Troubleshoot And Fix Link Previews

Link previews are a key component of social media posts, providing a visual summary of the content you’re sharing. They often include an image, title, and description pulled from the linked web page. In SmarterQueue, you have some control over how these previews appear, although the exact functionality can vary depending on the platform you’re posting to. Here’s how to manage and troubleshoot link previews in SmarterQueue.

📌 In This Article

  1. Automatic Generation of Link Previews:
    • When you add a link to your post in SmarterQueue, the platform automatically attempts to generate a link preview. 
    • This preview typically includes an image, title, and description from the linked page. The preview appears in the right-hand “Preview” pane in the Post Editor, allowing you to see how it will look once published.
  2. How the Preview Is Used Across Platforms:
    • LinkedIn: SmarterQueue sends the preview directly with the post, so what you see in the “Preview” pane will be what’s published.
    • Facebook and X (Twitter): These platforms scrape the link themselves to generate the preview, which means the final published preview might differ slightly from what you see in SmarterQueue’s Preview Pane.
  3. Adding Multiple Links:
    • Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest: These platforms generally use the first link to generate the preview.
    • X (Twitter): Due to how its API works, X (Twitter) may select a different link from your post (often the second link) to generate the preview.
  1. Default Behavior:
    • Currently, SmarterQueue does not support selecting a specific image from the link preview. The preview image is pulled automatically from the linked page.
  2. Adding a Custom Image:
    • If you’re not satisfied with the automatically generated image, or if the platform doesn’t support link previews (like Instagram), you can manually add a custom image. Note that adding a custom image will replace the actionable link preview that would otherwise be generated.
  3. Ensuring the Best Visual Outcome:
    • For platforms that don’t generate link previews, SmarterQueue attempts to pull an image from the link to include in the post. However, it’s recommended that you upload your preferred image to ensure your post looks the way you want.

Troubleshooting And Platform-Specific Considerations

  1. Missing or Incorrect Previews:
    • If the link preview isn’t generating correctly, or if the wrong image, title, or description is displayed, it could be due to the information on the linked page. Ensure that the web page has proper metadata (e.g., Open Graph tags) that social platforms can use to generate previews.
  2. Preview Not Appearing in the Preview Pane:
    • If the preview doesn’t show up in SmarterQueue’s “Preview” pane, it may still be generated when the post is published. However, checking the linked page’s metadata is a good first step in troubleshooting.
    • Instagram does not generate link previews and requires an image to publish content. SmarterQueue will attempt to pull an image from the link, but it’s recommended to upload a custom image to ensure the best visual outcome.
  3. Platform-Specific Behaviors:
    • LinkedIn: The preview generated in SmarterQueue will match what’s published on LinkedIn.
    • Facebook and X (Twitter): as these platforms scrape the link to generate a preview themselves, you can double-check what the final result will look like by entering your link in the Facebook Sharing Debugger and the Twitter Card Validator.