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Last Updated on 2023-01-08 by Kassandra
Link preview testers are small but mighty ways you can stand out by ensuring you are easily addressing attention to detail. If you hate seeing your website shares butchered & desire to fix it before the link is ever let loose in the wild? Then …
… my friend, this post is for you! (And if you’re looking for cool front end web development tricks, check this out!)
What Are Link Preview Testers?
Commonly referred to as metadata scrapers, they are tools to help marketers and webmasters improve their digital footprints. Link preview testers will take a URL and pull meta data from a site in order to display it as outlined for any specific social share site.
If you’re unfamiliar with what metadata is, check out the below video:
How Can Link Preview Testers Help You?
Most link preview testers will reveal how you can optimize your content for better engagement. This can be done by identifying missing data, seeing if the shared image is aesthetically pleasing for the dimensions given when sharing, etc.
It also allows for you to refresh data about your page. This is done through a re-scrape.
You will also gain insight on debug issues. So if something goes wrong, you will receive additional insight about it & how to resolve.
Where Can I Find Link Preview Testers?
Facebook Sharing Debugger
I’ve used the Facebook Sharing Debugger for many years. It is an essential tool if you’re using Facebook for marketing – especially with ads!
This is also a great way to check if your webmaster and SEO teams are updating your sites properly. The reason for this is because the site tells you what tags and Open Graph properties are missing – or if something needs to be updated. (Additional insight from Facebook on this is here.)
If you’re unfamiliar with Open Graph meta tags, then I highly suggest this article from ahrefs.
For additional information on optimizing your Facebook shares, check out this guide!
LinkedIn Post Inspector
While the Facebook Sharing Debugger helps ensure your site is shared appropriately for the most part, LinkedIn has it’s own way of doing things. And what you see on Facebook will not look the same when shared on LinkedIn. (Facebook description in the newsfeed is much shorter, for example.)
That’s why it’s important to utilize the LinkedIn Post Inspector tool in conjunction with Facebook’s link preview tester.
Twitter Card Validator
As of Jan 2023, the Twitter Card Validator does not seem to work for me.
Wrap Up
And there you have it! Did I miss any? Would love to know!
If you’re interested in learning more about programming (including joining my mentorship program) be sure to reach out via LinkedIn here.
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