As publishers, we are always looking for ways to get more people on our sites, and to spend more time there. We want you here, and we want you to keep on reading for as long as possible.
The truth is though, that some publishers think it’s better for them (that helps them make more money) to have as many people clicking on their links, even if they will only spend a couple of seconds on their sites. That’s because of how the online advertising model is built, of course.
And that’s why you see so many “clickbait” titles all over the web, and especially on social media.
Well, Facebook is now ready to fight this, as the company announced it will now measure how long a user spends “reading” an article to evaluate whether or not similar ones, from the same website or not, are likely to be relevant to the user or not.
This is a small revolution for Facebook users. We have all been through so many News Feed algorithm changes, but most users still feel that they see too many posts from brands that they don’t particularly like – just because of paid media.
If Facebook is really serious about measuring the time spent on a link, and then using this to bring up more relevant and interesting content on our feeds, then this is the beginning of something really interesting for users.
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Facebook explains that,
[quote]With this change, we can better understand which articles might be interesting to you based on how long you and others read them, so you’ll be more likely to see stories you’re interested in reading. This change only factors in the time people spend reading an article regardless of whether that time is spent reading an Instant Article or an article in the mobile web browser. Of course, the mobile data could then be applied to desktop users as well, but we’re not quite sure yet about the specifics.[/quote]
The update will apply to Instant Articles as much as to any other link opened in your browser.
The company is also looking at ways to penalise pages that post too often, sometimes even sharing content back-to-back. Facebook wants to offer a greater diversity of content on our News Feed, and the new algorithm will help to spread content from different sources.
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There might still be an argument about what is the best time to post on Facebook. But, most experts agree by now that posting too often is bad for your organic reach.
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