The Yoast SEO Plugin is the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress. It has Open Graph protocols built-in, so it’s an all-in-one-solution.
Many installers will install this and never consider using it to optimize their Facebook presence, especially if they are using content to drive traffic and using social media channels to drive traffic to the content.
Here is a step by step process that will help you ensure how to get the most from your social channels when posting your website content to it.
Once the plugin is installed and activated, you need to tell it to add Open Graph Metadata. To set your Open Graph tags, do this:
- Go to “SEO” in the left column of the WordPress dashboard
- Select “Social” from the list under “SEO”
- Click on the Facebook Tab and check the box next to “Add Open Graph metadata”
- Click the “Save Changes” button
Once Open Graph is activated, the Yoast SEO plugin will create your Open Graph tags for you based on your SEO title and description for a particular page or post.
By default, it will use the ‘Featured Image’ for the Open Graph image, so be sure you have set a Featured Image.
If you want to use slightly different wording or a specific image that is different from your Featured Image or meta description, you can override the defaults from the edit screen for a particular post or page.. To do this, scroll down to the “Yoast SEO” box and click on the “Social” tab icon (shown below).
In this screen, upload the image you want to use in the Facebook Image field (screenshot below). The current optimal size for a Facebook Open Graph Share image is 1230px X 630px. Refer to the Facebook Best Practices page to review if that size has changed.
If you need some assistance with your website, digital marketing or social media strategy, why not get in touch with us at contactus@thefusionbrand.com.
