Have you ever seen an incorrect post thumbnail displaying on your screen whenever you share your articles on Facebook? Most WordPress users who work with Facebook face this common issue.
This issue involves your image not matching what your blog post says. In short,Facebook fails to recognize a suitable image to use in representing the blog or article you shared. Though this may sound like a “soft” problem,some people get frustrated if your images do not go alongside what is in your article or blog post.
In fact,it is among the things you should ensure that Facebook shows precisely. However,in most cases they make guesses of images to use on shared posts. Therefore,you must provide them with an ideal image to avoid guesswork.
In this tutorial,we’ll show you how to resolve wrong thumbnail issues in WordPress for Facebook.
As always,if you find yourself wanting a pro to handle this task for you,contact us at Helpbot here:
Why Does Facebook Show Incorrect Thumbnail Image?
There exist multiple reasons,which hinder Facebook from making the correct guess of an ideal thumbnail image. Among the most usual reasons is availability of many images set in the Open Graph (og): image tag. Here,your featured image appears smaller than other images.
Facebook utilizes the Open Graph (og) tags. On the other hand,WordPress plugins such as WordPress SEO by Yoast adds them automatically to your website to avoid missing thumbnail problem.
Other additional causes for this problem are missing og Meta tag for thumbnail image,CDN conflicts,caching plugins,and others.
Since there is no specific error message displayed when you use a debugging tool,it is difficult to guess the cause of the issue. Nevertheless,below are some easier things you can undertake to ensure Facebook selects the correct thumbnail for your posts.
How do You Fix Facebook Incorrect Thumbnail Issue in WordPress?
Here are a few but effective methods you can use to resolve this problem:
1. Manual Upload of Your Thumbnail Image
This method is not always dependable and does not work in all instances. However,it is sometimes the easiest and quickest solution.
What next after sharing a post on your Facebook page and it fails to pick up an ideal thumbnail? just click on the Add Image (+) box for easier uploading of your chosen image. After that,select that image to be the thumbnail of your post.
It is worth noting that your uploaded image gets stored in the photos area of your Facebook page. You can delete it from the photos if it is your wish. Even so,Facebook continues to display the uploaded image like the thumbnail for that article in your timeline.
The downside of this solution is that it does not affect all other users.Therefore,if any user shares your article,Facebook shows an incorrect thumbnail on their timeline.
The next step caters for this issue.
2. Instruct Facebook to Utilize a Thumbnail of Your Choice
To instruct Facebook to use your preferred thumbnail,you must use the WordPress SEO Yoast plugin. This plugin allows you to set a defined thumbnail image for Facebook.
To write a post,go down to Yoast SEO Meta box that is below the post editor screen. After that,click on the social tab (appears like three connected dots). As a result,you will have a view of an upload image button.
Click it to upload your chosen thumbnail image for Facebook.
Yoast Dashboard>>SEO>>Social>> Facebook tab>> Enable Add Open Graph Meta data.
The Facebook tab has three options:
- Facebook image: It enables you to override the image on Facebook through upload of an image or pasting its URL. Even so,ensure your chosen images are approximately 1200x 630 pixels.
- Facebook description: Instead of using the original description from Facebook,you can use your own meta description.
- Facebook title: Rather than using the original title that you had before this error,you can opt to use another title alongside the new upload.
In most cases,this fixes the problem. However,at times Facebook continues to display an incorrect image. In such a case,Facebook has cached an older copy of your blog post. You need to reset your Facebook cache to fix this problem.
Btw,if this process is getting to difficlut for you,and you’d prefer to have someone else do it,contact us here.
3. Use of a Facebook Debug Tool
The use of a Facebook debug tool is the easiest and fastest method to troubleshooting the implementation of Facebook open graph on WordPress website.
Before you proceed,ensure you log in to your Facebook account.
Next,copy the URL of your WP post and then paste it in the debug tool. Here,Facebook applies their best guess method to select a thumbnail image. However,if an article contains larger images,then Facebook will utilize those images instead of the smaller ones. Although there is no explanation for this,pressing the debug button again on the URL fixes this error.
In short,the Facebook debugging tool informs you what is wrong and how to resolve the problem. For example,it lets you know that your image is smaller,and in order to fix that,you need to use a bigger image.
Conclusion
We hope this article helped you repair the Facebook incorrect or no thumbnail problem on your WordPress site. Whenever you plan to post an article or blog post on Facebook,follow the above instructions to avoid this error.
Apart from helping you in ensuring your Facebook thumbnail is correct,one of the above solutions allows you to modify the Meta descriptions and titles.
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