"Link in the comments" cost her 60% of clicks

"Link in the comments" cost her 60% of clicks

Everyone says: "Never put a link in the post. Drop it in the first comment so the algorithm doesn't suppress you."

A creator A/B'd it across 36 posts: link in body vs link in first comment, same offer, alternating.

The claim: in-body links tank reach.

Reach difference: 6%, in favour of comment-links. Defensible. But total clicks told the real story — body-link posts drove 1,040 clicks over the test, comment-link posts drove 410. People didn't hunt the comments. Most never saw them.

She traded a 6% reach gain for a 60% click loss to dodge a penalty that, at her account size, barely existed.

The suppression is real for huge accounts. For everyone else it's folklore tax.

Protecting reach you then can't convert is just losing slower.