Teresa Torres Critiques LinkedIn’s Link Visibility Strategy

In a recent LinkedIn post, Teresa Torres discusses the platform’s evolving approach to link visibility and its impact on content creators. Torres, a prominent voice in product development and strategy, highlights a perceived shift by LinkedIn that potentially hinders the discoverability of external resources shared by users.

The “Link in Comments” Hack and LinkedIn’s Response

Torres begins by addressing a long-standing workaround employed by many users: placing links in the comments section to circumvent LinkedIn’s algorithm, which often deprioritizes posts containing external links. This strategy, as Torres explains, emerged from observations and experiments demonstrating that posts with links tend to have lower reach.

“If you are not familiar with this problem, many people (including myself) have run experiments and shown that when you include a link in your post it doesn’t get as much reach compared to a post with no link.”

However, the situation has become more complex, according to Torres. She points out that LinkedIn appears to be implementing measures that further obscure these links, particularly when a post garners a significant number of comments.

Algorithm Changes and User Experience

Torres articulates a growing frustration among creators who rely on LinkedIn to share valuable information. She notes that when a post is sorted by “most relevant,” comments containing links may not be displayed prominently, forcing users to switch to a “most recent” view and manually sift through numerous comments to find them.

“But now when you put a link in the comments and the post gets a lot of comments, LinkedIn stops showing the comment with the links unless you select “Most Recent” and scroll through all the comments.”

This development, in Torres’s view, prioritizes LinkedIn’s internal objectives over the user experience and the ability of creators to direct their audience to external resources.

Torres’s Solution and Call to Action

In response to these perceived platform limitations, Teresa Torres states her intention to revert to placing links directly within the main body of her posts. She acknowledges that this decision may result in reduced visibility for her content under LinkedIn’s current algorithmic structure, meaning many followers might not see her posts.

“To improve usability, I’ll be putting my links back in the main post. That means most of you will no longer see my posts. But for those of you who do, you’ll be able to actually find the resources I’m sharing.”

Despite the potential algorithmic drawbacks, Torres emphasizes her commitment to providing direct access to resources for those who actively seek them. She also encourages her audience to bypass the platform’s algorithm altogether by subscribing directly to her website.

“If you like what I share and prefer to get direct access (rather than through a stupid algorithm) head over to my website and hit subscribe. I’m not adding a link because then this post will just be a letter to myself.”

Torres’s analysis underscores a critical challenge for content creators on social media platforms: balancing the desire for reach with the need for direct and accessible communication with their audience. Her approach signals a strategic pivot, prioritizing user access and direct engagement over algorithmic favorability on LinkedIn.