How do you make sure that your posts receive more and more audience and views from the world of Internet? You share them on various other accounts that you hold. Say you recently wrote a blog on one of your accounts that concerns your experience at a local dairy shop. The cheese from this dairy shop was nothing that you expected.
Say, you bought the cheese and went home to use it in your salad. However, as you opened it, it was split. Since you like sharing your experiences with the world, you might begin to take some photographs of the split cheese to add to your post as proof. Now that you are done with the post, you wish to make sure it gets more and more views. What do you do? You simply share the link on various other social media sites. You also share this as your Facebook status so your friends and followers can also do the job. However, when you have to share it from your WordPress account, you notice that there is something wrong with the thumbnail. While Facebook is usually intelligent with picking the right thumbnail image for your posts, it can at times also cause you trouble. If that is the case then you have come to the right place. Here in this article we will be teaching you how to make sure your Facebook share image thumbnail on WordPress is just what you want it to be!
Before we begin, we should provide users with brief descriptions of what WordPress and Facebook are:
WordPress is a website that allows individuals to upload their content, mainly blogs, for free using their WordPress account. WordPress has been around since 2003 and today it is considered one of the popular content writing websites. WordPress users have the ability and the chance to create their own website. For added features of course, WordPress users have to purchase plugins and other features that will help them host their website properly. In this case, users who wish to sell products using their WordPress account and their website, they must make sufficient and affordable payments. However, once you begin your own WordPress website or a blog (Free or Premium), you begin to open a door to opportunities in no time! WordPress lets you share the link to your WordPress posts on other websites such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and so on for marketing purposes and other additional purposes.
On the other hand, Facebook is a social networking site and application that was launched by Mark Zuckerberg back in 2004. This application was first only exclusive for Harvard university students. With increasing popularity the access was opened for other prestigious university students as well. Though Zuckerberg aimed on making this website that allowed users to connect with their friends and family from around the world available for each and every individual around the world. With additional trouble regarding the ownership of Facebook, Zuckerberg managed to win against all odds and launched Facebook for everyone with any payment. This application now allows its users to use the instant messaging built-in feature to chat with their friends. These friends are of course added and approved before activities concerning them begin. On Facebook you can share content from other websites, applications and so on. This content will be shared on your Facebook wall and will be open for viewership by your friends. In case you set the posts’ reach to Public, it will be viewed by even those who are not added to your Facebook account.
Now that we have cleared that applications and social media websites allow you to share your content across them in order to increase readers, viewers, buyers and so on, there are of course some minor level issues concerned with sharing posts. One of the recurring issue happens on Facebook. When you have a blog post on your WordPress account, blog or website that you wish to share on Facebook, you might have experienced an image thumbnail issue. If you are wondering what an image thumbnail is, we will clear it out for you. When you share a link, with it there is a featured image that is being shared so your viewers can be attracted. This image is a symbol of what your article or link is about. However, if your image thumbnail is blank or does not match with your link’s title, viewers might begin to think what you have shared on Facebook is spam or inaccurate link. If it is mistaken for spyware or virus your account might just end up being blocked and you will also lose readers and viewers on your WordPress blog.
If you are wondering why you should be sharing anything on Facebook from your WordPress, you should understand how social media works. If you make a post on one platform, it might not reach a potential number or readers, comments, likes or responses if it only stays at that one platform. In order to make sure what you are talking about, what you are trying to sell or what you are trying to share with other social media users is well received, you have to shared it from one application to another. For example, if you have a WordPress blog that reviews latest makeup products and also has tutorials about everyday or occasion looks, you would of course want more and more people to read it. This way you will advertise your blog and who knows, maybe one day you will become a well known beauty blogger. But if the links that you share on your Facebook account do not have the thumbnail or for example, the company of make-up products you reviewed in this blog, your readers might not care enough to receive it. If a reader is looking for L’Oreal product review, they will not know your blog link explores that if your thumbnail on Facebook share image thumbnail on WordPress is missing.
Do not be disheartened. This issue is nevertheless an issue that can easily be fixed. Things might get a little technical from here on but do not panic. If you have become used to WordPress, these fixes for Facebook share image thumbnail on WordPress should not intimidate you at all!
How can I fix Facebook Share Image Thumbnail on WordPress before I lose my mind?
For first time users, it might get hard to understand why the thumbnail on your Facebook of the link you shared is not appearing or incorrect. This can occur when someone has already shared your WordPress link on Facebook. Facebook will try to match the description and thumbnail to your blog however Facebook will not guarantee that it will do the job right. The fault also lies on where and how you have shared images in your WordPress blog link. Here are some of the ways you can fix the Facebook Share Image Thumbnail on WordPress then.
Fix Facebook share image thumbnail on WordPress by uploading the thumbnail manually!
In order to use this fix while you share a blog post or article on your Facebook account, you can click on the link that has to be uploaded and then you can add the image that you want to be used as the thumbnail. After that is done, just click on the “Publish” button on Facebook and you will be good to go. You must know that this image that you will set as the thumbnail should be uploaded in your Facebook photos section. However, if other users directly share your link from WordPress on their Facebook, they will still be uploading a link with wrong or no thumbnail at all.
Fix Facebook share image thumbnail on WordPress with our technique number two!
If on WordPress you are using a SEO provided by the Yoast plugin, you can set a thumbnail specifically for Facebook on your WordPress. This way whoever shares your link on Facebook including you will dodge the issue of incorrect or no thumbnail at all. In order to do this then, once you finish writing your post on WordPress, just scroll down toward the Yoast SEO section. When you click on the social tab you will find a button that will specifically be for uploading a thumbnail image for Facebook. Add your Facebook thumbnail here and your issue will be fixed.
You can fix Facebook share image thumbnail on WordPress using the Facebook Debug Tool!
If you have done everything right on WordPress and the issue still occurs, there’s a chance that the fault lies with Facebook itself. To fix this image thumbnail issue then, you can download the Facebook Debug tool by clicking on https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
This will help you run a troubleshoot and fix issues with Facebook open graph. In order to do this, you will copy the link of WordPress post that you want to share on Facebook. Once done, you will paste it in this debugger tool. You might see the following error:
- Provided og:image is not big enough. Please use an image that’s at least 200×200 px. Image ‘http://example.com/uploads/2014/06/some-image-from-article.jpg’; will be used instead.
If you have large images in your WordPress article, Facebook will end up using them instead of your main thumbnail of the article. Make sure your images are all similar in size to fix this issue.
Hopefully the above mentioned easy fixes helped you solve your image thumbnail issue easily. Good luck, we hope your WordPress blogs and articles read the maximum audience on Facebook and other social media stages!
Michelle