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On LinkedIn, reach grows in the comments, not the likes

On LinkedIn, comments bring more reach than likes, your own replies do too, and the link in the first comment is no longer a trick. In five charts, I show what the data says about comments and how to use them.

Sep 22, 2026 · 3 min read
by Martin Reza Tschapke
Two men talking at a table in a bright room with large windows

Many people check the likes first after posting. For reach, though, likes are the weakest signal. What carries a post is comments: under your own post and under other people’s.

One comment weighs as much as 15 likes

LinkedIn itself only says that likes, comments, shares and the time someone spends with a post feed into the ranking. It doesn’t publish weights. The best-known measurement comes from LinkedIn analyst Richard van der Blom. In his 2024 report, with data from 2023, one comment weighed as much as 15 likes. Saving counted eight times as much as a like, while reposting with your own text counted only three times as much.

Bar chart of the effect of an interaction on reach, like equals 1: comment 15 times, instant repost 10 times, save 8 times, click see more 5 times, repost with your own text 3 times, like 1 time.
Measurement by Richard van der Blom with data from 2023.

The figures are older and not confirmed by LinkedIn. But the direction fits what LinkedIn says publicly: the feed is meant to encourage real conversations. And people comment more than they used to. According to Microsoft, the number of comments rose by 32 % year on year in early 2025.

Longer comments count double

Not every comment counts the same. According to the same report, each comment brought around 5 % more reach in the author’s network. Comments with more than 15 words had twice the effect of short ones. And authors who wrote two to four replies of their own after the first hour got about 25 % more.

Three key figures on the effect of comments: plus 5 percent reach per comment, double the effect from 15 words, plus 25 percent with two to four of your own replies after the first hour.
Measurement by Richard van der Blom with data from 2023.

What LinkedIn filters out matters too. By its own account, LinkedIn intercepts hundreds of thousands of automated comment attempts every day, and it wants to make groups that comment on each other’s posts ineffective. So what counts is real conversation, not volume.

Staying after you post pays off

The moment after posting matters. Van der Blom recommends replying to every comment in the first hour and checking in again after six to eight hours and after 24 hours. According to his analyses, those who disappear after posting lose 20 to 40 % of reach. Those who stay in the conversation do 15 to 35 % better.

Timeline over 24 hours with good windows for replying: first hour, after 6 to 8 hours and after 24 hours. Those who disappear lose 20 to 40 percent of reach, those who stay gain 15 to 35 percent.
Recommendations and analyses by Richard van der Blom.

The link in the first comment is no longer a trick

For a long time, the rule was: links cost reach, so the link goes in the first comment. Neither is quite true anymore. According to van der Blom’s analysis of around 300,000 posts, a link in the post costs about 16 % of reach. The link in the first comment avoids that penalty, but when comments are sorted by relevance, it isn’t shown at all in up to 80 % of cases. A link in the post, on the other hand, brings 5.2 times as many conversions.

Comparison of a link in the post and a link in the first comment: in the post 16 percent less reach, visible to everyone, 5.2 times as many conversions; in the first comment no penalty for the post, but hidden in up to 80 percent of cases when sorted by relevance.
Analysis by Richard van der Blom, March to June 2026.

LinkedIn itself advises writing a post so that it stands on its own without the link. So if the link really matters, it belongs in the post, but only after the text has already delivered its value.

Commenting is the underrated source of reach

The biggest lever lies with other people’s posts. According to van der Blom, 93 % of the views of your comments come from the network of the person whose post you comment on. A good comment under a post from your field therefore reaches exactly the people your own posts don’t reach yet. But only if it’s genuine: according to his data, comments recognized as AI-generated lose 88 % of their effect.

Three key figures: 93 percent of views of your comments come from the other person’s network, 32 percent more comments on LinkedIn in early 2025, 88 percent less effect for comments recognized as AI-generated.
Richard van der Blom and Microsoft.

Where to start

  1. Plan an hour after posting. Reply to every comment, with a real follow-up question instead of a quick thanks.
  2. Write a few comments every day. Under posts from your field, with more than 15 words and your own experience or view.
  3. Invite conversation without baiting. An open question at the end instead of “comment yes”.
  4. Place links deliberately. Better in the post if they matter, with the text written so it works without the link.

If you want to use LinkedIn for your business without spending hours on it every day, I can help with a clear plan for your personal brand. Why a clear topic matters so much, you’ll find in the article on the new LinkedIn algorithm. And if you’d like to talk about it, get in touch.

Sources

  1. Van der Blom, R. (2024): Algorithm Insights Report 2024, pp. 69 and 70 (1.5 million posts, data from 2023), published on LinkedIn on 6 February 2024. linkedin.com
  2. Van der Blom, R. (2026): Newsletters #73 and #79, LinkedIn, 6 September 2026 and 25 October 2026. linkedin.com, linkedin.com
  3. Van der Blom, R. (2026): Newsletter #67, The link penalty just changed, LinkedIn, 26 July 2026. linkedin.com
  4. Van der Blom, R. (2026): Post on AI comments, LinkedIn, 17 August 2026. linkedin.com
  5. Microsoft (2025): Earnings call for Q3 of fiscal year 2025, 30 April 2025. microsoft.com
  6. LinkedIn (2026): An Industrial-Scale Sequential Recommender for LinkedIn Feed Ranking. arXiv 2602.12354. arxiv.org
  7. Jurka, T. (2026): Updates to The LinkedIn Feed Focusing on Authentic, Relevant Conversations. LinkedIn, 12 March 2026. linkedin.com
  8. Srinivasan, H. (2026): Post on automated comments, LinkedIn, 30 July 2026. linkedin.com
  9. Jobanputra, R. (2025): Post on links in posts, LinkedIn, 14 August 2025. linkedin.com

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