Customize URL link info?

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  • Flash04jv
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2015
    • 474
    • 5.1.x

    Customize URL link info?

    When anyone types our URL on Facebook, or tries to link to a page on our forum, these random images show up. Along with random text. It's like Facebook is just randomly grabbing an image from our page to use as an image for their link info.

    Is this an area I can customize? It sucks when people share our page on Facebook, but then it just shows a members avatar or other random photo as the image. The example posted below shows someone who suggested our site to someone else, but the logo is not ours.

    Here is an example: The logo is one of our sponsor's logo's, and the text says VBulletin (if you view it on mobile).

    I'd like that little URL box to show our NEFGA logo, and a short description of our site. Is that Possible?

  • glennrocksvb
    Former vBulletin Developer
    • Mar 2011
    • 4011
    • 5.7.X

    #2
    For the logo, add this meta tag in AdminCP > Settings > Options > Search Engine Verification > Google Ownership Verification HTML tag. This is not related to Google verification at all but we are re-using it for a different purpose since there is no way to add a <meta> tag in vBCloud other than that option. In self-hosted version, you would add it in head_include template.


    HTML Code:
    <meta property="og:image" content="http://www.nefga.org/core/css/0/0/1/9/4/1//images/NEFGA%20Banner%20Top.png" />
    For the forum description, you should add it not just for FB's sake but mainly for SEO reasons. You do this by adding a meta description in Sitebuilder.
    1. Go to homepage.
    2. Enable Sitebuilder
    3. Edit Page
    4. Save Page.
    5. Enter Meta Description. Here's an article on how to write a good meta description.
    6. Continue saving page and follow all the prompts and make sure to overwrite template.
    Since someone else had shared your site on FB, it's already in FB cache. You need to bust the cache in order for FB to fetch the latest changes you made. You do it by entering your site URL in this FB debugging tool:

    Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.


    After doing this, click Sharing Debugger tab and enter your site URL to check if FB scrapes the latest from your site. There is a Scrape Again button to let FB re-do it again if you want to.






    Flag Icon Postbit Insert GIPHY Impersonate User BETTER INITIALS AVATAR Better Name Card Quote Selected Text Bookmark Posts Post Footer Translate Stop Links in Posts +MORE!

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    • Flash04jv
      Senior Member
      • Aug 2015
      • 474
      • 5.1.x

      #3
      Thanks for all the info, Glenn. I'll work on it and report back with an update, sounds like something I can do.

      Comment

      • Flash04jv
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2015
        • 474
        • 5.1.x

        #4
        Finally got around to working on this. Worked exactly as your tutorial shows!

        The only issue I had was using an image with the correct dimensions, they were either too large a file size or too large of dimensions so they didn't update or look right for me. Doesn't look like posts already made will updated, but future posts appear to Facebook should include the correct photo and Meta Description now.

        Thank you!!

        Comment

        • glennrocksvb
          Former vBulletin Developer
          • Mar 2011
          • 4011
          • 5.7.X

          #5
          Glad to help

          Flag Icon Postbit Insert GIPHY Impersonate User BETTER INITIALS AVATAR Better Name Card Quote Selected Text Bookmark Posts Post Footer Translate Stop Links in Posts +MORE!

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