Would you like to edit your Facebook link preview? You still can!
Blogpost updated 30/11/2017
A few weeks ago we were stunned by the following news: it is no longer possible to edit a link preview on Facebook. This means that, when you post a link, you can’t adjust the descriptive metadata (= image + title and description under the image). This way, Facebook wants to avoid that wrong information and fake news are being spread. That’s great, but it doesn’t make our job any easier, because the original text and image usually don’t give the best result.
Facebook is currently working on a solution, so a link preview can be shared with customized content, but for now we know little about this. Fortunately, in the meantime, there are some alternative ways to work around the problem. We will list a few of them for you.
1. Open Graph meta tags
Facebook only trusts the so-called Open Graph meta tags on your website. If you have a WordPress website, you can install the Yoast SEO plugin to help you out. This tool allows you to customize your meta tags (= title, description and image). This way, your article can be shared in the best way, with the title and description that you have chosen. Normally, you can also put Open Graph meta tags in the right place in your website through Google Tag Manager. Unfortunately, this has already been tested by Tech Blogger Dailybits and does not work for Facebook.
2. Domain verification
It took a while, but eventually Facebook itself came with a solution: domain verification. There are some conditions though, you have to be the owner of the site, and you have to use business manager (if this isn’t the case for you, proceed to option 3). You may have noticed that in the business manager settings there’s now a tab called domains.
By clicking this you can add a domain. The next thing you have to do is verify the domain by adding a DNS text record or by uploading a HTML file. Facebook helps you by giving clear instructions, but if this still sounds like gibberish to you we advise you to get help from your website developer.
Now you can assign the Facebook pages where you’re an administrator from to a domain. That way you can adjust the link preview from these pages.
As soon as your domain got verified and you assigned a Facebook page to it you can adjust your link previews on Facebook as much as you want. Do you work with an extern content publishing tool (such as HeyOrca or Kontentino) then you may still have to do a workaround through them.
3. Link preview editor
A second solution is to work with the Link Preview Editor. Thanks to this tool, you can still edit the image, title and description of a link post. However, there are a few conditions that have to be met. You have to be the owner of the domain for example, and you can not adjust a link of another party. When you don’t follow the rules, this can result in a ban on your Facebook page.
4. Dark post
If your blog or website has a Facebook page with an advertising account, you can work with the Facebook Business Manager. You create a dark post (= unpublished page message) for your link post. When you do this, you are free to choose your image, title and description yourself. Afterwards, return to the business manager and select “Ad Manager” in the menu. Then click on ad messages and choose the custom post. Finally, click on the Actions menu to publish your post. That’s it!
Hopefully these tips can help you a little bit. Good luck! 🙂