One of the most frustrating things is when you create a great image for Facebook and then you can't make Facebook show the right blog image. I hate this. Bloggers hate this. Writers hate this. People email me about this and write questions in Facebook groups about how to make Facebook show the right blog image.

So I'm going to show you!

This is just one of two tips in this week's Create If Writing podcast episode, so you can listen here and watch the video blow to see a demonstration.

  How to Make Facebook Show the Right Blog Image

Step 1- Create the right sized image

If you are just sharing a photo on Facebook, square is best. But if you are creating an image for Facebook to pull into the feed to go along with your link, I always use 560 x 292 pixels. This pulls the correct image, beautifully sized and non-pixellated.

I use Picmonkey for this and you can watch my quick video on how to resize images for social media for more on this.

Step 2- Insert the image into the Yoast SEO plugin

I love this plugin. It is life. It helps guide you into making smart SEO choices, allows you to choose the heading when your post shows up in Google search, and lets you choose the image for Facebook. And more.

First, install the plugin and get familiar. You'll find that it creates a little box at the bottom of every post. You can click on the social share tab and then upload the image you just created for Facebook. (You should also create a great Facebook headline and description while you're there.) Publish the post as you normally would.

Step 3- Debug that mug

Facebook generally will NOT pull the correct image at first. Sometimes ever. Which is the super frustrating point most bloggers find themselves in. But Facebook made a tool for that! It's called the Open Graph Object Debugger. You plug in your url and then hit Show Existing Scrape Information. Then scroll to see what image and description it's pulling.

Then, when the image is NOT the one you wanted, you will put in the url again and click Fetch New Scrape Information. I do this as many times as it takes to get that image showing up in the preview. I also generally ignore any errors that it points out. I'm just interested in the image and usually the errors are a bunch of nonsense anyway.

 

And that, my friends, is how you make Facebook show the correct blog image. Ta DA! Share with all your friends. Bookmark the debugger. And use it. Often.