linkedin-studio/references/algorithm-signals-reference.md
Kjell Tore Guttormsen 885526738c fix(linkedin-studio): N21 — scaffold-bånd-redesign + ferskhet-rester (newsletter-guide, first-comment) [skip-docs]
Del 1 — scaffold-bånd (KTG-beslutning: behold målbåndet, utvid komponentene).
Komponentsummen var 960–1 640 mot målbåndet 1 200–1 800: en skjelett-konform
draft kunne lande under gulvet og nådde aldri taket. Nye bånd — Context
250–350, Insight 550–850, Implication 250–350 (Hook 110–140 og CTA 50–100
uendret) — summerer til 1 210–1 790, altså INNI 1 200–1 800. Skjelett-konform
er nå gate-konform per konstruksjon.

Målbåndet 1 200–1 800 er uendret overalt; hooks/prompts/content-quality-gate.md
(den kanoniske gaten) er ikke rørt. Alternativet — å heve taket per AuthoredUp
D-4 — ville krevd 25 filer / 40 linjer inkl. gate-prompten, begge skills,
quality-scorecard, config-malen og brain-fiksturen.

Skjelettet fantes i seks kopier, alle rettet på KTG-go: commands/post.md,
commands/batch.md, commands/pipeline.md, references/engagement-frameworks.md,
agents/content-optimizer.md, skills/linkedin-content-creation/SKILL.md. De tre
siste lå utenfor planens scope, men to av dem var internt selvmotsigende på én
linje (overskrift 1 200–1 800 over komponenter som summerte til 960–1 640), og
engagement-frameworks.md er nettopp fila post.md/pipeline.md instruerer
modellen om å LESE for strukturen.

Nabofunn tatt med på KTG-go: post.md:95 ga «Personal stories → 1 000–1 400»,
som motsa post.md:136s egen gate. Kald-review R2a MAJOR — nå 1 200–1 800.

D-4 inn i kanonfila: ny «Post length»-seksjon i
references/algorithm-signals-reference.md med AuthoredUp-optimumet 1 301–2 500
(372 126 poster, sep 2025–feb 2026), merket single-vendor/ett vindu, med
eksplisitt note om at datapunktet gjør det shippede taket konservativt — ikke
feil — og at de to AuthoredUp-N-ene i fila (621K vs 372K) er ulike studier.
Kilde verifisert mot primærkilden, ikke overført fra planen.

Del 2 — ferskhet-rester (begge påstander verifisert mot LinkedIn Help):
- D-6 newsletter-strategy-guide.md: «5 000+ følgere» framstilt som terskel er
  feil — «All LinkedIn members have access to create a newsletter on LinkedIn»
  (a517914). Omskrevet til redaksjonell modenhetsvurdering (også i
  Mistakes-tabellen og Bottom Line). E-post er ikke garantert: LinkedIn
  de-dupliserer på tvers av kanaler — «if you receive an in-app or push
  notification, you should not expect to also receive an email for the same
  notification» (a517914). Bringer referansefila i tråd med newsletter.md:2384.
  Fjernet samtidig den ukildede «Algorithm favors newsletters from established
  creators» i den omskrevne blokka.
- D-7 first-comment-strategy.md: «pinned by default» er uverifisert og feil —
  pinning er en eksplisitt forfatterhandling (a524166), og standard
  kommentarsortering er algoritmisk. Lagt til «What this file does not claim»-
  avsnitt som speiler kanonfilas «contested»/low-confidence-epistemikk.

Scope 3 (KTG-go, amend): references/engagement-frameworks.md har FIRE
skjeletter, ikke ett. To til brot gulvet i malbandet — Data-Driven Post
(1 050-1 400) og Contrarian Post (1 060-1 410) — og er lagt om til samme
komponentprofil som Standard, sum 1 210-1 790. Narrative Arc (1 350-1 500) la
allerede inni og star urort; alle tre har na en eksplisitt sum-linje. Fila er
den post.md:104 sender modellen til for «story structures», sa a sertifisere
den som fikset med to odelagte skjeletter igjen ville vaert usant.

SUPERSEDED og ikke gjeninnført: gammel B §S6 Del 2 pkt 1 (first-comment
−5/−10 %-tall, pods-eskalering, 360Brew-fotnote).

Verifisering: bånd-summen ligger inni målbåndet i alle seks kopier av
standard-skjelettet og i alle fire skjelettene i engagement-frameworks.md
(grep-bevis, 0 gjenværende 200-300/400-800) · D-6/D-7 omformulert (0 treff på
«5,000+ followers» / «pinned by default» / «inbox + email») · alle ti suiter
grønne, alle floors uendret: test-runner 270/0 (269 assertions >= floor 251) ·
trends 300/0 · analytics 202/0 · hooks 191/0 · brain 134/0 · editions 72/0 ·
render 63/0 · specifics-bank 45/0 · tests 35/0 · contract-gate 33/0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01LhF1H7ctT5Fk8KkoCQpe5n
2026-07-31 18:08:53 +02:00

14 KiB
Raw Blame History

LinkedIn Algorithm Signals Reference (2026)

Single source of truth for what the 2026 LinkedIn feed-ranking system rewards. Every other file in this plugin cites this one — do not restate magnitudes elsewhere, link here instead.

How to read this file

The 2026 feed is ranked by an LLM-based relevance system (live in 2026; LinkedIn has no publicly verifiable production name or go-live date — see the model note below). Almost every "coefficient" circulating in the creator community is third-party, observational, and moves year-to-year. So this reference encodes ordering + the two officially-named signals + directional magnitudes with a source and a confidence per claim — never hard coefficients to optimize against.

  • Confidence: high = officially confirmed by LinkedIn, or convergent across multiple large-N studies.
  • Confidence: medium = single credible large-N source, or convergent direction with a contested magnitude.
  • Confidence: low / directional = practitioner heuristic, no primary source. Treat as a hypothesis to test on your own account, not a fact.

Rule of thumb: trust the ordering, test the number.

Officially-named ranking signals (the only two LinkedIn confirms by name)

Signal Direction Source Confidence
Dwell time Time spent on a post is a ranking input (active vs passive tasks; long-dwell modeled). No public weight. LinkedIn Eng — "Leveraging Dwell Time" (2024) high
Topic / interest relevance Content matched to a viewer's interests is distributed — including beyond your network for strong content. Tim Jurka, Head of Feed AI (2025-08-11) high

Everything below this line is direction + sourced estimate, not officially-weighted.

Engagement order (not coefficients)

The defensible spine is the order, not the multiplier:

saves > shares > quality comments > reactions/likes

Signal Direction / estimate Source Confidence
Saves Top engagement signal; also a follow-graph signal (saving a post raises the author's next-post feed odds). ≈ 5x a like / ≈ 2x a comment in single-vendor data. AuthoredUp, Vertebrae, van der Blom (1.8M) medium
Shares (feed + DM) Strong distribution signal; public endorsement. van der Blom (1.8M) medium
Quality comments (15+ words) Substantive comments outweigh short ones; comment ≈ 2x a like (quality-scored, single vendor). The popular "comment = many-x a like" claim is unverified folklore — dropped. AuthoredUp (NLP-quality-scored) medium
Reactions / likes Baseline engagement unit (≈ 1x). van der Blom (1.8M) medium

Note on the old "comment = 15x" / "= 5x" framing: there is no primary source for it. The "5x" was the saves figure mis-assigned to comments. Encode the order above; do not quote a comment multiplier.

Content format

Format Direction / estimate Source Confidence
Documents / carousels Top organic format (~7%, Socialinsider, company-page per-impression). "Carousel" = PDF document post (LinkedIn removed native carousels Dec 2023). The 7% / 21.8% / 49.5% spread across studies is a denominator artifact, not disagreement about the winner. Socialinsider (1.3M), Buffer (2M), Metricool (673K) high (rank) / medium (number)
Native video #2 format and declining; add captions (most watch muted). No hard aspect-ratio gate — 4:5 / 1:1 preferred, captions are the enforceable spec. Socialinsider; van der Blom medium
Text-only Most resilient format; generates the best comment quality. Buffer, van der Blom medium
Multi-image Strong, slightly below documents. Socialinsider medium
Polls Declining effectiveness; audience research only. van der Blom low / directional
Link posts (link in body) Underperform — see external links below. Ordinal (900K) medium

The personal-profile per-post baseline (~2.02.6%) is a different denominator from a format benchmark — never present an account baseline as a carousel rate.

Post length (text posts)

Claim Statement Source Confidence
Engagement optimum Median engagement peaks in the 1,3012,500 character band (2.612.67%, against 2.10% below 400 chars); 2,5013,000 falls back slightly. Single vendor, personal profiles, one six-month window — the defensible part is the direction (substance beats soundbite), not the boundaries. AuthoredUp (372,126 posts, Sep 2025Feb 2026) medium

On the plugin's own 1,2001,800 standard band: it overlaps the measured optimum from 1,301 up, with its bottom ~100 characters below it, and its ceiling 700 short. Read 1,3012,500 as evidence that the shipped ceiling is conservative, not wrong — one vendor's medians over one window is not enough to move an SSOT that every gate enforces (hooks/prompts/content-quality-gate.md). Test a longer post against your own baseline before concluding anything.

Two AuthoredUp sample sizes appear in this file — 621K (NLP-quality-scored engagement study) and 372K (this length study). Different studies, different windows; not a transcription error.

External links (in post body)

Claim Statement Source Confidence
Reach effect Correlational reach reduction (~38% in 2026; contested band ~1960% across studies). It is a moving number, not a flat tax. Ordinal (900K, p<0.001); van der Blom; DigitalApplied medium
Intent LinkedIn denies an intentional penalty (Sr. Director Product, Aug 2025): no penalty "if the post leads with value" — the effect is engagement-driven. Matt Navarra (relaying LinkedIn) medium
First comment Neither a magic fix nor a confirmed penalty — contested. Lead with standalone value; native formats are the durable answer. Ordinal; practitioner blogs (no large-N) low

Design rule: value-first matters more than link location. Soften any enforcing hook from a hard "X% penalty" mechanic to "body links correlate with lower reach — prefer a first comment, but lead with value either way."

Early-engagement window + evergreen resurfacing

Claim Statement Source Confidence
Golden window 6090 min (90 is the 2026 consensus); the first 1530 min is the highest-leverage sub-window (~70% of reach decided there). Buffer; Expandi; van der Blom high
First-hour velocity Strong early engagement unlocks broader distribution. Directional, not a fixed threshold. van der Blom medium
Evergreen resurfacing The relevance model can resurface strong-save / high-dwell posts days-to-weeks later on viewer intent (posts now live 23 weeks vs days). No confirmed fixed "2472h reinjection" rule — it is intent-driven and irregular. AuthoredUp medium (direction) / low (timing)

Profile / topic alignment

Claim Statement Source Confidence
Topic alignment is a ranking input Real and officially confirmed (qualitatively): topic/interest relevance drives distribution, including beyond your network. Tim Jurka (2025-08-11) high
Off-topic reach reduction magnitude No primary source states a discrete off-topic reach-reduction figure. Treat profile/topic alignment as a real input; do not quote a percentage. n/a (figure removed)

AI-content down-rank (officially confirmed — justifies the de-AI gate)

Claim Statement Source Confidence
AI-slop suppression LinkedIn confirmed an active program suppressing (1) generic AI-written posts/comments, (2) automation tools, (3) attention-bait video. ML models distinguish "original thinking" from "posts lacking substance"; flagged posts are reach-suppressed (reportedly to first-degree), not deleted. VP & Exec Editor Laura Lorenzetti (2026-05-19) high
Correlational engagement gap Likely-AI posts saw ~45% less engagement (correlational). Originality.ai (8,795 posts) medium
Engagement-pod crackdown Auto-comments demoted out of "Most Relevant", scoped to own network; repeat offenders restricted. VP Product Gyanda Sachdeva (2026-02-16) high

Enforce what LinkedIn named — personal substance, original thinking, concrete specifics, genuine voice — not an unverified SEO "tell-list."

Buzzwords

Buzzword avoidance is editorial guidance for clarity, not a measured reach mechanic. No primary source ties specific words to a reach penalty. Keep the buzzword list (it improves writing); do not justify it as "reduces reach."

Claim Source Confidence
Specific phrasing reads better than corporate generic Inc. (editorial) low / directional
A semantic ranker may indirectly favor specific over generic phrasing inferred low (not confirmed)

The deployed ranking model — what we can and cannot say

LinkedIn's feed ranking model has an official name: the Generative Recommender (GR). Announced 2026-03-12 on LinkedIn's engineering blog (Hristo Danchev, Engineering the next generation of LinkedIn's feed): a sequential transformer-based ranker that treats member interaction history as a timeline, paired with a unified LLM-embedding retrieval system. Rollout announced in the same post.

Claim Statement Source Confidence
Production name Generative Recommender (GR) — official, primary-source. LinkedIn engineering blog, 2026-03-12 high
LLM-based retrieval Confirmed: "a unified retrieval system leveraging advances in LLMs to generate a high-quality representation of our members and content." Same post high
Deployment Rollout announced 2026-03-12 ("rolling out a new advanced ranking system"). Full-coverage completion date not stated — do not assert one. Same post high (announcement), n/a (completion)
"360Brew" as the production name Still not publishable. The arXiv paper (2501.16450) is a Jan-2025 pre-production research model (V1.0, 150B params, offline parity only), withdrawn 2025-08-23; the "360Brew" label is third-party and has no official confirmation. GR is the official name. arXiv 2501.16450 high (on the negative claim)

Correction note (2026-07-17): this section previously said "No public name. No deployment date." and flagged the Generative Recommender / Hristo Danchev engineering-post citation as likely fabricated. That flag was wrong — and was already wrong at "Last updated 2026-05": the official post had been live since 2026-03-12, two months earlier. The fabrication flag rejected a genuine primary source.

Operational heuristics (directional — test per account)

These are creator-community heuristics with no primary-source weights. Use as starting hypotheses, not targets. Confidence: low / directional for every row.

Engagement velocity (first 90 min)

Time Rough target If well below
15 min a few check timing / hook
30 min building engage in comments
6090 min momentum golden window closing

Posting time windows (CET / European audience)

Day Commonly-cited peak
Tue 811 AM (often best overall)
Wed 8 AM, 12 PM
Thu 9 AM1 PM (extended)
Fri before 3 PM
Mon 79 AM
Weekend weaker

For global audiences: post 811 AM local to catch multiple zones.

Quick decision rules

Situation Decision
Linking? First comment, lead with value either way
Multiple ideas? Split into separate posts
Off your usual topic? Topic alignment is a real input — stay on-domain or accept lower reach
Video or text? Text for authority, video (captioned, 4:5/1:1) for connection
Carousel or text? Documents for frameworks/guides, text for stories/opinions
Comment or like first? Comment (higher in the engagement order)

Comment strategy (CEA)

  1. Compliment — a specific point you appreciated
  2. Expand — your insight or related experience
  3. Ask — a question to continue dialogue

Minimum quality: 15+ words, genuine perspective. AI-generated / "Great post!" comments are actively suppressed (see AI-slop down-rank).

2026 reach context

Organic reach declined platform-wide in 2026 — focus on relative performance (your posts vs your own baseline), not absolute numbers. Smaller engaged audiences outperform large passive ones. (Direction: high confidence; exact YoY %: directional, varies by source.)


Last updated: 2026-07-31 (post-length section added). Maintained as the single canonical algorithm statement; cite, do not restate.

Sources (per-claim quality/confidence noted inline): LinkedIn Engineering — "Engineering the next generation of LinkedIn's feed" (Hristo Danchev, 2026-03-12); arXiv 2501.16450 (pre-production research paper, withdrawn 2025-08-23); LinkedIn Engineering — "Leveraging Dwell Time" (2024); Tim Jurka, Head of Feed AI (2025-08-11); Laura Lorenzetti, VP & Exec Editor (2026-05-19); Gyanda Sachdeva, VP Product (2026-02-16); Matt Navarra relaying LinkedIn Sr. Director Product (Aug 2025); Ordinal link-penalty study (900K, p<0.001); Socialinsider (1.3M); Buffer (2M+); Metricool (673K); AuthoredUp (621K, NLP-quality-scored); AuthoredUp post-length study (372,126 posts, Sep 2025Feb 2026); van der Blom Algorithm Insights 2025 (1.8M); Originality.ai (8,795 posts); Inc. (buzzword editorial). Full provenance: research brief docs/remediation/research/01-linkedin-algorithm-signals.md.