How the SNAP WordPress Plugin takes images

Posts made by the plugin don´t show the image from the post? They show no image, website logo or some random picture?

This article explains how the SNAP gets and sets images for autoposts to social networks.

How the plugin gets the image

1. If Image was manually selected (Choose what image to use), it will be used.

2. If no image was selected manually and “Alternative Featured Image location” is set in the settings, plugin will take an image from there.

3. If there is no “Alternative Featured Image”, plugin will take the featured image from the post. ( >- This is is most common case)

4. If there is no featured image it will take the first image from the post body.

5. If your post body has no images it will take the specified default image.

6. If default image is not specified it will take the first image from the page.

Important! Image must be set at the time you hit the “Publish” button. Some third party plugins that make posts sometimes publish a post without featured image and then add it later. If this is your case, you can try to delay the autoposting for several minutes.

Important! If featured image or image from the post body has been uploaded in different sizes, you can choose what size to use in the “Advanced Settings”.

There are few exceptions.

Facebook

Facebook is the most flexible network – it has the best of both worlds.

1. Facebook has an option “What should fill attachment info”. If this option is set to “Facebook” then Facebook will decide what image to take by itself and ignore all plugin settings including manually selected image. Facebook takes it’s info from og: metatags, so make sure that those metatags are configured on your site. Please see check your page in the Facebook URL debug tool.

2. If option “What should fill attachment info” is set to “Plugin/API” or “Set your own” plugin could specify the image that will be used as described at the beginning of this page..

Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit, Stumbleupon.

Those networks do not provide a special way to specify the image during the autoposting. Those networks retrieve and process your link internally and set the image using their own internal algorithms. Most part of this info networks get from the OG (Open Graph) metatags. The only way to tell Google+, LinkedIn, Stumbleupon what image you would like to use is to setup og:image metatag. Most SEO plugins and most modern themes set OG metatags. There are also many specific plugins just for that.

FAQ

Why my Image is so small? or My image is posted as original 9000×9000 pixels. Can I post a smaller thumbnail?

If featured image or image from the post body has been uploaded in different sizes, you can choose what size to use in the “Advanced Settings”. (This will work ONLY if plugin sets your images. If network decides your imaegs by itself, please check your metatags and other settings)

Why some networks show images correctly and some have problems?

There are many ways of how the networks are getting your images and all of them do it differently.

1. Some networks (Twitter, Tumblr, ….) require the URL of the image. The special bot from the network will visit your site and grab the image itself. You need to have the image available for download, valid, non-broken, and not protected for that to work.
2. Some networks require images file to be uploaded. The image must be downloaded by the plugin/api, stored in your temporary folder, then uploaded. Your temporary folder must be available and writable. Your server must be able to download its own images.
3. Some networks require images to be uploaded as the binary data stream. The image must be downloaded by the plugin/api then sent to the network as the data stream. Your server must be able to download its own images.
4. Some networks (Google+, LinkedIn, Stumbleupon) will just ignore all your settings and grab your image using your metadata or some other internal algorithms.

Sometimes networks can combine those ways or use different ways for different types of posts. That’s why “image post” can work and “post with attached image” can have a broklen or incorrect image.

Why Facebook is showing the wrong image?

Facebook has an option “What should fill attachment info”. If this option is set to “Facebook” then Facebook will decide what image to take by itself and ignore all plugin settings including manually selected image. Facebook takes it’s info from og: metatags, so make sure that those metatags are configured on your site. Please see Facebook FAQ #4.19 here for more info

Why Google+ (LinkedIn, Stumbleupon) is showing the wrong image?

Google+, LinkedIn and Stumbleupon ignore all your image settings and will set them image by itself using the info specified in the og:image tag, so please make sure this tag is set as well.

See also:

How to format posts: