The official advice from Facebook is to use a sharing image of 1200x630 pixels. But you have to be careful, otherwise it can easily go wrong.
Background
A Facebook image (technically called 'og:image') is the image that appears on Facebook when someone shares your link.
It is important to have an eye-catching and functional image to get the most out of your social media exposure.
You can set your 'Facebook image' where you manage your webshop or website. The procedure is different, so check with your provider.
When it goes wrong
If you followthe instructions from Facebook itself(1200x630 pixels), it works quite well in posts. But that's only half the story. Because what happens when someone types your link in a comment?
Suddenly the image is no longer displayed in an oblong format (1.9:1) but instead in a 1:1 format, i.e. a square image.
Here you can see the consequences for the estate agent home, which suddenly becomes "about".
It looks even worse for the online shop Coolshop, which doesn't quite have the primary image (1.9:1) under control. This means that users on Facebook see a large image with the text "RISGARAN".
Suggested solution 1
Our suggestion for the best solution is to use a Facebook image that is 1200x1200 pixels. And it is important that you do not place anything essential in the grey areas!
- Start with an image that is 1200x1200 pixels in size
- Use a simple design with very limited or no text
- Make sure you don't have important elements at the top and bottom
Solution 2
Follow the instructions from Facebook, but don't place anything to the right and left of your logo. Not only that, use a solid background colour. That way, Facebook's algorithm can figure out how to crop out the right (read: empty) area when your link is shared with a square thumbnail.
- Start with an image that is 1200x630 pixels
- Use a simple design with very limited or no text
- Solid coloured background!
- Empty / no content on the right and left of the image
This ensures that your image is always usable, presentable and functional when your link is shared on Facebook - whether it is shared in a post or in a comment.
Lauritz.com, on the other hand, makes another mistake, as they in no way utilise the texts they have available
Note!When you have made changes to your image, you must either wait for Facebook to discover it (can take many days) or you must force Facebook to retrieve your page from the beginning. You can do this viatheir debugger.
If all this is too technical or time-consuming for you, you can always take comfort in the fact that even if you do NOTHING, your share will probably look better than DMI's :-)
