Facebook not allowing links to our external website

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lachlanw

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#257121 16-Sep-2019 15:46

Hi All,

Bit of a desperation play here, for the last four months we have not been able to link from Facebook posts to our website as they say our site does not meet their community guidelines. We've been through the guidelines in detail trying to understand why. The Marketing Manager has tried contacting Facebook support multiple times where it would get escalated and then lost, or in the last case flat out denied. Our hosting provider/web developers have investigated as well and aren't able to explain why.

We are at a bit of a loss as to why, it's a legit site which is essentially a series of product listings, videos and company info.

My own googling (last resort) suggested running the site URL through the FB debugger, which just returned the same "Failing to meet community standards".

Facebook is pretty key for us and we have a decent presence there (50k+ followers).

Any suggestions before we go back to mailers :D

Oblivian

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#2318601 16-Sep-2019 16:10

If it's things that send lead things out the end, or any such related products. It will hit you.

Likewise if there are adverts, and seemingly more images than words and so on. It won't consider it an experience.

Remember their new focus is on the social aspect. Sales and businesses come 2nd, unless you are paying them directly. In which it's jammed down all our throats. But the intention is to block people freeloading advertising.

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/05/enforcing-our-community-standards-3/

lachlanw

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#2318611 16-Sep-2019 16:26

Thanks for the reply, we don't run any ads on the site and had a pretty regular spend with FB. Typically our products linked pages will come with an embedded You Tube demonstration and the product specs.

freitasm

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#2318612 16-Sep-2019 16:28

Can you PM your site URL?

ResponseMediaNZ

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#2318630 16-Sep-2019 17:05

I have seen instances where if you have a subdomain off a parent site that it goes bad, alot of Multi Level Marketing addresses are blocked and the likes

richms

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#2318679 16-Sep-2019 18:33

Do you operate affiliate links or things that would look like them?

Richard rich.ms

lachlanw

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#2318811 16-Sep-2019 21:16

ResponseMediaNZ:
I have seen instances where if you have a subdomain off a parent site that it goes bad, alot of Multi Level Marketing addresses are blocked and the likes

Thanks for your reply.

We run a sales portal for our retailers, I believe it is a subdomain. I'll need to check tomorrow.

lachlanw

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#2318812 16-Sep-2019 21:17

richms:
Do you operate affiliate links or things that would look like them?

Thanks for the reply, no affiliate links.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

lachlanw

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#2319597 18-Sep-2019 09:27

Just a quick update, links are allowed again :) will post a solution once I am clear on what happened, thank you all for taking the time to help. Very much appreciated.

freitasm

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#2319599 18-Sep-2019 09:29

I did try posting a link from my personal Facebook and got the error you mentioned. I then reported it as wrong. The standard response on the popup was "Thanks for the feedback. We don't review all reports so don't expect a response."

Typical.

Oblivian

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#2319606 18-Sep-2019 09:39

freitasm:
I did try posting a link from my personal Facebook and got the error you mentioned. I then reported it as wrong. The standard response on the popup was "Thanks for the feedback. We don't review all reports so don't expect a response."

Typical.

Same response I got for reporting multiple posts from a malware pc with blatant porn.

Basically tells you how you can block the culprit but not actually submit a report.

Or you get a reply 2 weeks later saying sorry the content must be gone

lachlanw

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#2319607 18-Sep-2019 09:43

That makes sense, we had an email from Facebook last night saying that they had been blocking the site because of a false positive. Presume they reviewed this once someone flagged it as a mistake (despite us doing so through our account for 4 months)

Thank you for taking the time to look at this.