Meta is testing a cap on the number of outbound link posts that companies and creators can share from professional accounts and Pages on Facebook, with any extra publishing capacity tied to its paid Meta Verified plan, in a possible overhaul of how brands and makers distribute traffic off-platform.
What Meta Is Testing With Facebook Link Post Caps
If you want to post more than two links without subscribing, have no fear: You can subscribe to Meta Verified for the low, low cost of $14.99 per month.
It’s not a platform-wide test, but it does take aim at accounts that tend to run traffic exclusively with multiple clicks to external pages for promotion, lead gen and conversions.
Screenshots posted by social media strategist Matt Navarra indicate some significant carve-outs: links to Meta properties (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) don’t appear restricted, and affiliate links are given the green light; so too are links placed in comments. Meta says it is testing ways to deliver value atop Meta Verified and that publishers are not part of the test. The company has not provided a time frame for the cap or said whether scheduling apps count toward it.
Why It Matters for Creators and Brands on Facebook
For creators, small businesses and Pages that primarily post outbound links to accumulate newsletter sign-ups, event RSVPs, ecommerce sales or video views on other platforms, a cap adds new friction.
Teams will also need to make tough choices about which two links to publish natively on Facebook, and what has to be pushed to the comments, repackaged as native content or saved for another day unless they pay up for the Verified upgrade.
Meta’s own transparency reporting shows that feed views on Facebook in the U.S. are overwhelmingly directed toward posts without links, taking more than 98% of views. About 1.9% of views go to posts with links only, with most coming from Pages that you already follow. The top linked destinations are YouTube, TikTok and GoFundMe. In short, link posts are already fighting for visibility; a cap would make that hill even steeper, while also pushing certain professional accounts toward Meta Verified.
Independent analytics companies like Similarweb and Chartbeat have tracked a more widespread drop in social referral traffic from Facebook to publishers. With that in mind, the more they restrict link distribution, the more media companies will be forced to recalibrate their promotion mix and rebalance toward native engagement.
A Strategic Shift to Native Content on Facebook
Platforms have been lowering the visibility of outbound links for years in an effort to keep readers engaged on-site. X has downplayed link cards, LinkedIn is trying out in-feed actions that incentivize native posts and Instagram has a long history of under-developing linking mechanics. Facebook’s test suggests the pattern: squeezing out link-spam incentives, prioritizing on-platform formats and charging for the convenience of off-platform reach.
Marked as a change in Meta Verified, the policy also holds the potential of a second beneficial outcome for the company: a less cluttered feed with fewer links dropped from low-quality sharing and more media that can be consumed without readers needing to leave Facebook. And if they do, be prepared for an algorithmic tilt in favor of native video, photos and text over external links.
Practical Implications and Workarounds for Marketers
Marketers should be redesigning their calendars around a specified number for high-intent link posts and repurpose those 10x content pieces as native content.
The common play will be to publish the core story natively — whether short video, carousel or text — then drop the destination URL into the first comment and pin it for visibility. And as links in comments are not affected, we still have a way to get clicks without wasting the cap.
Whenever you can, use native tools on Facebook to capture demand without a click: lead forms for gated content, event pages for registrations, Shops and product tagging for commerce; Groups work well for community-based initiatives. If you’re aiming for video views rather than clicks, upload directly to Facebook, don’t post a YouTube link, and include the URL in the comments section with a strong call to action.
Early indications point to the fact that affiliate links are permissible within the tests’ rules for affiliate and partner campaigns; however, enforcement could vary. If it becomes an SEO issue and a brand begins seeing decreased traffic to shared links, it’ll be interesting to see how separate variations (URL formats, UTM parameters/link shorteners) are impacted by that and react in kind as link hygiene is addressed.
What To Watch Next as Meta Tests Link Post Limits
Critical unknowns persist: the windowing approach for measuring the cap, if cross-posting and third-party schedulers are exempt, what exceptions are defined at scale and if this test will reach other account types or regions. Meta has not said whether what it’s calling paid ads are out of bounds, which muddies the water for advertisers.
As the experiment grows, many professional accounts are going to do a cost-benefit analysis: Is the lost referral volume worth paying for, or can native-first strategies replace that traffic?
The answer will differ by category, but the direction of travel is obvious — on Facebook, native content is the safe bet unless you want to pay for some link latitude.
