How to fix empty website preview when sharing on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn?

When sharing a website on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, the platforms usually generate a preview of the website to display alongside the shared link. However, sometimes the preview might appear empty or not display the desired content.

To fix an empty website preview when sharing on social media platforms, you can follow these steps:

1. Check the Open Graph tags: Open Graph (OG) tags are meta tags added to the head section of your website's HTML code. They provide structured data to social media platforms, allowing them to generate an accurate preview. Make sure your website includes the necessary OG tags, including "og:title," "og:description," and "og:image."

The "og:title" tag should contain a concise, compelling title for your website. The "og:description" tag should provide a brief summary of your site's content. The "og:image" tag should specify an image URL that represents your site, typically a square image with a recommended size of at least 1200x630 pixels.

2. Use the Facebook Sharing Debugger: Facebook provides a helpful tool called the Sharing Debugger (developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/) that allows you to troubleshoot issues with your website's preview. Enter the URL of your website and click "Debug" to see any issues with your OG tags. The debugger will show you the actual tags read by Facebook and provide hints on how to fix any problems.

After making changes to your OG tags, you can use the Sharing Debugger to scrape the updated preview information.

3. Clear the platform's cache: Sometimes, social media platforms cache preview data to improve loading times and decrease server load. However, this can lead to outdated or incorrect previews. To ensure that the platforms fetch the latest preview information, you can use their cache-clearing tools.

For Facebook: In the Sharing Debugger, simply enter your website's URL and click "Scrape Again." This will force Facebook to clear the cache and generate a fresh preview.

For LinkedIn: Use the LinkedIn Post Inspector (www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/) to enter your website's URL and click "Inspect." This will prompt LinkedIn to refresh the preview cache.

4. Validate your HTML: Ensure that your website's HTML markup is valid and does not contain any errors. Use online HTML validators, such as the W3C Markup Validation Service (validator.w3.org), to check for any issues and correct them accordingly. An improperly structured website can cause problems with generating accurate previews on social media platforms.

5. Test with multiple URLs: If you have multiple pages or variations of your website (e.g., www.example.com vs. example.com), test the preview generation for each URL. Social media platforms may treat different URLs differently, and optimizing the OG tags for each version can help ensure consistent and accurate previews.

By following these steps and optimizing your website's Open Graph tags, using the available debug tools, clearing the platform's cache, validating your HTML, and testing with multiple URLs, you should be able to fix any empty website preview issues when sharing on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.