8 tips on VK news feed algorithms

Smart news feed has appeared on VK not so long ago — in spring of 2016. Some nuances of its algorithms are different from Facebook, so in this article I would like to describe guidelines for creating and publishing content in your public pages and groups on VK.

1. Unique content has the priority. Create posts yourself, do not copy text from other pages. If it is possible, you should also create your own images and video content. Posts with new information for users will be listed higher in the feed than those with repetitive content.

2. Users now see posts with the desired format more often. Meaning they frequently interact with this type of content. It can be short text posts, longreads, videos, gifs, music, etc. So with trial and error you need to determine what types of content your target audience respond best to. At the moment, many users love different lists of videos or lists a-la “Top-5 best…”, so I recommend starting your tests with such content.

3. VK gives preference to posts with media content of high quality, i.e. 720p video, illustrations with at least 700px in width.

4. Closing your comments section is a very bad idea nowadays. Posts that are commented, have higher ranking in VK Newsfeed. Engagement begins to affect organic reach. Encourage your readers to discuss, ask them questions, create content that provokes your readers to leave comment.

5. Smart Newsfeed now reduce the priority of communities that post content too often. You should focus now on quality of content, not frequency of publications. I recommend to publish 1-3 times a day. Find the optimal time for posting when your users best respond to the content. For pending publications you can use settings of the post, or online services, for example Amplifr.

6. VK show posts related to actual trends higher. Follow popular and viral hashtags and use relevant topics for content creation.

7. If you post a link to an external website or share a post from another group/fanpage, you should add your unique description, at least a few phrases that can give additional value to your readers. Without additional unique text, shared posts may have worse organic reach.

8. Of course, VK recommends to promote posts to get additional reach. Please check my Guide to VK advertising tools, to know more.

So, you should create unique and engaging content, but publish it not too often. Test what type of content your subscribers love the most, and what time of day they engage with it better.