Obituary Links Could Be Facebook’s Next Casualty
Facebook Is Coming for Your Obituary Posts. Here’s What Funeral Homes Need to Know.
Facebook is testing a change that could limit some business Pages to just two organic link posts per month unless they pay Meta.
And yes, if you’re a funeral home that automatically dumps every obituary link from your website onto Facebook, that probably got your attention.
But I think we’re asking the wrong question.
The question isn’t:
“How are funeral homes going to keep posting all their obituary links?”
The better question is:
Why are funeral homes still relying on obituary link posts as their social media strategy in the first place?
Because they shouldn’t be.
First, Here’s What Facebook Is Actually Doing
This isn’t internet rumor.
Meta began testing restrictions on external link posting in December 2025. Meta confirmed to TechCrunch at the time that it was conducting a limited test involving Facebook Pages and Professional Mode profiles.
Some accounts included in that test were limited to two organic posts containing links per month unless they subscribed to Meta Verified.
Meta told TechCrunch the purpose was to determine whether publishing a higher volume of link posts provided additional value to paying subscribers.
Importantly, Meta also confirmed that publishers were excluded from that initial test and that links posted in comments were not included in the restriction.
Now it appears the test is expanding.
Social Media Today reported on September 17 that more Facebook Page managers are seeing the two-link restriction as Meta rolls out its new Meta One subscription offering.
Meta officially announced Meta One this week, with paid plans for individuals, creators and businesses. Business plans include additional publishing, analytics, verification and other professional features, with higher tiers providing more publishing capabilities.
So yes, this is real.
But it is also important not to overreact.
This is not currently a universal rule affecting every funeral home Facebook Page.
It’s a test.
That could change.
But here’s the bigger point.
Funeral homes shouldn’t need 30 obituary link posts a month to have a successful Facebook presence anyway.
Link Posts Have Been Dying for Years
Facebook didn’t suddenly decide this week that it doesn’t love sending people away from Facebook.
This has been happening for years.
Meta’s own reporting has repeatedly shown that the overwhelming majority of what people see in Facebook Feed does not contain an external link.
And current third-party Facebook data tells a similar story.
Socialinsider analyzed 25 million Facebook posts from more than 130,000 business Pages for its 2026 Facebook benchmarks.
Guess which format finished dead last in engagement?
Link posts.
DISRUPT Media‘s own analytics on thousands of funeral home Facebook post show: Videos generated 129.6% more impressions than link posts.
In Q2 2026, link posts averaged a 0.05% engagement rate, below Reels, images, albums and status posts.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Facebook wants people consuming content on Facebook.
Watching videos.
Looking at photos.
Reading posts.
Commenting.
Sharing.
Interacting.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense for Facebook to prioritize a post whose primary purpose is getting someone to click a link and leave Facebook.
And funeral homes have built an enormous portion of their “social media strategy” around doing exactly that.
Posting Obituaries Is Not a Social Media Strategy
I’ve been saying this for years.
Automatically posting every obituary to Facebook does not mean your funeral home is doing social media.
It means your website and Facebook Page are connected.
That’s it.
I understand why funeral homes do it.
An obituary gets published.
The website automatically sends it to Facebook.
The funeral home checks the “social media” box.
Done.
But what business objective did we accomplish?
Did we build trust?
Did we introduce your funeral directors to the community?
Did we answer a question a family has about cremation?
Did we educate someone about preplanning?
Did we show people what makes your funeral home different?
Did we make someone laugh?
Cry?
Comment?
Share something?
Remember your name?
Probably not.
We published another link.
And then another one.
And another one.
That’s not a content strategy.
“But Our Community Wants to See the Obituaries”
Great.
Then post them.
I’m not saying an obituary should never appear on Facebook.
I’m saying we need to stop confusing posting obituaries with marketing a funeral home.
Those are two very different things.
And if you want to continue sharing obituaries, there is a better way to do it.
Post the obituary image natively to Facebook and put the link in the first comment.
That’s what we changed at ConnectingDirectors.com roughly two years ago.
Instead of constantly publishing external link posts, we publish the content as a native image post and then place the article link in the first comment.
There are tools that can automate this process, too.
The funeral home shouldn’t have to manually upload the image, publish the post, copy the obituary URL and then add a comment every single time someone passes away.
This should be automated.
In fact, I’m already working with a funeral home website provider on exactly that.
When an obituary is published on the funeral home’s website, the goal is for the system to automatically create a native Facebook image post and then place the obituary URL in the first comment.
Same automation.
Better execution.
One important caveat: Meta specifically confirmed during the original test that comment links were exempt from the two-link restriction. Because Meta is actively changing and expanding its subscription products, funeral homes and website providers should keep watching this closely rather than assuming any workaround will exist forever.
Maybe This Is Actually Good for Funeral Homes
Do I love the idea of Meta putting more features behind a subscription?
Not particularly.
But if this change forces funeral homes and funeral home website companies to rethink what gets automatically pushed to Facebook, maybe something good comes out of it.
Because we have to kill this idea that social media for a funeral home means:
Obituary.
Obituary.
Obituary.
Generic Holiday graphic.
Obituary.
Generic stock photo of a candle.
Obituary.
Generic Happy National Funeral Director Day.
Obituary.
That isn’t social media marketing.
It’s a bulletin board.
Your Facebook Page has the ability to introduce your funeral home to thousands of people in your community before they ever need you.
That is insanely valuable.
You can put your funeral directors in front of people.
You can answer questions.
You can explain what happens when someone dies.
You can talk about cremation.
You can tell stories.
You can show your personality.
You can educate people about preplanning.
You can show people why your funeral home is different.
You can become familiar before the moment of need ever happens.
That is the opportunity.
And we’re wasting it if the majority of our strategy is automatically publishing URLs.
If Facebook Took Away Obituary Links Tomorrow, What Would Actually Happen?
This is the question I would ask every funeral home owner.
If Facebook completely eliminated your ability to automatically post obituary links tomorrow, would it materially hurt your funeral home business?
Would your call volume decline?
Would fewer families choose you?
Would your preneed sales fall?
Would your market share change?
For the overwhelming majority of funeral homes, I don’t believe it would.
And if that’s true, why are we treating those posts like they are the foundation of our social media strategy?
They aren’t.
The funeral homes winning on social aren’t winning because they figured out how to post more links.
They’re winning because people know them.
People recognize their funeral directors.
People watch their videos.
People engage with their content.
People learn from them.
People trust them.
And when the day comes that someone in that community needs a funeral home, they already know who they’re calling.
Every single time.
So if Facebook’s new link restrictions eventually force the deathcare profession to stop treating its Facebook Page like an automated obituary feed?
Maybe Facebook accidentally did us a favor.
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If you’re ready for a social media approach with no generic bullcrap and an action plan of how to get you more qualified preneed leads and at-need calls, click here to learn how we help funeral homes become impossible to ignore.
Still not convinced? Check out our free ROI calculator to determine just how much return on your investment you could have with the right strategic social media approach centered around organic content.
