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If you’re still dropping URLs directly into your Facebook post text, you may be quietly throttling your organic reach. Over the last year, more and more Page managers have seen a tip inside Meta’s Professional Dashboard that essentially boils down to this: don’t put the link in the post copy—put it in the first comment instead. Why would that matter? Because from Meta’s point of view, every outbound click is a user leaving the platform—and platforms don’t love that.

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1. Outbound clicks compete with Meta’s goal

When someone taps your link, you’re sending them away. That’s great for your website traffic, but it can be less great for distribution in-feed, where Meta is optimizing for sessions, engagement, and watch time. In Meta’s Widely Viewed Content Report discussions, one consistent takeaway is that the overwhelming majority of Feed views go to posts without a link out. That doesn’t mean “never share links.” It means: if reach is the goal, you should reduce friction and keep the main post “native.”

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What Meta is recommending

Page managers have been seeing an in-dashboard recommendation advising that links should go in the first comment rather than the post body. So, instead of writing:
“New blog post: https://example.com …”
You publish a clean native post (photo/video/text), then immediately add the URL as your first comment.

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How to post the link in the first comment

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Option A: Manual (takes 10 seconds)

  1. Publish your post (image/video/text) without the URL in the caption.
  2. Immediately comment on your post with the link and a short CTA.
  3. (Optional) Pin the comment if that format supports it.

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Option B: “Hybrid”

Some social teams attach a link to generate the preview, then remove the visible URL text from the caption—keeping the post visually clean while still having the link attached.

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How to schedule the first comment

If your workflow depends on scheduling, you’ve got a few routes. You can set internal reminders or use tools that support “First Comment” features. However, when it comes to automation, you can use any tool to create posts and first comments, but the GOAT is only available on bundle.social. With bundle.social, you can automatically publish a comment right after the main post goes live, ensuring you never miss that crucial engagement window.

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Best practices to make this tactic actually work

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Keep the main post “native”

Use a strong hook, native media (photo/video), and a CTA that doesn’t require the link to be visible:
  • “I put the full guide in the first comment.”
  • “Link’s in the comments—tell me your biggest takeaway.”

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Make the first comment scan-friendly

A good first comment template:
  • One-line CTA
  • Link
  • Optional context (1–2 short lines)

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Track it like an experiment

Run a simple A/B test for 2–4 weeks:
  1. Posts with link in caption vs link in first comment
  2. Keep topic + format similar
  3. Compare reach, engagement, and click-through

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FAQ

Does putting the link in the first comment guarantee better reach? No. It’s an optimization—not a magic wand. Your creative, hook, and audience fit still matter most. Will Meta “penalize” me for posting links? “Penalty” is a strong word. What we do have is clear evidence that distribution heavily favors non-link posts overall. Can I schedule the first comment? Yes. bundle.social supports automatic first-comment publishing for supported account types like Facebook and Instagram.

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Bottom line

If you rely on organic reach, you should at least test this posting structure:
  1. Native post (no URL in caption)
  2. URL in the first comment (immediately)
It won’t rescue weak content—but it’s the kind of small lever that can add up. Start scheduling your native posts and first comments with bundle.social.