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Facebook Sharing Debugger: How to Make Facebook Show the Right Title, Text, and Image

If you’ve ever shared a blog post to Facebook and the preview shows the wrong headline, description, or photo, you’re not alone. The issue almost always boils down to caching—either on Facebook’s side or your website’s. Here’s a clear, step-by-step guide to fix it and prevent it from happening again.

Step 1: Use Facebook’s Sharing Debugger to Refresh Facebook’s Cache

  • Go to the Facebook Sharing Debugger: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
  • Paste the exact URL of your blog post.
  • Click “Debug.” You’ll see a preview of how Facebook currently sees your page.
  • If the preview shows outdated text or images, click “Scrape Again.” This forces Facebook to clear its memory (cache) for that URL and fetch the latest version.
  • Wait a few seconds and check the preview again. Usually, this updates the headline, description, and image to match your current page. Next time you share the link on Facebook, it should display correctly.

Why this works:

  • Facebook caches link previews to save processing time. If you shared the same URL earlier, Facebook may still be using old data—even if you’ve updated your blog post. “Scrape Again” tells Facebook to refresh.

Step 2: If It Still Looks Wrong, Check Your Website’s SEO/Open Graph Settings

If “Scrape Again” doesn’t fix it, the problem might be on your website.

  • For WordPress and similar CMS:
    • You’re likely using an SEO plugin (e.g., Yoast, Rank Math, All in One SEO) or a theme feature that manages how your content appears on search engines and social media.
    • Find the SEO panel on your post/page editor. There are usually separate sections:
      • Search engines (title/description for Google)
      • Social (Facebook/Twitter) — this is the important one for Facebook previews
    • Update the Facebook-specific fields:
      • Facebook Title (often called “og:title”)
      • Facebook Description (“og:description”)
      • Facebook Image (“og:image”) — this is usually separate from your Featured Image
    • Important: Re-select or re-connect the image in the Facebook/Social tab. The featured image doesn’t always auto-sync to the Open Graph image, especially after edits.

Best practices for the Facebook image:

  • Use a high-resolution image, ideally 1200 x 630 px (1.91:1 ratio).
  • Use a standard format (JPG or PNG), with a reasonable file size.
  • Avoid images with text that may be cropped.

Step 3: Clear Your Website’s Cache

Even if you updated your SEO fields, your site might still be serving old content due to caching.

  • If you use a caching plugin (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache), purge/clear the cache for the whole site or at least the specific post URL.
  • If your hosting provides server-side caching or CDN (e.g., Cloudflare), clear/purge the cache there as well.
  • If you have multiple layers (plugin + server + CDN), clear them in that order.

This ensures the latest HTML—including the correct Open Graph tags—is actually visible to Facebook when it re-scrapes your URL.

Step 4: Re-run the Facebook Sharing Debugger

If it’s still not right:

  • Double-check the page’s HTML for Open Graph tags:
    • og:title
    • og:description
    • og:image
    • og:url (should match the canonical URL you’re sharing)
  • Ensure the URL is publicly accessible (no password, no blocking).
  • Make sure there’s no redirect to a different URL than what you pasted.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Editing the post but not updating the social/OG fields in your SEO plugin.
  • Relying on the Featured Image only; not setting the OG image explicitly.
  • Forgetting to clear caching layers after updates.
  • Sharing a URL variant (with tracking parameters or different capitalization) that Facebook treats as a separate page with its own cache.
  • Using an image that’s too small or blocked by hotlink protection.

Quick Checklist

  • Update content and featured image on your blog post.
  • Update SEO plugin’s Social/Facebook fields (title, description, image).
  • Clear all caches: plugin, server, CDN.
  • Use Facebook Sharing Debugger:
    • Paste URL
    • Click “Debug”
    • Click “Scrape Again”
    • Verify the preview

Follow these steps, and you should see the correct text and photo on Facebook every time you share your blog post.

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Kris
Kris
Digital Solutions Consultant & Web Designer, Energy Healer & Holistic Life Coach