WordPress · Free website check
Fix the picture shown when your WordPress link is shared
Sharing a link in a text, a post or an email shows a small card with a picture, a title and a description. If yours shows the wrong picture or none, the free check finds out why and shows the WordPress steps.
Why the preview is wrong, most likely first
Start at the top. Each one says where to find the setting in WordPress.
No share image is set
Without one, apps show a plain link or a guess. Set the picture where WordPress keeps it.
- With Yoast SEO: go to Yoast SEO > Settings > Site basics and set a site image, used when a page has none.
- For one page, use the Social tab in that page’s Yoast box.
Yoast: social sharing settings
The free check tells you when a page has no share image.
The image is set but doesn’t load
The page names a picture that was deleted, moved or isn’t a full web address, so apps show nothing. Open the picture’s address in a private browser window: if it doesn’t appear, upload it again and publish.
The free check opens the share image and tells you if it fails.
The page you shared has its own setting
A share image set on one page applies to that page only. Check the page you actually shared, not just the home page. With Yoast SEO, a page’s own Social tab is used instead of the site image you set under Site basics.
Apps are still showing the old preview
Facebook, LinkedIn and messaging apps keep the preview from the first time a link was shared, so changing the picture doesn’t change it everywhere at once. Ask them to fetch it again.
- Facebook: paste the page’s address into the Sharing Debugger and choose “Scrape Again”.
- LinkedIn: paste it into the Post Inspector.
- Messaging apps keep their own copies. A preview usually refreshes after a while, or at once if you share the address with something added to the end, such as ?v=2.
The picture is the wrong size or shape
Apps crop pictures to a wide card, about twice as wide as it is tall. A picture around 1200 × 630 pixels works nearly everywhere. Keep faces and words away from the edges, where cropping cuts.
The preview has no title or description
Previews also show a title and a short description. When a site doesn’t set them for sharing, the card can look empty or show the wrong words. Most builders also use the page’s search title and description for shared links, so set those first.
- Install an SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math (Plugins > Add New).
- Edit the page and fill in the SEO title and meta description in the plugin’s box, then Update.
Yoast: edit your home page title and description
The free check tells you when the sharing title or description is missing.
What the free check looks at
- Whether the page has a share image, and whether that picture opens.
- Whether it has a share title and description.
- Whether the page has an icon for browser tabs and bookmarks.
It only reads public pages. It never signs in, and nothing on your site changes. It can’t see the copy an app has kept, which is why the refresh step above matters. How the check works.
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