Do you know what your website looks like when it’s shared on social media as a link? If not, take a moment and copy and paste the link to your homepage into the most popular social media platforms.
Does a nice image appear and a good description of the page? If not, you need to review your website’s settings. You should never discourage users from sharing your website on social media or make it look unattractive or uninviting to visit your website.
You do have control over what your website looks like when shared on social media. Here’s a look at how to modify these elements and ensure they look great from every angle.
The Social Media Website Image Users See
During your test, you might have seen a default illustration or icon instead of a photo from your website. Or, the social media platform might have used your logo in the image field because that’s the only image on the page.
Social media platforms will look for an image to place there. If none exists, the link will look dull and there won’t be anything to entice the reader to click.
Here’s a look at the dimensions of three of the most popular social media sites that provide link previews.
- Facebook link preview dimensions are 1200 by 630 pixels
- Twitter link preview dimensions are 1200 by 675 pixels
- LinkedIn link preview dimensions are 1200 by 627 pixels
You’ll see that the dimensions are very similar. The best thing to do is to start with an image that’s 1200 by 627 pixels. Create a great design. Then, add some free space to the top and bottom to make it 675 pixels tall, which is the tallest of the three.
This way, when the other platforms crop the image, you won’t lose any important details in the process.
Use that image as the featured image for the page or post within WordPress. This will tell social media platforms that this is the image you’d like to use on social media.
Additionally, you can use the Yoast plugin to see a preview of your link on social media. And in this box, you can also change the social media image to something else.
The Social Media Website Text Users See
The text that social media platforms pull in is your page title. This should be optimized for SEO but also still sound natural to read. Based on your site’s settings, it should also pull over your site’s name after the page title.
The smaller text below that is your meta description, which should tell the reader even more details about the article.
If for some reason you have a page title that isn’t especially compelling when shared on social media but is optimized for other purposes, you can use the Yoast plugin to customize that text as well.
Expert Social Media Website Design
For website optimization from search engines to social media, contact Kelly Website Design. Our team has vast experience helping businesses build an effective online presence.
