Guide

WordPress share image

Yoast SEO and Rank Math write og:image for you. Each one looks at a social image on the post, then the featured image, then a site default. A caching plugin can keep handing out the previous HTML after you save.

Set it in Yoast SEO

On the post or page, open Social media appearance in the Yoast SEO sidebar and set the image. Yoast’s Open Graph help calls that the Facebook image. It is the first image Yoast will output.

Open Graph has its own switch. Yoast’s social media guide says to open Yoast SEO → Settings → Social sharing and leave Open Graph enabled, then set a default image under Site basics for posts and pages that contain no image.

When the social image on that post is empty, Yoast’s Open Graph specification continues in this order:

1. The featured image, on posts.
2. A prominent image in the content. If you resized it in the editor, Yoast uses the full-size file.
3. The social default image for that content type.
4. The site fallback.

The site fallback is Yoast SEO → Settings → Site basics → Site image. The Site basics article describes it as the image for posts or pages that have no image of their own. The developer spec still names the older menu, SEO → Social → Facebook → Default image. In the Yoast SEO 20.0 settings rewrite, Yoast said that Default image moved to Site basics → Site image.

Between the image in the content and the site image, Yoast support names a content-type image at Yoast SEO → Settings → Content types → Posts or Pages → Social image. That path is in Yoast’s reply on the default og:image thread, along with the same order as the developer spec.

A featured image is enough for a post until you upload a different file in Social media appearance. Pages are called out separately in the spec: the featured-image step is listed for posts.

Set it in Rank Math

Rank Math’s Open Graph article lists a shorter order:

1. The OpenGraph image on the post.
2. The featured image.
3. The first image in the post.
4. The default OpenGraph thumbnail.

On the post, open Rank Math in the block editor sidebar and upload the image on the Social tab. The site default is Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Global Meta → OpenGraph Thumbnail. Rank Math asks for 1200×630, and for JPEG, PNG, or GIF on that thumbnail.

The homepage follows Settings → Reading. If the homepage shows your latest posts, the image is Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Homepage → Homepage Thumbnail for Facebook. If a page is the homepage, set the image on that page in the Rank Math metabox.

Leave one plugin printing tags

Yoast and Rank Math, or the theme, can each print an og:image. Crawlers then see two images and can keep the first. Leave Open Graph on in one place and turn it off in the others. The same trap is in OG tags by framework.

A site that is not on WordPress does not use those panels. Wix writes the image from Social share settings, and Ghost writes it from the Facebook card and the X card. Those screens are in Wix social share image and Ghost social share image.

Use a wide PNG or JPEG. Size and format notes are in OG image size and OG image format. The free Open Graph image resizer crops to 1200×630 in the browser.

Clear a cache that still serves the old tags

Saving the plugin updates the post in WordPress. The HTML a crawler receives can still be a stored copy.

Yoast’s cache article is the short version: clear the browser, then the caching plugin, then the host. For WP Super Cache that is Settings → WP Super Cache, Easy tab, Delete cache. For W3 Total Cache it is Performance → Dashboard → Empty All Caches.

WP Rocket documents Clear and preload cache on Settings → WP Rocket → Dashboard, and the same action in the admin bar (Clear WP Rocket cache). Updating a post clears that post’s cache. A second layer, such as the host, has to be cleared as well, or the old HTML stays up (content that does not show up right away).

Then read the page the way a crawler does:

curl -sL https://example.com/your-post | grep -i og:image

You want one og:image, and an absolute https:// URL. If this still shows the old file, the page cache is still in front. If this shows the new file and the chat app shows the old card, the app stored the previous result. If the picture is missing for a different reason, walk og:image not showing.

Ask each app to look again

CardScope reads the page at the moment you check it. It does not clear Slack, X, LinkedIn, Discord, Facebook, or iMessage. Which of those have a public refresh tool is in clear Open Graph cache.

FAQ

Which image does Yoast SEO use?

The image in Social media appearance on that post, then the featured image on posts, then a prominent image in the content, then the content-type social image, then Site basics → Site image. That order is Yoast’s developer spec. The site-image screen is the current home of the old Facebook default image.

Which image does Rank Math use?

The OpenGraph image on the Social tab, then the featured image, then the first image in the post, then Titles & Meta → Global Meta → OpenGraph Thumbnail.

Why does the old image stay after I upload a new one?

A caching plugin or the host can still be serving the previous HTML. Clear that cache and confirm og:image with the curl line above. If the live tag is already the new image, the app is showing its own stored card. Refresh it from clear Open Graph cache.

What does a CardScope check cost?

Previews for X, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Microsoft Teams, plus the fix checklist, are Pro: $19 once via Stripe Checkout. No account. A sample report shows the shape of the result before you pay. A free check names whether og:image and og:title are set. We parse HTML in memory and discard it — we do not store the page.