Facebook has fiddled with the all-important algorithm that determines what content shows up in people’s News Feeds. The upshot of these tweaks is that while it should now be easier to keep up with your friends, it may will be harder to drive traffic to particular pages and stories.

Specifically. the changes are threefold. First, Facebook is relaxing the rules that prevent multiple posts from the same source from showing up in a row. This change will make it harder for users to reach the “end” of their News Feed, especially for those who do not have a lot of content to see.

Second, Facebook now promises that content posted directly by the “friends you care about,” such as photos, videos, status updates or links, will be higher up in News Feed so you are less likely to miss it. And finally, stories about Friends liking or commenting on a post will appear far down in the News Feed, if at all.

 

The Verge succinctly boils down the impact of these changes: more content from Friends, less content from Pages. Of course, less content from pages could mean less page views for some web publishers dependent on Facebook to drive traffic.

“The impact of these changes on your page’s distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity,” said Facebook in a statement. “In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline.”