Looks like bad news for Facebook Page owners as the social network giant warns them about upcoming drop in Page Likes.

Facebook Page managers will see their Page "likes" suddenly fall as a result of an upcoming change that the social network giant announced in a blog post dated March 5. According to Yibada, Facebook announced that the changes to the way it count page likes will slightly hit page owners as the company implements its new "like" policy.

Search Engine Journal noted that Facebook is implementing the change in order to deliver more accurate data. The social network giant will reportedly no longer be counting Page likes from accounts that are deactivated and memorialized. This change will ensure that like counts are always consistent and up-to-date. In the wake of a deactivated account being re-activated, the like count will be accordingly adjusted.

Business Results:

According to Facebook, removing inactive Facebook accounts from Page likes gives business up-to-date insights on the people who actively follow their Page thus making it easier for businesses to find more people like their followers using tools like look alike audiences.

Consistency:

Facebook already filters out likes and comments generated by deactivated or memorialized accounts from individual Page posts, so this update keeps data consistent.

Whether Facebook Page owners will appreciate the change is yet to be seen. Pages have been criticized in the past for their nontransparent functionality. Facebook however hopes that this update will make Pages even more valuable for businesses.

Search Engine Journal speculates those who pay for likes or enhance their numbers in any other way will get hit the most. That said, Pages that have grown their audience organically are expected to notice little drop.

The date for when this change will be implemented was not mentioned.

Do you think this move will help businesses? Let us know in the comments below!