Blog Post Featured Image on Facebook: Blog post image Facebook sharing process. Troubleshooting steps for image share. Post image size for FB post.
This post includes a detailed guide for blog post Facebook sharing process. How your post image scraped Facebook. How you can update the wrong post image on Facebook. WordPress plugins detail which helps to set a featured image for post social share. Troubleshooting points for post image issue in Facebook.
All following details will be helpful for you. If you want to create a perfect Facebook post for your new published post. Or, want to fix/change/debug your blog post featured image on Facebook.
How Does Facebook Choose and Show Post Image in Post Preview?
Following are different cases and details to know how Facebook selects your post image.
Blog post has a single image: In this case where your blog post has a single image. This can be featured image or normal content image. Facebook in this case uses that single image in post preview.
Blog post has many images: In this case where a post has more than one image. Here, Facebook shows an image based on “og image” tag order and image size. Most of the time, the first image of an article is shown in a FB post preview image.
What if a post does not have “og image” tags for images and a post have more than one image? Here, the first image has most chances to show in preview. But, this case is special and we can’t make 100% accurate predictions.
What is the Ideal Blog Post Image Size for Facebook Post?
Facebook big post previews have 500 x 261 px image size and small post preview have 139 x 139 px image size. So, blog post image sizes more than these sizes with the same aspect ratio are ideal sizes.
You can create a post image based on above required sizes and based on your blog design.
Tip: When you share a post which has large image size compared to required size, then Facebook crops it. Facebook crops image from bottom part. So, the tip is that, try to maintain the main content on the top part of the image, if image size is large.
How to Set Specific Post Image for Facebook Sharing Post In WordPress?
“Yoast SEO” and “All in One SEO” are best WordPress plugins for blog SEO and for social sharing tags.
Let’s check out how these plugins help to force Facebook to use a specific image in social share.
Yoast SEO plugin: You can manage common Facebook sharing settings from “Social” option. You can enable Open Graph meta data. Set home page sharing data. Add default image for social share, if page/post does not have image.
With Yoast SEO, you will get a social tab option in the create post page. You can set a specific image, title and description for your post to use in Facebook share.
All in One SEO plugin: This plugin also has features for managing social sharing processes. From “Feature Manager”, you can activate “Social Meta”. By this feature, you can manage a post’s Facebook sharing image, title and description. All this data can be set from the create post page under plugins “Social settings” tab.
How to Clear and Refresh Post Image Preview Cache on Facebook?
This is a common issue, that Facebook takes the wrong image in preview when sharing a post URL. Here, wrong image means, image which you do not want to share as your post’s main image.
When you are share any URL on Facebook, URL scrape by Facebook. After this, preview prepared with image, title and description. This preview data is stored in cache version to avoid every time scrape process.
Now, if Facebook takes the wrong post image in post preview and you want to change it, then extra stuff is required.
To clear and refresh post image preview cache following are simple steps.
- Open Facebook’s Sharing Debugger page.
- Enter your post URL and click the “Debug” button.
- Page shows scrapped data and preview for URL.
- Now, click the “Scrape Again” button to clear and refresh cache.
That’s it.
Here, if cache does not refresh on the first try, then you can refresh the page and repeat the process again.
Note: This Sharing Debugger page use required Facebook login.
Different Possible Facebook Post Previews Based on Image Size
Facebook has two possible blog post previews based on post image size. That is small and big post image previews.
If your blog post has a small image, then Facebook will show a small preview. In this preview, a small image (139 x 139px) shown on the left side and post data shown on right side.
And,
If your post has a big image, then a shared blog post will show a big image (500 x 261px) at top and post data at bottom.
How to Troubleshoot Blog Post Image Not Showing on Facebook Issue?
There are many possible reasons, in which the image is not showing when you share a post on Facebook. For example, slow internet, any server issue, cache issue and more.
To fix this issue, following are some troubleshooting points that you can try for this issue.
- Cancel create new post process on Facebook and try again.
- Refresh page and share post link again.
- Enter post URL and wait for 1-2 minutes, sometimes the image takes time to load in preview.
- Try URL share debugging on Facebook Sharing debugger tool.
Tip: If the issue continues for your post, then check all data carefully on the Sharing debugger page. Sometimes minor errors in post data create such issues and fixed by careful analysis.