Optimize the appearance of your content on social channels

When we share content on social media, we expect all information to be clear: author, image and description must be clearly visible and explanatory of the content. For this, it is important that you make sure ofoptimize the sharing of your content on social channels.

Fortunately, WordPress is such a comprehensive tool that it has thought of that too. With this guide, you will find out how to make your content look its best on social media whenever they will be shared.

To be effective and communicate optimally, sharing an article must have certain characteristics:

a beautiful and large image;
the link of your site;
a personalized description.

Here’s, for example, what good social sharing should look like:

As you can see, the post looks very good. In fact, it also generated a good number of likes and shares.

The same thing can be done on Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

All major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others – use so-called “protocols” to collect information relating to a content and integrate it into shares.

These protocols are actually a series of parameters that are associated with specific information for each content.

Facebook

Facebook uses the so-called Open Graph protocol. It is a protocol that was introduced in 2010 to facilitate integration between Facebook and other websites.

Twitter and LinkedIn also recognize the Open Graph. Twitter uses specific tags for social cards, but if its bots don’t find them, they use those from the Open Graph.

The basic tags are those relating to title ( og: title ), type of content ( og: type ), image to be associated with the share ( og: image ) and URL ( og: url ). If you are interested in learning more about how this protocol works, I suggest you visit the official Open Graph site [English] .

Twitter

Twitter uses Social Cards instead. This protocol works similar to Open Graph. The most important property is the one called twitter card , which is used to define the type of sharing you want to create (for example, a product, an image, an app, etc.). So, depending on the type of content, you can use other properties to add specific information and content.

For example, the twitter: site property is used to enter the Twitter username of the site associated with the share, or the twitter: creator property to enter that of the author of the content.

Below you can see an example of a tweet optimized with social cards. For other examples and insights relating to the use of social cards, visit the official Twitter site [in English].

Using advanced protocols and metadata, it is possible to integrate other information and even media content into your shares. For example: hashtags (#), videos, ingredients (regarding recipes on Pinterest), product prices and more.

Thanks to WordPress, you can configure all the basic information to be displayed in social shares automatically, thanks to plugins.

Let’s see immediately which are the best tools and how to use them.

The great versatility of WordPress allows you to better connect your website with social networks, and for this there are various tools that you can use to optimize the sharing of your content on social networks.

I’ll tell you about two interesting plugins. You will find both of them in both free and premium versions. You probably already know one of these!

Yoast SEO is one of my favorite plugins. Created to allow you to optimize all the contents of your WordPress site in a guided way, it has a lot of features. Among these, also the management of the information that will appear on your social shares.

Once the plugin is activated, you will see that among the items included in the SEO section , a Social call appears . Click on it.

Here are 4 tabs: Accounts, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

In the Account tab you can enter the link to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest but also Instagram, Myspace, LinkedIn, YouTube and Wikipedia profiles.

Facebook configuration for Yoast

First, enable the “Add Open Graph metadata” item.

Then, enter your site title and description. In the two Image URL fields , add a default image, respectively for the home page and for the case in which you share an article that does not have a featured image. For example, you can simply use your logo.

Click Save changes and you’re done. Now that you have activated the use of the Open Graph protocol, Yoast will automatically provide Facebook with all the information to make your WordPress content look its best.

Twitter setup for Yoast

Click on the Twitter tab and check the Add Twitter card metadata item to activate the use of social cards.

Finally, select the type of sharing you want to use: Summary (“simple” sharing with small image – – find some examples on the official Twitter site [English] ) or Summary with large images (with large image – find examples of shares on Twitter here [English] ).

Tip: To preview your Twitter shares, use the Card Validator tool . Just enter the URL of the article to know what it will look like.

Pinterest setup for Yoast

Seeing as Pinterest uses Open Graph metadata like Facebook, make sure you have it enabled in the Facebook tab, as I showed you earlier.

You must also confirm the Pinterest account by adding the meta tag in the tab dedicated to the social network.

To get the meta tag, log into your Pinterest account. Click on the three dots that open the menu at the top right, then go to Change settings.

Here, you will need to enter the URL of your site in the appropriate field, click on Verify and you will get a code. You will then need to copy the resulting meta tag and enter it in Yoast’s Pinterest Confirmation field .

WPSSO Core

Before starting: be careful! If you use Yoast and decide to install WPSSO Core, make sure that the Open Graph and Twitter Card meta data on Yoast are disabled, otherwise the two plugins will conflict.

WPSSO Core will make the sharing of your content on social networks , but also on Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, perfectly optimized.

The configuration is very simple and complete.

After installing and activating the plugin, go to the SSO > Essential item of your Dashboard and add the general essential information.

You will then find four more tabs. In the Facebook tab , add your page URL and default image. In the Google tab you will find the settings that will allow you to complete and improve the appearance of the knowledge graph , the highlighted box on the search results page. On Pinterest and Twitter, just enter your profile URL.

Now go to the General section , where you will enter the name and description of your site and other details on the titles, author, images and videos in evidence.

Advanced settings are much more technical, but you won’t need to change anything. The default ones are already perfectly configured.

The WPSSO Core configuration is now complete!

Additional features of WPSSO Core

As you can see, even the free version is sufficient to do its job of optimization of the sharing of your content on social networksbut, if you want to add features, you can choose to activate the different add-ons available. The most interesting are:

WPSSO Mobile App Meta , to manage information from mobile apps;
WPSSO Place / Location and Local Business Meta , for location management and therefore to give an extra boost to your Local SEO;
WPSSO Ridiculously Responsive Social Sharing Buttons , to add responsive sharing buttons;

…and many others. You can find them all on the WPSSO Plugins page , on the official website. Some are free and some are paid.

Furthermore, with the Premium version of WPSSO Core you will have many more features, such as the personalization of the sharing of each single article, integration with bbPress and BuddyPress, WooCommerce, Yoast and All in One SEO Pack, and with services such as YouTube, Gravatar , Vimeo etc.

The WPSSO Core Premium License starts at $ 59 for a single site and grants you lifetime updates and support.

Advanced sharing management

Both Yoast SEO and WPSSO allow some customization of the sharing aspect, but both in their Premium version. The free versions, on the other hand, will automatically use the featured image , the title and the first part of your article.

Thanks to the customization of these elements, you can make WordPress content look its best on social media, showing a picture and description more appropriate for your share.

If, on the other hand, you want to further customize your shares, I suggest you deepen the use of Open Graph protocols, Social Cards, etc. by following the links included in the previous sections.

Conclusion

With these two tools, you can finally customize and optimize the sharing of your content on social networks and get the maximum benefit and visibility from them.

How does your shares look like?

Do you already use a tool to optimize them?

I invite you to leave your suggestions and questions below in the comments.