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Okay, this is a big one.
Meta is informing some users that they will soon be restricted in how many link posts they can share each month, unless they pay for its Meta Verified subscription service.
As you can see in this explainer email, which was re-shared by social media expert Matt Navarra, some Page and professional mode profiles are being informed of the new organic link limit.
As per the notification message:
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.
Okay, this is a big one.
Meta is informing some users that they will soon be restricted in how many link posts they can share each month, unless they pay for its Meta Verified subscription service.
As you can see in this explainer email, which was re-shared by social media expert Matt Navarra, some Page and professional mode profiles are being informed of the new organic link limit.
As per the notification message:
“Starting December 16, certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified, including yours, will be limited to sharing links in 2 organic posts per month. Subscribe to Meta Verified to share more links on Facebook, plus get a verified badge and additional benefits to help protect your brand.”
Which is obviously a major change for anyone using Facebook for business, most notably publishers who share links to their posts in the app. Like Social Media Today.
To be clear, right now this is a limited test, so relatively few Pages are impacted. But understandably, a lot of users are also seeking more information on the change, and whether it could be expanded to all Pages.
Navarra says that Meta has confirmed to him this is a limited test “to understand whether the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links adds additional value for Meta Verified subscribers.”
(Note: We’ve asked Meta for more information and we’ll update this post if/when we hear back.)
So, Meta’s seeking to boost take-up of Meta Verified, in order to make more money out of its subscription option, which, for business users, costs between $14.99 and $499 per month, depending on which package you choose.
We don’t have any definitive numbers on Meta Verified take-up, but looking at Meta’s Q3 numbers, Meta’s “Other” revenue take-up has continued to rise quarter-over-quarter, is now up to $690 million, which is more than double what it was when Meta launched Meta Verified back in Q2 2023. That suggests that a lot of people and businesses are paying to get the benefits of Meta’s add-on subscription, which, aside from a verification tick, also offers fraud protection, better access to support, better presence in search results, and more.
And soon, maybe it’ll also be a requirement if you want to post links.
In some ways, I understand Meta’s risk versus reward calculation here, especially when you consider just how little reach link posts see in the app.
As you can see in this chart from Meta’s “Widely Viewed Content Report,” the latest edition of which it published just last week, Facebook posts that include a link get very little reach in the app. This number has actually declined from 9.8% back in 2022, when Meta first started sharing this insight, and in this context, you can see why Meta sees this as a low-risk push to make more Pages pay for Meta Verified.
Because if they don’t pay, and they stop posting links, it won’t make a heap of difference to overall engagement.
But then again, with its reformation in approach around news content in particular, it did, at one stage earlier this year, seem that Meta might be giving link posts more reach in its apps yet again. That’s not indicated in the chart above, but some publishers had reported seeing a rise in referral links from Facebook after it switched to its Community Notes-led approach.
(UPDATE: Meta has told TechCrunch that the test does not include publisher Pages at this stage.)
This announcement negates that, and underlines, once again, why you can’t trust Meta for traffic, because Meta will do whatever it derives the most benefit from, at any given time. Which, of course, also makes business sense, but social media managers should remember this when Meta prompts them to post more Reels, or really, offers any tips to get more reach. Definitely, you should take note of such advice, but you should also try not to build any reliance on the engagement and/or traffic gains that you see as a result.
So again, to clarify, this is a small-scale test right now, and there’s no indication from Meta that it will make this a more universal approach to all Pages and link posts.
But it might, and as such, you might need to assess your options in your posting strategy.
Start posting Reels instead, and focus on brand building on FB, as opposed to traffic generation
Sign-up to Meta Verified
Stop posting on Facebook
The other consideration for Meta, aside from driving Meta Verified take-up, is that this could help to reduce spammy links, by forcing businesses to pay-to-play, essentially pricing spammers out of the market (or mass-scale spammers anyway).
Maybe that improves the overall Facebook experience, and maybe that’s enough of a reason to at least test this.
Either way, it could be a big change, which could have a major impact on your 2026 strategy.
