What is the Facebook Newsfeed algorithm?

The Facebook Newsfeed algorithm is what Facebook uses to decide if posts by your page will appear in the newsfeeds of people who like your page.

In October 2013 Facebook made a major change to its Edgerank algorithm , which resulted in crashing organic reach levels for many brands. Looking back at those reach figures now in 2015, brands can only dream of a return to so much “free” promotion.

With so much more content being created each day and users “Liking” as many as 50% more Pages than previous years, an individual could easily be shown as many as 1,500+ stories, many of which are irrelevant and uninteresting – a sure way to have users clicking away from the site. So competition on the News Feed is increasing and Facebook has responded by cleaning up News Feed spam and further restricting the organic content that finds its way to you Feed.

Facebook’s solution to decreasing reach is that brands should pay to give more exposure to their posts either by creating ads from them or hitting the ‘boost’ button that will be familiar to any admin.

Increased reach is certainly possible organically by increasing engagement, posting more of the kind of content your Fans like and understanding what type of posts Facebook is more likely to give high visibility to. Understanding what drives Facebook’s algorithm is key to success in Facebook. Read our guides to get in depth statistics on what type of posts are best for raising organic reach and actionable strategies for reaching your fans by working with the algorithm.