Do you use Facebook thumbnails? Are you facing problems using them? Worry no more! We will help you fix the Facebook thumbnail issue in WordPress for your blog posts.
By default, when you share an article on Facebook or other social networks, the first image from your content will be automatically used as a preview. But sometimes, Facebook displays the wrong thumbnail image for your article or even shows the default broken thumbnail. And if you want to get rid of this Facebook thumbnail issue, you might want to stick with our article. In this article, we will show how you can fix the Facebook thumbnail issue in WordPress.
Why doesn’t Facebook pick up correct thumbnail?
- There can be several reasons as to why Facebook picks the wrong thumbnail for your post. Having multiple images set in the tag og:image, where your featured image is smaller than rest of the images, is one of the most common reasons.
- Open Graph (og) tags are used by Facebook. WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO automatically add og tags to images to prevent the missing thumbnail issue.
- Missing open graph meta tag for the thumbnail image, CDN issues, caching plugins, etc. are some of the common causes. It is hard to guess the exact reason for the issue as there are no specific error messages displayed when using the debugging tool.
Here is how you can fix the Facebook thumbnail issue in WordPress.
Tips to Fix the Facebook Thumbnail Issue
#1 Adding a Thumbnail Image Manually
Sometimes, this is the quickest and easiest solution, although it doesn’t work in all cases and it isn’t the most reliable one.
If you share any post on your Facebook page and it misses the thumbnail, then simply click on the Add Image (+) box to upload the image of your choice and select it as the thumbnail of your post.
The problem with this method is that it will still miss the thumbnail, or show the incorrect one when other people share your post on Facebook.
#2 Telling Facebook to Use your Thumbnail Image
If you are using WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin, then you can easily set a specific thumbnail for Facebook.
When writing a post, scroll down to Yoast SEO meta box below the post editor and click on the social tab. There you will see a button to upload a thumbnail image for Facebook.
Now simply add your Facebook Thumbnail image there, and this will fix the Facebook thumbnail issue in no time.
However, if the problem still persists, you’ll have to reset the Facebook cache.
#3 Using Facebook Debug Tool
The Facebook debug tool is the easiest way to troubleshoot issues with Facebook open graph implementation on your WordPress site.
Just copy the URL of your WordPress post and paste in the debugger tool. The most common error that you will see is:
What happens is, Facebook uses their best guess method to choose a thumbnail image. If there’s larger image available, Facebook will use that image instead. Press the debug button again and the error shall disappear.
We hope this article helped you fix the Facebook thumbnail issue in WordPress. If you know any other solution, please share with us in the comments section.