It might seem simple, but there are a couple of ways to share a URL or link to your website on Facebook... The ugly way, and the pretty way :)
Obviously, we are all trying to make our feeds look at good as possible, and this small tip will put you in the pretty category for sure!
Here is an example of how two posts that are exactly the same, can look so different on Facebook:
In the above two examples, I've posted the exact same content, but there are a couple of things that make them look so different.
1. Let FB generate the preview.
When you add a URL to a Facebook post, it will say "Fetching preview" for a while before all of the info populates. Sometimes if you are typing up the post, and add the URL right at the end before hitting publish, it gets posted before that preview is generated, which leaves out a lot of the good stuff like the headline, image, and description.
2. Remove the URL after the preview is ready
After the preview has generated, you can then remove the ugly looking URL from the body copy of your post, and all of the nice stuff will stay there! It's a really simple way to clean up your posts and make them look a LOT nicer.
3. Populate the Metadata
Now this one is going to sound technical for a second, but hang in there... On your website, there is metadata behind your pages and articles. More specifically, when sharing a link to Facebook, we are looking for Open Graph Meta Tags, which just gives Facebook a heap more data about you URL and allows them to populate the post with all of that good-looking stuff like a headline, an image, and a description.
If you use a 'click and drag' type website builder like Wix or Squarespace, you should be able to edit these easily yourself in the SEO settings of each page or article, otherwise just get your web team to check it out...
To really impress them, first use the sharing debugger from Facebook and you will be able to tell them exactly what is missing! https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
To check out what else we can do with digital marketing, have a look at our Social Content and Facebook Ads services.
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