Today Facebook announced that it will be implementing new guidelines that should cut down on clickbait links over time:

News Feed FYI: Click-baiting

Clickbait links have an enticing but information-light title like “You’ll never guess…” to suck readers into assuaging their curiosity with a click. Unfortunately many of these types of articles promise more than they deliver, and readers go back to Facebook right away after the page’s content didn’t live up to the teaser.

Facebook will now be measuring things like time away from Facebook at the link, discussion levels, and likes, to determine which links to prioritize and which to prune. Keep that in mind when you design your Facebook content. It’s better to be up front about content and get actual interested clicks, than to tease and under-deliver.

By Sharon Campbell