I was on Facebook, and thought to ask people to visit my website via a post. However when I pasted my website URL into the comment box, some other photo that is related to the Wordpress parent theme I'm using as a base theme showed up. How can I control what image of the site Faceboook see and relates to my website, instead of it just grabbing whatever it wants to grab?
You need to set the correct Open Graph tags.
Use this debugger to get more information: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
The specific open graph tag you are looking to set is og:image
Example:
<meta property="og:image" content="http://www.example.com/image_name.png" />
Another important note is that Facebook caches whatever it reads from the page (name, image, description, etc.), and the only way to reset the cache is to check the page using the debug tool I mentioned.
Related
Facebook will randomly take posts I have shared on a company page and make the preview image blank/white. It is maddening.
Here's what I do to replicate:
Copy URL that I want to share
Go to Facebook's debug and check URL to confirm a preview image shows
Go to Facebook and share the URL in a post
Preview image is blank/white
Example URL: https://hoist.digital/content/blog/know-the-value-of-phone-calls-and-grow-your-business-with-call-tracking
Open graph code in on that URL
<meta property="og:image" content="https://hoist.digital/images/3/1/d/5/1/31d518d87ae71ad5bb2acc907b3ad304b99971e1-graphicstock-beautiful-young-mother-with-her-newbornsoeul9rzz.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:secure" content="https://hoist.digital/images/3/1/d/5/1/31d518d87ae71ad5bb2acc907b3ad304b99971e1-graphicstock-beautiful-young-mother-with-her-newbornsoeul9rzz.jpg" />
Video of me replicating this: https://hoist.digital/facebookattempt.webm
If the open graph code is there, it's secure, what else could be causing Facebook to occasionally flake out and make some of the preview images white/blank? Here's a strange kicker too... sometimes I can edit/refresh the preview image within Facebook, and the preview image will show again... but in a few days it goes back to white/blank.
Unfortunately, it is well-known problem on Facebook that has not been fixed for years and there is no canonical answer to your question.
The main problem is URIs using HTTP works just fine and URIs using HTTPS do not. So first of all, you should try to change your og:image:secure property to og:image:secure_url, because due to documentation there is no og:image:secure property.
If it does not help, you can explore this thread and you gonna try different options unless, of course, you have tried it yet.
Please pay attention to such methods:
Try to add og:image:url (yes, it is similar to og:image but sometimes it can help).
Try to remove og:image:secure_url property (yes, it is looking strange, but it is Facebook, and it also might work).
Try to add other og properties such as og:image:type, og:image:width, og:image:height
I've successfully added a Share button to my website using the following code:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/share-button
It produces a popup with a link to the og:url along with the title of the linked page and a picture from it, which I can then post, and it shows up on my Facebook.
I am having 3 issues with this:
I've update the og:url and data-href after page load, using jquery, but the new values get ignored when I Share.
the og:title, og:description, and og:image don't appear to be used at all.
Sometimes I'd like to Share some custom text (and images if possible) without any url.
I'm aware that Facebook provide other tools/APIs that provide more versatility but it seems that would mean my site would have to go through a review process, and I'd have to code for security. This is not an option and I want to stick to the popup method.
Hope someone can help. Many thanks.
If the tags do not change when posting, refresh (and test) the tags in the debugger: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/
Dynamically created Open Graph tags (with JavaScript) will be ignored, the tags have to be in the original page source.
We use the Facebook Share option on a website with newsarticles. The website is build with PHP and uses Smarty. We generate a unique URL (stripped like /news/headline-of-the-article) and have the meta properties defined.
When the owner shares a links with an image that was previously uploaded, everything is fine. When he uploads a news image, inserts it into the article and shares, Facebook takes another pictures, the pictures that it finds first on the source-code. Altho, in the preview-box just before you publish, it shows the correct image. Once placed, it's the wrong one.
The Facebook Debug Tool shows as og:image tag > og:image domain/UserFiles/images/news/standard_14.jpg
But when I look at the RAW tags og:image shows > domain/UserFiles/images/news/bosuil_1.jpg
So the og:image tag does it job and generates the correct URL, but facebook still posts the wrong image. When I force Facebook (manually) to scrape again, it shows everything good and also shares it correct.
I don't get it...
I had the same problem and found these best practices on facebook's developer wiki: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices#precaching
Use og:image:width and og:image:height Open Graph tags
Using these tags will specify the image dimensions to the crawler so that it can
render the image immediately without having to asynchronously download
and process it.
After specifying the width and height we have not had a problem with facebook crawling the right picture immediately.
I have a share button on my site (I use AddThis tool)
and Open Graph meta tags with article as a type:
meta property="fb:app_id" content="No"
meta property="og:image" content="LogoUrl"
meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpg"
meta property="og:image:width" content="200"
meta property="og:image:height" content="500"
meta property="og:url" content="LogoUrl"
meta property="og:title" content="title"
meta property="og:type" content="article"
My url looks like that: [mySite]/9095210/1811, so for every different url, I insert different thumbnail, title and description.
My images are from an absolute url.
The problem: I see the details in facebook share preview window, only after the second time I click on the share button. On the first time the facebook share window appears, but without any details. If I continue and share the link in the first time (as in the times after) I see all the details in my facebook. So, the problem in only in the facebook share preview window.
Anyone meet this problem already, and maybe can help?
I had the same problem, and the solution was the next:
You need to create an application in the facebook developer area: https://developers.facebook.com/apps
And need to put the application id to the the fb_init just like this:
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/hu_HU/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=YOUR_APP_ID";
After providing the correct appliaction id, my problem has been solved.
A similar issue is explained in the "facebook for developers" in sharing , best practices
Pre-caching images.
When content is shared for the first time, the Facebook crawler will scrape and cache the metadata from the URL shared. The crawler has to see an image at least once before it can be rendered. This means that the first person who shares a piece of content won't see a rendered image.
There are two ways to avoid this and have images render on the first Like or Share action:
Pre-cache the image with the Sharing Debugger
Run the URL through the URL debugger to pre-fetch metadata for the page. You should also do this if you update the image for a piece of content.
Use og:image:width and og:image:height Open Graph tags
Using these tags will specify the image dimensions to the crawler so that it can render the image immediately without having to asynchronously download and process it.
The third way, which is the way we do it, is to put in the link, and facebook responds with "fetching a preview" , close it and re-post. This works very well.
I hope that I understood your problem correctly and that this helps you.
One of the problems I face while sharing a link of my blogger post on facebook or linkedin is that the thumbnail shared is my picture (which is the only picture on the page). I would prefer no thumbnail being shared.I tried using
<meta property="og:image" content=""
I.e the content is kept as blank, yet it shows a thumbnail. How do i set it to no picture?
You can't. Facebook/Linkedin will crawl your site and decide on it's own what images to offer the user. The og:image meta tag is just a suggestion and not a directive.
The only way to share without image is for the user to remove it.
Update: there is another way. You could detect (on the server) FB/LinkedIns crawler and serve them HTML that does not contain any images. That way they wouldn't have anything to display (just text). I don't know if that's possible on blogger. And if you go down this path, check FB/LinkedIn's TOS if this is allowed (doing this with google, for instance, will get you banned).