It is getting harder and harder for businesses on Facebook to reach their audiences. According to Facebook, it is due to the increase in the amount of content, the increasing number of businesses building a presence on the site and an effort to crack down on spam.

But many also believe that Facebook has decreased the reach of pages in order to make businesses pay for promoted posts and advertisements, thus increasing revenue for Facebook. Marketers have been complaining about this for a while.

So just like everything online, there are a few ways that might help increase your reach on Facebook without having to pay for promoted posts or ads.

1. Content is king

Creating valuable and visually-appealing content should always be first and foremost for marketers. Having good content on your blog/website and social media not only improves your online reputation, but also gets audiences to like/share the content, which in turn increases your reach.

2. Embed

Your audience might be visiting your blog and website but not interacting with your social media pages. A relatively lesser-known feature comes to your rescue — embedded posts. You can now embed your Facebook posts on your blog and/or website and get your target audience to interact with your Facebook content off Facebook, thus increasing your reach.

3. Incite comments

Commenting is one of the best ways to increase eyeballs on your content. It is wise to get your fans to comment on your posts via valuable content and contests/incentives that would give reasons for people to comment. It is also helpful if your fan page interacts with fans via comments.

4. Mix it up

It is a common belief that every post should have an image with it. While this would allow your post to show up on news feeds for longer, it is also wise to mix up your content with links. Links now show up on news feeds in the same size of images, which increases click-through. What's more, they also have a cleaner look as compared to earlier.

5. Curate

Content is king. When you have great content to share, people will see it and share it. Sharing articles, images and videos that your target audience connects with will make them come back for more. With Facebook's algorithm, the more a person interacts with and shares your content, the more your content shows up on their news feed.

6. Ask fans to receive notifications

Ask your fans to click on the "Like" box on your Facebook page and click on "Get Notifications." When they do this, they will get a notification every time you update your page. This will work best if you share great content, build a relationship with your fans by interacting with them and not overposting.

Keep in mind that audiences on different pages may be different, so a few of the above may not work for you. Experimenting with this will help you know your audience, what works and what doesn't.