We built a WordPress plugin that auto-posts to LinkedIn. It worked great. Then we tried to be clever and add the link as the first comment instead of in the post itself.
Spoiler: LinkedIn said no. But here’s the thing – we ended up with something better.
The Problem With Links on LinkedIn 🔗
LinkedIn’s algorithm doesn’t like external links. Makes sense – they want people to stay on LinkedIn, not click away to your website.
Posts with links in them get shown to fewer people. How much fewer? Studies suggest 20-50% less reach.
So marketers came up with a workaround: post your content without a link, then immediately add the link as the first comment. LinkedIn’s algorithm supposedly doesn’t penalize comment links as harshly.
Clever, right? We thought so too.
What We Tried to Build 🛠️
Our LinkedIn Autoposter plugin already worked well. Post goes live on WordPress → automatically appears on LinkedIn with your featured image. Simple.
We wanted to add that “link in first comment” trick. Technically, it meant:
- Post the content and image (no link)
- Grab the post ID that LinkedIn returns
- Use LinkedIn’s Comments API to add the link
Step 1 worked perfectly. Step 2 worked. Step 3? Rejected.
LinkedIn’s API Gatekeeping 🚧
Here’s what we discovered after hours of debugging:
LinkedIn’s Comments API requires something called “Community Management API” access. Fair enough – we’ll just request that.
But here’s the catch: Community Management API can only be the SOLE product on your LinkedIn app. You can’t have it alongside “Share on LinkedIn” or “Advertising API” – the products we need for the actual posting.
❌ What We Wanted
One app that posts content AND adds comments
🚫 What LinkedIn Allows
Separate apps for each – no mixing allowed
We could create two separate LinkedIn apps and juggle two sets of OAuth tokens. But that’s a nightmare for users and honestly… is it even worth it?
Reach vs Clicks: The Real Question 🤔
This forced us to think about what we actually want from LinkedIn posts.
🎯 If you want REACH:
Post image + text, no links at all. Maximum people see your content. Brand awareness. Thought leadership. Getting your name out there.
🔗 If you want CLICKS:
Include the link. Fewer people see it, but those who do can click through. Direct traffic to your site.
Here’s the honest truth: for most businesses, reach matters more than clicks.
Why? Because LinkedIn isn’t where people go to click links. They scroll, they skim, they occasionally engage. If your post gets seen by 1,000 people instead of 500, that’s 1,000 people who now know you exist – even if they don’t click today.
What We Decided 🎯
We went with maximum reach. Version 1.4.0 of our plugin now posts image-only content – no links in the post at all.
Want to add the link? Do it manually as the first comment. Takes 10 seconds. And honestly, that manual step has a hidden benefit: you’re on LinkedIn, you might reply to comments, you might engage with others. That’s good for the algorithm too.
Could we have over-engineered a two-app solution? Sure. But simple beats complex. A plugin that does one thing well beats a plugin that does two things awkwardly.
The Takeaway 💡
Sometimes platform limitations push you toward better decisions. We wanted automatic “link in first comment” because it seemed clever. LinkedIn’s API restrictions forced us to step back and ask: what do we actually want here?
The answer was reach. More eyeballs on our content, more brand awareness, more people thinking “oh yeah, Devenia, they know their stuff.”
If you want clicks, LinkedIn probably isn’t your best channel anyway. That’s what Google is for.
Our advice: Post good content. Use a great image. Let people see you. Add the link in the comments if you want – manually, it takes seconds. And stop fighting the algorithm. 🎯