It’s the start of a new year, and you know what that means: those announcements from Facebook you’ve never seen or have ignored are going into effect. What’s happening right now? Your business may have gotten an alert and email starting with “Your Page doesn’t qualify for recommendation.” We’ll talk about what Facebook recommendations are, why your page might not qualify for recommendation, and whether it’s worth trying to fix for your marketing.
What are Page Recommendations on Facebook?
Facebook provides recommendations of Facebook pages, groups, and events to users based on their interests, currently liked content, location, and other algorithmic factors. These recommendations appear in users in their feed, search, and other locations, listed as “Pages You May Like, “Suggested For You” posts in Feed, “People You May Know,” or “Groups You Should Join.” Some business pages may have limited or no access to features that encourage engagement and may not be as widely recommended on Facebook as others.
Read more here. It’s this last point we’re looking at today.
Why is My Page Not Qualifying for Recommendation?
When we got this notification on a client’s page, the information provided was less than helpful:
All content on Facebook must comply with our Terms of Service and Community Standards. These are our high-level rules against sexual, violent, profane or hateful content.
We knew that our clients, a nice MA-based restaurant, certainly wasn’t posting anything like that. After extensive research and speaking directly with a Meta support agent, we’ve confirmed that this issue is tied specifically to content that markets or promotes alcohol. As of January 2026, Meta implemented a platform-wide policy change due to new regulations imposed by multiple governments. As a result, Facebook has stopped recommending business pages that regularly post about certain regulated products.
In our case, it was alcohol. The client has an extensive wine selection they like to show off, and it was those posts that were causing them to be flagged by Facebook for de-recommendation.
Should I Try and Fix My Page for Facebook Recommendations?
So, if you have this problem, you’ve got to do three things to assess the damage and decide if changing how and what you post (and potentially deleting posts, ads, and events) is worth it:
- Figure Out What Went Wrong: When you get a Facebook notification, it may take some digging to find the actual issues. Search the help center, the web, and question any Facebook staff you can get ahold of.
- Assess the Damage: Once you’ve identified the cause, it’s time to determine whether making the change is worth it. Our client had weekly posts about wine and pairings, but most were about their food and events.
- Make the Call: For the restaurant, it wouldn’t be too much work to remove the offending posts and quit highlighting alcohol. But this would be infeasible for a brewery, for example, as most of its identity is around these products.
A Note About Facebook Messages: While you will be contacted by Facebook about issues or changes to your page, they will never contact you via Facebook Messenger. Instead, you’ll usually receive a notification and an email about any issue. If you get a message from someone claiming to work for Facebook, it’s most certainly a scam.
For our client, making the change to be recommended to Facebook users made the most sense, but that won’t always be the case. Facebook and other social media marketing and advertising can be a minefield filled with seemingly arbitrary restrictions and hoops to jump through. It’s why it pays to work with a marketing agency to make sure your content is reaching the right people. If you’re in need of help, it’s time to contact Vision.
