The Facebook link preview is a powerful feature that can help drive traffic to your website. When you share a page from your website on Facebook, the preview will show up as part of the post.
This Facebook link preview is automatically generated by Facebook and it can be increased up to 5 times its original size which gives your page thumbnail, title, description and 3 lines of teaser text. Optimizing this Facebook link preview can help you increase the amount of time people spend on your site as well as increase the number of shares that people publish about your page on Facebook.
The main question that’s asked however, is how do you optimize your Facebook link preview; or your website for that matter, to show up how you want it to on Facebook? Using 3 tools (one which should already be on your website), we will walk you through how to optimize your site for better sharing on Facebook.
Tools Needed
Yoast SEO
The free version of this plugin works fine for what you need.
Canva/Photo Editing
Use whatever editing program you have to create an image for your preview.
Facebok Debugger Tool
If you haven’t done so already, you’ll be optimizing the SEO settings for each page. This cannot be done for your entire site, and should be done individually for each post and page as needed.
You’ll access your page/post by going directly into editing the backend of it if you’re using a page builder like Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, etc – DON’T go into the editor. SEO can be accessed only from the Edit Page option.
Scroll down until you see the Yoast SEO Section.
Creating Your Facebook Link Preview Image
Now, we need an image to set as the Social Image.
In your editing program (Canva, Photoshop, Photopea etc). Create an image that is 1200 x 630 pixels. You can create a banner, or an image preview like we have done here. Make sure the image is clear, not pixelated, and easy to read any important text. Don’t make the image too text-heavy!
Save your image once you’re done.
Go back into the backend of your page/post, and then click on the Social Tab for Yoast.
Upload the photo you just created for this page/post, update the Facebook Title (what title will show up on the preview), and then the Facebook Description.
We most often use the same description from the SEO tab used for Google Search.
Once that’s all done, publish/save your page.
Now that you have your facebook preview link page set up, head to the Facebook Debugger Tool, this is a FREE tool provided by Facebook, and let’s you control the auto-generated previews of your site content.
If you update your image, or want to make changes to your Facebook preview link, for good measure always go back and fetch new information from this page using the Debugger tool.
This tool then generates a facebook preview as to what your link will look like when you share it. You can then see if you need to make any adjustments, if you want to change the Title, or the Description information.
You want to ensure whatever this preview is showing is a good preview to capture someone’s attention for them to click on your link.
If you need assistance setting up your pages for an optimized Facebook preview link, get in touch with our team and we’re happy to assist you.
