In the first step to giving Pages the many enhancements already recently made to user profiles, photos posted by Pages will now appear larger on their walls. They can appear up to four times larger than before. Facebook began showing user photos at this larger size late last month, which made Page photos look small in comparison. This may have reduced news feed engagement with Page photos, to the dismay of brands.

Facebook said the enlarged photos “make Facebook Pages more consistent with recent changes made to the site”. This could signal that Timeline, the flashy redesign that is currently only available for user profiles, may eventually be brought to Pages as well in the name of consistency. Page admins have been eager for news about Timeline for Pages because the redesign would give them more flexibility with branding and content curation — which would in turn drive more engagement.

Now if Pages publish a single photo, it will be shown at the increased size. If they post an album, Facebook will determine the most popular photo in the album according to Likes, comments, and clicks, and show that photo at the increased size. Up to two additional photos from the album may appear beside in the news feed story about the album upload. It appears that the change has been applied retroactively to increase the size of photos published by Pages in the past.

The larger size will make Page photos more noticeable, and therefore may draw more clicks, Likes, and comments. By giving Page photos the same amount of feed real estate as user photos, they’ll be able to better compete with social content for attention Photo posts are a core way that Pages attract visits and secure reshares that help them gain fans, and this change should make them even more effective.

Facebook launched a major redesign of the user profile in December of last year, adding a photostrip above the wall and swapping in a left sidebar navigation menu for tabs. Three months later these changes were brought to Pages in an effort to provide a consistent browsing experience where core functional design elements are in the same place across different types of Facebook products.

In this most recent instance of a major design overhaul, the change to Pages comes just a couple weeks after the introduction of the larger feed photos published by users. This bodes well for Page admins hoping the profile Timeline will be added to Pages soon. Once Timeline is fully rolled out and users are given time to adjust, Facebook may extend it to Pages in adherence to its consistent design philosophy.