When you share a webpage on LinkedIn, the preview image comes from information on that webpage. LinkedIn reads the page and its image, and may use information it saved during an earlier visit. The page’s sharing information includes Open Graph metadata, tags that tell social networks which title, description, and image to show.
First identify what you see. An old image means LinkedIn is using saved page information. No image means the page’s image details are missing or LinkedIn cannot access them. A small thumbnail may be the layout LinkedIn uses for that post. For WordPress sites, PressQueue can create a social image and add it to the page’s sharing metadata. For any site, LinkedIn’s Post Inspector is the first check for a stale or incorrect preview.
Refresh the preview with Post Inspector
Paste the exact URL you plan to share into LinkedIn Post Inspector. If it shows the correct image, try the URL in a new LinkedIn post draft. Post Inspector refreshes preview information for future posts; it does not replace the preview on a post that is already published.
If the image is still missing, check the webpage itself. oEmbed is a format sites use to share page details. LinkedIn uses Open Graph and/or oEmbed information supplied by the site. Open Graph’s og:image tag points to the image intended for sharing, while og:title and og:description provide the preview text. LinkedIn’s sharing guidance lists these tags among the information a website should provide.
A title with no image usually means the image information is missing, incorrect, or inaccessible. Confirm that the image URL is correct and opens without signing in. Then ask the site owner or developer to check that LinkedIn’s automated page reader can retrieve it. LinkedIn lists protected image folders, security rules, and problems with a landing page’s security certificate in its URL troubleshooting guidance and Page troubleshooting advice.
Check the image and the LinkedIn layout
LinkedIn’s website-sharing guidance recommends starting with an image that is 1,200 × 627 pixels, has a 1.91:1 ratio, and is no larger than 5 MB. Use those dimensions as a starting point, but don’t assume they guarantee a large feed card. LinkedIn documents smaller external-link layouts for some organic Page posts, so a small thumbnail does not always mean the image failed. Its layout guidance describes differences between organic posts and Sponsored Content.
If the preview is correct in Post Inspector but wrong in a scheduler, compare the exact URL in LinkedIn’s composer. That comparison helps locate the problem; it does not by itself prove whether the scheduler or the website caused it. If the URL contains spaces, correct it before sharing, as LinkedIn says those URLs can fail.
For a post that is already live, changing the caption will not replace its attached preview image. LinkedIn says shared rich media cannot be replaced through post editing. Correct the page information, inspect the URL again, and create a new post if you need the corrected preview. Decide whether to replace the original before deleting it.
Set a WordPress social image with PressQueue
PressQueue is a free, open-source WordPress plugin that shares posts to social media through Buffer. The social image feature creates an image from the post title and site name, then can add it to the page as og:image and twitter:image so it appears in link previews when others share the page.
To set it up:
- Download pressqueue.zip from the PressQueue download page. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add Plugin > Upload Plugin and upload the ZIP.
- In your Buffer settings, get a personal Buffer API key, which lets PressQueue connect to Buffer. PressQueue has no Buffer login button.
- In Settings > Social images, choose an image style and preview it. In the link-preview setting, choose whether PressQueue should add its image to every post, only posts without their own image, or no posts.
- Test the result with Post Inspector before sharing the URL. An image set for an individual post in an SEO plugin takes precedence.
PressQueue works with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, The SEO Framework, and Jetpack; without an SEO plugin, it adds the sharing tags itself. Creating the image requires PHP’s GD image library with FreeType support, which lets the library render text. If the host lacks that support, PressQueue shares the post with text and a link. See the PressQueue documentation for setup details.