Use Facebook Debugger to Preview Shared Posts

When it comes to marketing your content on social media, appearances matter. The Facebook Debugger Tool is an essential resource for marketers looking to ensure their shared content looks professional and engaging. Let me show you how to use this powerful tool and why it’s critical for your social media strategy.

What is the Facebook Debugger Tool?

The Facebook Debugger Tool is a free resource provided by Facebook that allows you to analyze and troubleshoot how your content appears when shared on the platform. It examines URLs and provides real-time previews, helping you identify and fix issues such as incorrect metadata, missing images, or broken links before they impact your audience’s experience.

Facebook drives 74% of all social referral traffic to websites outside of China, making it essential that your shared content appears correctly. Additionally, 52% of online brand discovery happens in social feeds, with the preview being the first impression for potential customers.

Why Checking Shared Content is Critical for Marketers

When your content doesn’t display correctly on social media, it can:

• Reduce click-through rates and engagement
• Damage your brand’s professional image
• Waste marketing efforts and resources
• Decrease the effectiveness of your social media campaigns

Facebook posts with images receive 2.3x more engagement than those without visual elements. Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without images. Having a strong image preview can increase click-through rates by up to 27%.

Professional-looking shared posts with the right images and descriptions can significantly increase engagement rates and drive more traffic to your website.

Understanding Open Graph Tags

Open Graph tags are snippets of code that control how URLs are displayed when shared on social media. These meta tags were created by Facebook but are now used by many platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Key Open Graph tags include:

• og:title – Controls the headline
• og:description – Provides a brief summary of the content
• og:image – Determines the image shown in the shared preview
• og:url – Specifies the canonical URL for the page

Without proper Open Graph tags, social platforms must guess what information to display, often leading to poor-quality previews with missing or incorrect elements.

74% of links shared on social media are never clicked on, making the preview itself a critical touchpoint with your audience. URLs with properly implemented Open Graph tags see a 50% increase in click-through rates compared to those without.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Facebook Debugger Tool

1. Identify the problematic URL Get the exact URL of the content you want to share on Facebook (e.g., blog post, video page).
2. Access the Facebook Debugger Tool Go to the Facebook Debugger Tool and log in with your Facebook credentials.
3. Enter your URL Paste the URL you want to debug into the “Enter a URL” field.
4. Run the debugger Click “Debug” to analyze the URL and see how it will appear when shared.
5. Review the preview Examine how your content will look when shared, including title, description, and thumbnail image.
6. Refresh the cache If you’ve made recent changes to your page, click “Scrape Again” to refresh Facebook’s cache of your URL.
7. Fix any issues If the preview doesn’t appear as expected, check your website’s Open Graph tags and make necessary adjustments.

Optimizing Images for Facebook Sharing

For the best visual impact on Facebook, your shared images should meet these specifications:

• Recommended size: 1200 × 630 pixels
• Minimum size: 200 × 200 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 1.91:1

According to Meta, 96% of active Facebook users access the platform via mobile devices, making proper image optimization crucial. Posts with square images take up 78% more space in the mobile News Feed than landscape images.

The Facebook Debugger allows you to verify if your images meet these requirements by showing the og:image tag information in the debugging results.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

1. Outdated preview: Facebook caches content, so changes may not appear immediately. Use the “Scrape Again” button several times to refresh.
2. Missing image: Ensure your og:image tag contains an absolute URL (including https://) to your image.
3. Wrong title or description: Check your og:title and og:description tags for accuracy.
4. Cache problems: If you’re using caching plugins on your website, clear your cache before debugging.
5. Responsive design issues: Ensure your page is mobile-friendly, as most Facebook users browse on mobile devices.

Businesses that regularly audit and optimize their social sharing previews see an average 18% higher engagement rate. 88% of consumers are less likely to return to a site after a poor user experience, which includes misleading social previews. A study by BuzzSumo found that the top 10% of highest-performing Facebook posts all featured correctly optimized image previews.

 

Facebook Scraper 

The Sharing Debugger tool uses a scraper or “crawler” to collect information from other websites. Using online data to better promote your business has become commonplace in today’s marketing scene. But how do you get data from social media? Acquiring information from websites is known as “scraping.” Scraping is the automated collection of information online often using tools or bots. These bots, or “crawlers,” and they scan websites, collecting information. 

While you may be familiar with other forms of digital marketing, crawlers gather data that can be used for market analysis. This information can then be used in a variety of ways, including to better market your business. Facebook’s scraper can also be used to automatically scan websites for their prices in order to price match or so it can be ranked on websites. 

Unfortunately, not all scraping is legal or ethical. In 2019, LinkedIn lost a lawsuit, setting a precedent that web scraping is legal, but only under certain circumstances. Scraping can be illegal if it is used to collect confidential or copyrighted information. Only data that is available to the public can be scraped. Information that can specifically identify someone is off-limits, as well as other sensitive information. 

Not every website is comfortable with outside programs gathering information from their website. For example, Facebook explicitly prohibits crawlers that scan their website for information, unless you have written permission. However, that does not stop Facebook from collecting information on other websites, which is why the Debugger is even possible. But, there are still ways to get data from the social media giant. While some websites offer these crawlers anyway, you can use Facebook’s Developer Tools to collect information while still abiding by the website’s rules. 

Facebook Debugger 

Among their many tools, Facebook offers users a Debugging program. Knowing who you are advertising to online isn’t enough. You also need to know how your audience views your content. This tool allows users to enter a URL and see what information shows up alongside that link on Facebook. 

Updated Link Previews

One of the most useful features of Facebook’s Debugger is its ability to change link previews. Sometimes, the text and images shared in a link preview are not up to date with the website. If your links on Facebook aren’t showing the correct information, you can use the Sharing Debugger to tell Facebook to scrape your website. This is essentially telling it to “double-check” your website for new information. It empties the cache of information it currently has and replaces it with data that is up to date. For example, when you share a link to your website on Facebook, the link should include a small description as well as an image from the website. Sometimes when you change the image, it may not immediately update on Facebook. The same problem can occur with text descriptions that should show up alongside the link. 

To fix this, simply enter your URL into the Sharing Debugger which tells Facebook to gather information on the website in question. Then, it displays the data it has on the website. The Debugger should also tell you the last time the website was scraped for data alongside a button that says “scrape again.” If the information in the link preview isn’t correct, clicking the “scrape again” button should update the link by forcing Facebook to retrieve the data again. Since Facebook is collecting data again, the data it collects this time should be up to date. 

Other Features

The Debugger also includes the text used alongside your link as well as descriptions of images. You can even see what previous URLs the website has used. If you register as a Developer through Facebook, you can see some of this information presented in the form of a graph as well as some other, more specific data. This will provide you with a wide array of tools and information you might not have access to otherwise. Ensuring your website’s information is completely up to date is vital for marketing on Facebook. 

Technically, you don’t have to be the owner of a website to enter it into the Facebook Sharing Debugger. The information provided is harmless and can be informative for those just beginning a career in marketing or tech. Those interested in tech should know that the application can also display exactly what the crawler “sees” as it scans a website. While this might look undecipherable to many people, it could be very interesting to someone with coding knowledge.

You can’t use every website in the Debugger, though. Since Facebook doesn’t let crawlers scan their website for data, any Facebook URL is off-limits. This includes Facebook.com, Instagram, and Oculus.com. Some websites offer similar tools like the LinkedIn Post Inspector which allows you to see how posts will look on the platform. These tools give users an extra sense of control on social media by making sure their posts look exactly how they want them to. 

Other Facebook Developer Tools 

In addition to the Sharing Debugger, Facebook offers a range of other tools for Developers. Once again, many of these tools require that you register as a Developer if you want all of the information available. Some of these use the same Facebook Crawler as the Debugger in order to scrape websites. One of these is the Batch Invalidator which you can use to invalidate cache entries. This is another way of scraping the website. While the Debugger can only process one website at a time, the Batch Invalidator allows you to put multiple URLs alongside each other and clear multiple caches at once. This clears any information Facebook has on these websites that could potentially be out of date. 

There are many other Developer Tools available, like the 3D Validation Tool that lets you test out how your files will display on Facebook before posting. Similarly, the Playable Preview Tool provides you with a preview of how a playable asset for an ad will look. Business tools like Ads Manager and Business Manager allow you to review how you’ve operated as a business on Facebook and Instagram. These can be great for managing how your business is seen on social media by displaying how much interaction you’ve received or promoting posts.

Other tools like the App Ads Helper tell you how well mobile ads are performing on Facebook. While many of these tools focus on promoting your website, these aren’t the only programs available from Facebook. For example, the Certificate Transparency Monitoring tool allows you to log and audit SSL certifications online. SSL certificates document which websites have a Secure Socket Layer, or SSL. An SSL is what makes it possible for online businesses to engage in safe transactions. Some programs, like the Apps Security Checkup can scan for any security issues in any applications you may use or create through Facebook. 

Benefits of Facebook Sharing Debugger 

It’s important to make sure you’re up to date with what tools are available online. Once you’ve caught up on Facebook’s advertising changes, check out its many Developer Tools to enhance your online experience. Thanks to Facebook’s Sharing Debugger, you can simply enter a website’s URL, click debug and see how users view your content. This tool functions by scraping the website for data. If you are able to register as a developer, you can access even more information. This comes in the form of graphs and access tokens. While scraping can be helpful, users should be sure they are only collecting information legally and ethically. Facebook Developer Tools are great resources for anyone looking to take control of their online presence. 

FAQ:

• How do you use Facebook’s Sharing Debugger?
• What is Facebook scraping?
• Is data scraping legal?
• What other developer tools does Facebook have?
• What does the Debugger do?