Facebook has announced an array of updates to users’ news feeds, with the aim of balancing content from friends and pages.
The update follows research where the social network asked users to rate their personal news feeds and provide feedback on how it can improve.
Previously, Facebook prevented users from seeing multiple posts from the same source in a row; however, the update means if users run out of content they will see more posts from the same friend or page.
In addition, updates from friends will appear higher up in news feeds to ensure users don’t miss out, although updates from pages users interact with will still appear in feeds.
Finally, stories about friends liking or commenting on a post will appear further down the news feed.
The network has admitted these changes will affect referral traffic for publishers using the social network. Facebook said in a blog post: “The impact of these changes on your page’s distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity. In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline.”