Link Previews

What is a Link Preview?

This is an example of a Link Preview posted on Facebook. As you can see, a preview of the article is added to the post.

Within ContentCal, you can add Link Previews simply by adding a URL to your post copy.

How to create a Link Preview

From the Post Modal, simply enter a link, eg www.contentcal.io

Things to know with Link Previews

• Link Previews aren't available on Instagram. Instagram will simply ignore them.
• Link Previews work a little differently with Twitter. A Link Preview will be generated, but it's not a guarantee that Twitter will display it. This is because Twitter looks for certain pieces of code on your website which determine if a preview should be generated or not. To test out your links you can use Twitter's Card Validator.
• Now and then, ContentCal won't be able to generate previews. If your website won't display a preview, it's usually because of some meta issues on the website itself. We recommend getting in touch with the web developer in charge of the website to see if they can update the meta to modern standards.

Editing Link Previews

LinkedIn: You can edit the title, description, and image

Facebook: You can edit the title, description and image if you own the domain. To verify your domain, please read the below section on Learn how to verify your domain

Learn how to verify your domain: Editable Facebook Link Previews

As of July 2017, Facebook disabled the ability for Link Previews to be edited as part of their mission to stop fake news on social media (more on this here).

However, if you are the owner of a verified website you maintain the right to make edits and changes to the link previews of your own website when sharing content over Facebook. This means that you can make changes to the thumbnail image, the article title, or the link description.

How to verify your page within Facebook

In order to make this possible, you’ll need to verify your domain in Facebook. Once verified, Facebook will be aware that your page is the owner of your website, and will allow you to make edits to any Link Previews produced from the URL of your website.

To verify your domain, you’ll need to login to Facebook and follow these instructions.

How to enable Facebook link preview editing in ContentCal

Once you’ve verified your domain within Facebook, you’ll then need to let ContentCal know that you've verified this website in Facebook. Do this by going to 'Setup' from within your Calendar, and scrolling to the 'Facebook link preview editing' section. Completing this step will enable you to edit link previews within ContentCal.

If you edit the link preview but have not verified the domain in Facebook...

Your post won't fail, but it may not appear how you expected. If the domain has not been verified, any edits you made to the post will be rejected and the post will publish as it originally appeared, prior to your edits.