Published by the Zolyp team ·
Where does a Facebook link preview come from?
When someone shares a link, Meta's crawler reads tags in your page's HTML. Meta calls these the basic tags every page should have:
- og:url: the canonical address, without session variables, user-identifying parameters or counters.
- og:title: the title of the page, without your site's branding.
- og:description: usually two to four sentences.
- og:image: the address of the preview image.
- All addresses must be absolute (starting with https://), and the tags must appear within the first 1 MB of the page or they're cut off.
Sources: Meta for Developers: A Guide to Sharing for Webmasters, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: Link Sharing FAQ, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: The Facebook Crawler, checked 15 October 2026
How do you refresh a preview with the Sharing Debugger?
Meta mentions a standard 24-hour update period for scraped content. The Sharing Debugger refreshes it straight away:
- Fix the Open Graph tags on your page and publish the change.
- Go to the Sharing Debugger at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug.
- Enter the page's URL.
- Review the tags the crawler picked up and any errors or warnings.
- Click Scrape Again to fetch the page fresh.
- Share the link again and check the new preview.
Sources: Meta for Developers: A Guide to Sharing for Webmasters, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: Sharing best practices, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: Troubleshoot why you can't verify your domain, checked 15 October 2026
What image size works for link previews?
Meta's guidance for images in link shares:
- Add og:image:width and og:image:height so the crawler can show the image without downloading it first.
- Meta's separate best practices page, written with link ads in mind, suggests images at least 1080 pixels wide.
| Rule | Meta's figure |
|---|---|
| Recommended size | At least 1200 x 630 pixels |
| Larger link preview | At least 600 x 315 pixels |
| Absolute minimum | 200 x 200 pixels (smaller images show as a small square) |
| Aspect ratio | As close to 1.91:1 as possible |
| File size | No more than 8 MB |
Sources: Meta for Developers: Images in Link Shares, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: Link Sharing FAQ, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: Sharing best practices, checked 15 October 2026
Why do old posts still show the old preview?
Meta's Link Sharing FAQ explains:
- Changing og:title, og:image and other tags only applies to future shares of the link.
- To refresh an existing post, open it, click the three dots in the top right and select Refresh share attachment.
- Titles lock once a post has had more than 50 interactions. Other properties can still change.
- Images are cached by their URL, so give a new image a new file name. Keep the old image online, or older shares may show a white box.
Sources: Meta for Developers: Link Sharing FAQ, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: Images in Link Shares, checked 15 October 2026
Why is the preview blank or missing its image?
Common causes from Meta's developer pages:
- First share: the crawler must see an image once before showing it. Scrape the URL in the Sharing Debugger first, or set og:image:width and og:image:height.
- White box: the image was removed, is too large, or couldn't be fetched because of a temporary problem.
- Slow or blocked server: the image should load within a few seconds, your server must support gzip and deflate, and it shouldn't block the facebookexternalhit crawler.
- Tags added by JavaScript: Meta's crawler doesn't run JavaScript, so tags must be in the page's static HTML.
Sources: Meta for Developers: Link Sharing FAQ, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: Images in Link Shares, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: The Facebook Crawler, checked 15 October 2026; Meta for Developers: A Guide to Sharing for Webmasters, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: Troubleshoot why you can't verify your domain, checked 15 October 2026
Where Zolyp fits
Zolyp is our product, so weigh this section with that in mind. Zolyp writes and schedules your Facebook posts but doesn't control how Facebook reads your website. Fix the tags on your site first, so any post that shares the link shows the right preview.
Zolyp plans the week across your content themes, writes the captions and designs the visuals against your Brand Brain (your tone, colours and rules, saved once), then schedules and publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. You review and approve the week, and Autopilot lets you hand off publishing theme by theme once you trust the output. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, with a 3-day free trial and no card required.
Common questions
How do I change the image on my Facebook link preview?
Point og:image at a new image URL (Meta caches images by URL), then scrape the page again in the Sharing Debugger. For posts already published, use Refresh share attachment.
What size should a Facebook link preview image be?
Meta recommends at least 1200 x 630 pixels, as close to 1.91:1 as possible, and no more than 8 MB.
Why can't I change the title of a shared link?
Meta's FAQ says titles lock once a post has had more than 50 interactions. New shares can still pick up a new title.
Can I edit a link preview inside a Facebook post?
Meta says domain verification lets you manage editing permissions for organic and paid links pointing to your website, so verify your domain if you need that control.
How long does Facebook cache a link preview?
Meta refers to a standard 24-hour update period for scraped content. Use the Sharing Debugger to refresh it sooner.