Why is My Link Preview Missing on Facebook/Line? 3 Quick Fixes

In social media marketing, first impressions are everything.

When you share a carefully crafted webpage link to Facebook, Line, or LinkedIn, if it appears as a blank space or a broken image, the user's willingness to click will be greatly discounted.

Data shows that links with complete Link Previews have a Click-Through Rate (CTR) more than 40% higher than plain text links.

This article will delve into the common reasons why "thumbnails don't show up" and provide 3 quick practical tips to fix them.

Why Do Link Previews Fail?

Social media platforms (like Facebook, Line) send a crawler to fetch your webpage information when you paste a link. If the crawler can't find anything, the preview will fail.

Common reasons include:

Missing Open Graph (OG) Tags: This is the most common reason. Your webpage didn't tell the crawler which image or title to display.
Image Size Non-Compliance: Each platform has recommended values for preview image sizes (usually recommended 1200x630 px).
Cache Issues: You have updated the image, but the platform's memory still holds the old data.
Website Loading Too Slow: Crawlers usually only wait a few seconds; if it times out, they will give up fetching.

Solution 1: Set Correct Open Graph Tags

The Open Graph Protocol (OGP) is a standard that allows webpages to become rich objects in a social graph. You need to add the following tags in the <head> section of your webpage:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Article Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Your Article Summary" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page" />

Checklist:

og:image must be an absolute path (including https://).
Image file size is recommended to be less than 5MB.

Solution 2: Use Debugging Tools to Clear Cache

If you have updated the OG tags but the preview is still old, you need to force the platform to "re-scrape".

Major platforms provide official Debuggers:

Facebook Sharing Debugger: Enter the URL and click "Scrape Again".
Line Page Poker: Check the information seen by the Line crawler.
LinkedIn Post Inspector: Update LinkedIn's cache.

Tip: Adding a random parameter to the end of the URL (e.g., ?v=123) can sometimes trick the platform into fetching new content, but this is not a long-term solution.

Solution 3: Use TrackHelps to Automatically Optimize Previews

If you are not an engineer or don't want to manually handle these tags every time, TrackHelps is your best solution.

When you use TrackHelps to shorten a URL, the system automatically:

Detects Original Webpage OG Tags: Ensures information is complete.
Provides Custom Preview Features: Even if the original webpage has no image, you can upload a beautiful thumbnail directly in the TrackHelps backend and set a custom title and description.
Cache Optimization: TrackHelps' servers respond extremely fast, ensuring social crawlers fetch information smoothly.

With TrackHelps, you can fully control how your links look on social media, no longer limited by the original webpage settings.

FAQ

Q: Why is the thumbnail I see on Line different from Facebook?

A: The crawler mechanisms of Line and Facebook are slightly different. Line sometimes caches for longer. It is recommended to use Line Page Poker to clear the cache and ensure the image size meets the general standard (1200x630 px).

Q: What is the best image size?

A: The most universal size currently is 1200 x 630 pixels (aspect ratio 1.91:1). This displays perfectly on Facebook, Twitter (Large Card), and LinkedIn.

Q: Why is my og:image blank?

A: Please check if your image URL starts with https and that the server is not blocking crawler access. Some Hotlink Protection settings may prevent crawlers from downloading images.