- Two things Facebook calls recommendations
- Why the suggestion rules are stricter than the Community Standards
- What Facebook says it won't push to new people
- How to recommend a business on Facebook
- How your Page's rating and review count work
- Keep business recommendations on or off? My verdict
- Frequently asked questions
Facebook uses the word recommendations for two different things: the rules for what it will suggest to people who don't already follow you, and the Yes or No recommendations people leave on a business Page. As of Nov 2026, Facebook's Help says the first is held to a higher bar than its Community Standards, and the second only shows a rating once a Page has at least five reviews.
Both matter if you run a business on Facebook. One decides whether your posts and Page get shown to strangers. The other is your public reputation, sitting on a tab of your Page. Here's what Facebook's Help Centre says about each, in plain words.
Two things Facebook calls recommendations
Suggestions. Facebook and Instagram may recommend content, accounts and things like Pages, groups and events that you don't already follow. Facebook's examples are Pages you may like, Suggested for you posts in Feed, people you may know and groups you should join. They're personalised: if you and someone else share friends, Facebook may suggest them to you as a friend. If you've wondered why a stranger keeps popping up, why Facebook suggests friends goes into that, and what Suggested for you means covers the posts in your Feed.
Business reviews. On a business Page, Recommendations is the feature that lets people click Yes or No, write a short recommendation and share it. Facebook's Help uses Recommendations and reviews almost interchangeably, and the tab on a Page is called Reviews.
Why the suggestion rules are stricter than the Community Standards
This is the bit that surprises most business owners. Facebook says its Recommendations Guidelines are designed to keep a higher standard than its Community Standards, because recommended posts and accounts come from people you haven't chosen to follow. So not everything allowed on Facebook is eligible to be recommended.
In practice, a post can stay up, be seen by your followers, and still never be shown to anyone new. Facebook says it uses technology to detect content that doesn't meet the guidelines, and that it sought input from 50 experts in recommender systems, expression, safety and digital rights when drawing them up. Extra age-appropriate guidelines apply to users under 18.
What Facebook says it won't push to new people
| What may not be recommended | Examples Facebook gives | What it means for a business Page |
|---|---|---|
| Content that gets in the way of a safe community | Sensitive themes, violence, sexually suggestive content, content promoting regulated products, weight loss products or cosmetic surgery | Health, beauty and regulated-product businesses can post within the rules and still not be suggested |
| Low-quality publishing | Unoriginal content largely repurposed from another source without adding value; long captions unrelated to the content; coordinated comment networks | Reposting other people's content without adding anything is named outright |
| False or misleading content | Claims found false by independent fact-checkers, in countries where Meta supports fact-checking | Check a claim before you post it |
| Accounts that build followings in misleading ways | Repeatedly engaging in practices such as purchasing likes | Bought likes count against the account or Page, not only a single post |
| Accounts that recently broke the rules | Recent Community Standards violations, or repeatedly sharing content Facebook tries not to recommend | A recent breach affects the whole account for a time |
Facebook also says it may let people know when they're about to engage with an account or Page that meets these criteria. That's a quiet hit to trust most owners never see.
The two named practices I'd take most seriously are the dull ones: buying likes, and recycling other people's posts without adding anything. Plenty of small businesses do both without thinking of them as risky. Facebook names both.
How to recommend a business on Facebook
- Go to the business's Page by clicking its name in your Feed or searching for it.
- Click Reviews.
- Click Yes to recommend it, or No to not recommend it.
- Write your recommendation. You can also pick tags, such as friendly staff or slow service.
- Click next to Sharing to and choose your audience.
- Click Post.
Facebook says you can also recommend a business by commenting on a friend's post asking for recommendations, or by sharing a Page with friends.
Its rules for recommenders are short: focus on the product or service, base it on personal experience, and don't recommend a business whose Page you manage. Recommendations that break the Community Standards may be removed. And here's a line worth reading twice: Facebook says it doesn't verify that people bought the product or used the service they're recommending.
How your Page's rating and review count work
If you manage a Page, the Recommendations setting decides whether any of this shows. Facebook's switch sits in your Page's Settings under Page and tagging, labelled Allow others to view and leave reviews on your Page. The full walkthrough lives in turning on reviews for a Facebook Page. What matters more is how the rating behaves once it's on:
- A Page may show no rating until it has received at least five reviews.
- Only recommendations shared publicly count towards the overall rating. If someone shares theirs with Friends, only their friends see it.
- The review count can look different depending on who's viewing, because some reviews are only visible to the audience the reviewer chose. As an admin, you see the public count, and public reviews show a globe icon next to the date.
- Reviews that break Facebook's spam policies are removed, which can change the rating.
- Turning Recommendations off disables them and removes the rating and reviews from your Page.
- If your Page had reviews before, Facebook says Recommendations were switched on for it automatically.
To see how often people have recommended you, switch into your Page, click its name in the left menu, then Reviews at the top. Facebook shows the number of times people have recommended your Page over time. If a review you expected is missing, Facebook says it may have been removed for not following the Community Standards.
Keep business recommendations on or off? My verdict
Facebook says Recommendations help customers learn about your business and may make your Page easier to find in Facebook search. That's the upside, and it's real if your customers are happy and on Facebook.
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I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
I'd start by keeping Recommendations on if you serve local or repeat customers who'd happily click Yes, and I'd ask your happiest ones to share theirs publicly, because only public ones count towards the rating. I'd skip turning them off just to hide a couple of bad reviews: Facebook says that removes your rating and every review, the good ones too. And skip buying likes or recycling other people's content altogether, because Facebook names both as reasons it may stop recommending an account.
If your business has a Facebook Page, whether recommendations help or hurt you deserves a deliberate decision, not a default someone else switched on. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement and workflow automation, so the busywork runs itself and people get time back. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
This guide is part of my Facebook Help: 80 Guides to Pages, Groups, Ads, Stories and Fixes.
Related: the technology business page.
Related: writing for us on cycling.
Frequently asked questions
What are recommendations on Facebook?
Facebook uses the word for two things: the suggestions it shows people, such as Pages you may like and Suggested for you posts, and the Yes or No recommendations people leave on a business Page.
How many reviews does a Page need to show a rating?
Facebook says a Page may not have a rating if it hasn't received at least five reviews.
Why doesn't a recommendation count towards my rating?
Only recommendations shared publicly are included in a Page's overall rating. If the reviewer chose Friends as the audience, it doesn't count.
Does Facebook check that reviewers used the business?
No. Facebook says it doesn't verify that people bought the product or used the service they're recommending.
What happens if I turn Recommendations off?
Facebook says turning Recommendations off disables them and removes the rating and reviews from your Page.
