For today’s WordPress Wednesday tip I am talking about how to set a WordPress featured image, and also how to fix the common issue of Facebook not finding an image when you share your post.
How to set a WordPress featured Image
I made a video for you over on YouTube. (You are welcome to subscribe to my channel and follow along with my WordPress Wednesday playlist over there so you don’t miss any new videos.)
If you would rather read the instructions, those are just below the video. 😉
When using a very image-driven WordPress theme it is really important to set your featured image. This is a commonly overlooked step and does make a huge difference.
When writing a post or page, you will see the option to set a featured image. This is the image that will be pulled to various locations within your theme based on how your theme is coded and how you are using widgets.
In the post or page editor screen on the right side you will see an option like this:
You simply click the link and this will open your media library where you can select an image or upload a new one.
If you decided you want to change your featured image the link will read “remove featured image” and you would click that to be returned to the original link of “set featured image”
The facebook issue
I have heard quite often that when a post is being shared to Facebook it is not displaying an image. This can happen when you forget to set a featured image and publish your post, then go back later to add a featured image. Facebook issued a debug link so you can force Facebook to refresh and see your new featured image.
Here is the Facebook Debug link.
Another great resource
As always, I am going to reference the WordPress Codex.
Here is the WordPress Codex explanation of the featured image feature.