’re owned by FB).

But, it’s important that you have a basic understanding of how their algorithm works, so everything else in this article makes sense.

First and foremost, Facebook are a business. It’s easy to forget this, especially when you look at their platform from a user’s perspective.

Their main aim (as a business) is to make money, be profitable and dominate the world of social media.

In order for them to do this, they must attract and retain users attention, and the best way for them to do this is to show people the most interesting, engaging and personal content available to them.

The more time that they’re able to keep a user on their platform, the more ads that person will see and the more money Facebook will make.

Their newsfeed algorithms works to provide users with the BEST (and most personal) experience possible, to enable them to achieve their goals.

So, if you’re wondering why posts from your business page have incredibly low organic reach (even if you have an audience of 10,000’s) it’s because Facebook deem your target user’s friends and other page’s posts as more engaging and positive.

Before we get into the Facebook organic reach mistakes, you must understand that if you aren’t creating engaging or interesting posts, you’re effectively tying your hands behind your back.

Create posts that drive interaction and engagement and you’ll be off to a winning start.

Facebook Organic Reach Mistakes

That’s enough of a lecture, let’s look at the three big mistakes and how you can increase your organic reach on Facebook:

#1: Too Many Posts

If you post 100 times per day on Facebook, you’d probably think that you’re going to reach more people than if you post once.

However…

…imagine how you’d feel if the same salesman kept knocking on your door? Or calling your personal number? Or appearing on your personalised newsfeed?

Annoyed? Irritated? Harassed?

If you were capable of stopping it, would you?

With weapons like the UNFOLLOW and UNLIKE buttons, people are able to do just that. But users don’t even need to use these options because:

In other words, you’ve got three posts a day that have a chance of reaching your optimum organic reach and after that, you’re penalised at an increasing rate.

So, what should we do?

The answer is simple, never post more than 3 times a day. Quality will always trump quantity. The key to success on Facebook and increasing your organic reach (and following) is to follow this philosophy.

We have over 50k followers on Facebook and never post more than once a day. And if we don’t feel like we have anything suitable, we don’t post!

Work harder on the quality of fewer posts. And if you really feel like you have tons to share every day, use the Story feature to share it with your followers.

#2: Time on Page

If you publish a post that shares a link (like the majority of Facebook pages) and the user who clicks on it exits the page very quickly, Facebook will deem it as a poor post and massively reduce its reach (to zero in some circumstances).

There are number of reasons that people bounce from a page quickly (from a FB post).

The first to take into account is unfulfilled promises by using clickbait headlines.

If we were to post an article about Facebook Advertising, but instead of using a relevant headline to promote our post…

…we posted a link to our article under the headline, ‘Facebook is Shutting Down!’

We’d see a crazy spike in our immediate site views (because news like that will attract lots of clicks) but after a very short period of time, we’d see a massive drop in our organic reach.

(And just one post like this will negatively affect the organic reach of all our future posts).

Facebook want their users to have an amazing experience. If their network is displaying links to a poor quality site, it goes against everything they’re aiming to achieve.

I’m sure that very few (if any of you) are using clickbait headlines, but just make sure that your link headline or copy doesn’t make any promises that you can’t keep.

In addition to this, you must ensure that your ‘linking’ Facebook post is consistent in design, style and language to your landing page.

When a post looks completely different to the adjoining landing page, it creates a lack of trust in your user’s eyes. This encourages the users to bounce or exit the page sooner than you’d like.

You must also make sure that everything ‘above the fold’ on your landing page engages your visitor and inspires them to stay on the page without exiting.

BTW: Above the fold refers to everything visible on a webpage when it is landed on. In the case of this post, it is a large banner image with bullet-points.

The first few seconds after a visitor reaches your website are absolutely crucial. If you cannot tell them why they should remain on the page, you’ll lose the majority very quickly.

Your landing page is just as important as your Facebook post (to your organic reach). Make sure you’re priming it to keep visitors for as long as possible!

#3 Asking

Facebook hates cheaters and that’s exactly what they think is happening when you start asking.

To explain this one a little easier, I’m going to need to call on something I mentioned earlier in my brief description of the Facebook algorithm a little earlier in this article.

The more engagement your Facebook post receives, the more people Facebook will show it to organically, because their algorithm believes it be high-quality and engaging.

However, if you ask for engagement, Facebook will restrict your reach (organically), because they think you’re trying to cheat their algorithm.

If you’ve been posting things like:

• PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE THIS POST
• WRITE A COMMENT IF YOU AGREE
• SHARE THIS POST TO BE ENTERED INTO OUR COMPETITION

Facebook will reduce the organic reach of these posts down to almost nobody.

Even if you are still seeing posts that include copy like this in your feed, they probably began their life as an ad (FB don’t mind sharing these posts when somebody is paying them to do it!).

BTW: Discover how to create winning Facebook copy and creatives in our complete guide!🔥

So, if you’ve been writing something like the above in your posts and been wondering why your Facebook organic reach has plummeted to ridiculously low levels, there’s your answer.

Instead of asking for engagement, create posts that provoke conversation, likes and shares.

Facebook Organic Reach Mistakes: What Next?

Avoiding these 3 big mistakes, guarantees to improve your organic reach on Facebook…

…but as that is only 2-6% of your followers, it’s also important to complement your posting schedule with ads and adopt a host of new audience maximising strategies.

The more followers and page likes you receive, the more people you’ll be able to reach organically on Facebook. If you’re on a tiny budget, I’d strongly recommend getting over to our post How To Get 1,000’s of Facebook Page Likes For Free…

…or learn more about the power of Hashtags.

And when you’re ready to take the next step, make sure you don’t miss out on our free eBook about Facebook Audiences (before it goes!), as this is the most crucial lesson you can learn about Facebook advertising.

• Author Details

Josh Barney

https://joshbarney.blog

josh@einsteinmarketer.com

Josh is the Founder of We Imagine Media, an award-winning content marketer, best selling author and creator of the www.joshbarney.blog. He creates and strategises content, sharing the most successful tactics with his lovely audience. He hates writing in the third person, follow him on the social links so he can get back to writing as himself.