What is Facebook Open Graph Debugger
Facebook Debugger is service that allows you to check what information Facebook gets from each page on your site. Facebook comes with a cache for each shared URL. Once a page appear in the cache (shared for the first time) the data remains for at least 2 weeks (or even more). When will it automatically update depends on Facebook bot. And here is what the Facebook Debugger is made for – you ca see the shared information appearing for your page (preview and test for errors) but you also can call an immediate share data update if you do a change on page.
When you go to https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/ paste the URL of the page which share information you want to check and customize.
Then press Debug button and you will see what Facebook takes from your page content information. There will be a list with Open Graph elements that Facebook has been chosen to take at the share massage. Usually og list contain these elements:
- og:url
- og:type article
- og:title
- og:image
- og:description
- og:site_name
- og:updated_time
- article:published_time
No Share Data Appearing
If there is no data in front of each tag (as it is at the image below), there are two possible reasons:
- Facebook has not taken anything from the site.
That is typical situation for sites that have just been launched. In that case you need just to press Debug button once again and the cache of Facebook will be refreshed. Which means that Facebook will grab the data you have set with open graphs tags on your site.
- There are no Open Graphs on your site or they are not properly set.
If refreshing the cache of Facebook do not help, probably there is something wrong with the tags on your site. They are not correctly set or there are no tags at all.
[kb-highlight type=”blue”]Please note! If there are no Meta Tags active, you can’t control information shared on Facebook. And that means Facebook will take random page elements, when share. Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress generate social share optimization tags for Facebook as a default option inside settings, unless user deactivate it[/kb-highlight]Facebook Shows Wrong Data
If the OG information, taken from Facebook, is different from what you expect, check when did you last correct your post/page? It is possible the last Facebook scrape to be made before you have finished your share settings. In that case you need to clear the cache of Facebook.
The same is valid if you correct your post after that cache scrape – the correction will not reflect on your share info, till you don’t clear Facebook’s cache.
Be patient often Scrape Again button have to pressed several times until the cache is really refreshed.
The most common issue detected as trouble is Open Graph Meta Tags activated from more than one source. The result in that situation is analogues to no meta tags active. Facebook will scrape random Open Graph elements or even can miss all of OG set. That simply mean that you can not manage your shared info.
The solution – avoid using Open Graph options on more than one app. For example, if you use SEO plugin, that surely means that your site already have Open Graph active. And when you start using Easy Social Share Buttons (or any plugin providing Open Graphs Tags) you DON’T have to activate Open Graph build-in module.
How to Check Page for Existing Social Share Optimization Tags
Open your site in Chrome, press Ctrl+U. That will load the source code of your site. Press Ctrl+F and at the search dialog that will open at the upper right-hand corner type og: and press Enter. That will highlight all og tags detected at the code and you easily will find if there are tags active on your site, from how many instances they are generated and also you can check the data you have set for each tag.
