Facebook Optimization – a crucial plug for your blogs!

Facebook Optimization

Learn how to optimize your blogs for Facebook with 2 plugins

Do you ever notice that sometimes you post one of your blogs or webpages to Facebook and either

• the information about the post is not fully accurate (or trails off)?
• the title of the article isn’t quite right?
• the graphic doesn’t show up?
• the graphic in your blog is a puny thumbnail or cut off?

Here is an example of a test I did… *the title shows, the description, website BUT the picture is only a thumbnail and partially cut off. The image is not currently optimized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That tells you that your website is not optimized for Facebook! What does this mean?

• People don’t understand what the blog or webpage is REALLY about – and they don’t click.
• People don’t properly SEE what the post is about (folks are visual remember) – so they don’t click.
• People think the picture and data looks horrible and unprofessional – then they don’t click.
• People see SO MANY POSTS and yours just blends into the background and doesn’t stand out to grab their attention – so they just don’t click.
• People think your post does NOT look great – and ultimately, they won’t share it.

Either way – NOT GOOD – right?

Solution?

Make sure you bring in TWO plugins on your WordPress site to regain control over what Facebook shows for your post.

1 – SEO YOAST – check my article on using this SEO plugin, why it’s beneficial and why it’s so easy.

2 – Facebook Open Graph, Google +, Twitter Card Tags *but for this article we’ll just concentrate on Facebook Open Graph *note ignore the warnings they give you when you upload the 2 plugins! **do not use other plugins – this one is THE one.

So what is it, and what does it do for you? – Bare in mind here – it can be quite technical – so this is NOT a how to guide – but making you aware that it’s available, what it is and why it’s important. Maybe someday soon I’ll do a how to! Or better yet – ask our team at Smooth Sailing Online Support to optimize your blogs for SEO and Facebook!

So let me explain this as best as I can…. SEO YOAST – will optimize your blog post for google – the title, keyword and meta description that shows up for folks. FACEBOOK OPEN GRAPH – optimizes your blog url (when you post it to Facebook). Here is what it looks at.

1. The article title – it actually works in tandem with SEO Yoast and pulls the article title.
2. Description – it pulls the meta description that you set in SEO Yoast – *one of the reasons that SEO Yoast has word count limits so that the description doesn’t trail of with ‘….’ and is succinct.
3. Graphic – this is where Facebook Open Graph shines.  If your graphic is in their 1200 x 615 range  (in the blog) then it’ll show it almost as a Facebook Ad graphic – really wide with the text underneath. The picture will NOT be a small thumbnail, nor will it be cut off.

In the settings area of Facebook Open Graph – there are quite a few things to check off. I’ll list the one’s you need to put a check mark in. Other one’s you can leave blank.

Include Locale – YES (and then have your wordpress local US be chosen in the dropdown – your country/language)

Include Site Name – YES

Include Post/Page Title -YES

Include URL – YES

Include Type – YES (and pick blog from the dropdown on homepage type)

Include Published and modified dates  – (optional)

Include Article Section – YES

Include Publisher Page – YES

Include Website’s Facebook Page – YES – enter your FB Page url

Include Author Profile – YES

Include Description – YES (ignore the -Meta Description Tag – as this plugin pulls from SEO Yoast automatically)

HomePage Description – can pull tagline from website in the dropdown

On Posts/Pages – I check 1 and 5 – it basically says where your graphic information should be pulled from. You want the Facebook Open Graph url (will get to that) first, then 2^nd and so forth….

3^rd Party Integration – YOU MUST check off use title, url and description from SEO Yoast/WPSEO

*ie the seo plugin you have

Advanced Settings – Try to update Facebook Open Graph Tags cache when saving the post – YES check this off.

 

Once you have THESE settings done – you are done.

 

WHAT DO YOU DO ON THE POST ITSELF?

1.   Just what you normally do for your SEO Yoast

2.  Ensure the graphic on your blog is 1200 x 615 (2 x wider than it is deep)

3.  Scroll down past your SEO Yoast settings on the blog post and you’ll see a line for Facebook Open Graph. You simply enter the url of the graphic you wish them to show.

**when you enter an image by ‘adding media’ on the right hand side you’ll see every media item has it’s own unique url. That’s the one you wish to use.

 

Here is a sample of one that IS optimized… it has the author, title, description, wide graphic, website url etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next – do a post in Facebook and test the url to see if it previews/and shows the way you want.

It’s so competitive on Facebook these days so you want to make sure you are optimizing your posts for social media and your websites as much as possible out of the gate. Get more likes, more shares, more comments, more organic traffic, more SEO – so many benefits!

Now you know, so spread the word about Open Graph and boost our Facebook Optimization!